Age of Conan, a game that was expected to be a 'WoW-Killer', but sadly, it killed itself within months of its release. How? Lag and lots of bugs. This brought a sigh of relief to many, many WoW players, who were experiencing guild members leaving for this bright and beautiful MMORPG. And so the majority of players returned to WoW, with a feeling of embarrassment upon their shoulders, their chance to escape had failed; they were destined to a life of raiding Karazhan and Black Temple with their online-friends which they enjoyed such experiences with: Oh, Guild wars 2 gold what a pity. But don't worry, there's still a chance! Age of Conan is back, and I can personally say that all major, and many minor bugs have been fixed, and the Age of Conan expansion is being released, titled 'Rise of the God slayer'. This promises to be a sturdy competitor to WoW, and this time round, perhaps it'll succeed is lasting at least, let's say... Three months? This expansion will not increase the AOC level cap (Which currently stands at level 80) but add new Asian-inspired content, such as tiger mounts, giant ride-able War Wolves and new raids, along with much fun and exciting content. But alas, let's focus on any comparable features in these two games! First off... Combat.
While WoW has the very simplistic method of just clicking a button and watching the skill unfold, AOC added a little extra, you select your skill and then add another combination of buttons to it. To understand this, look at the picture: As you can see, a move requires certain arrows be pressed, which gw 2 gold are linked to key bindings. Complicated? Well, I got used to it in about 20 minutes, and towards the higher levels it gets quite complicated! One major aspect in AOC is where you stand: If you're standing in front of two enemies and use a move, it'll hit those two enemies. Sounds great huh? But the enemy AI is quite smart, so you need to get lucky for these situations to arise. In WoW, players will have undoubtedly noticed trinkets that activate upon killing an enemy, giving a temporary buff or stat increase, well, in AOC it's like you have one of these one 24/7 from level 1! There's a stat called 'Fatality', see it as a kind of crit chance, this allows you to perform a finishing move on the target as you finish his HP, and gives a buff that increases your damage done and regeneration. Although, combat in AOC can get cluttered quite easily, due to the graphics required, and the fact that players cannot pass through each other automatically, so WoW has to win on the point of group and raiding combat, as it provides an easy way to move about and keep track of the fighting. But for solo playing, AOC is, in my opinion more fun as it's just amazing to see your character fell 3 foes at the same time, while finishing one off with a head-chop and blood flying in the air. I guess they can both have a point! PVE.
One thing to note in AOC is that there's not a lot of players on it, although while the low amount of servers accommodate for that, there's many-a-time of running around on your own, missing out on content such as low level dungeons, group quests and even rare spawns. But, all of these problems can easily be avoided if you get yourself into a guild as soon as possible! I'll detail 'why' later on in more depth, but for now, I'll just say that there are many players willing to help a "noobie" out. Dungeons in the game are for groups of 6, which usually consist of two tanks, guild wars 2 gold two healers and two DPS, a big change from WoW's style of one tank, one healer, three DPS. Why is this though? Because AOC dungeons are a heck of-a-lot harder: It's non-debatable. If you want to complete a dungeon in AOC, make sure to have a fantastic group who know their class/role very well. While WoW's instanced dungeons leading up to high-end raids, are, sadly: Quite easy. They've been nerfed quite a bit in the past, and hardly provide any challenge (SM can be 2-manned, enough said). Please bear in mind, that I'm not including ICC 5-mans in this debate, as they're difficulty is on par slightly under AOCs. Sadly, in my time in AOC I wasn't able to participate in raiding, but from what I heard from my guild and friends, you needed to be very well geared. I feel this is a knock-back to Pre-TBC and even in The Burning Crusade, as the raids there were really something to brag about. So, I can't really judge upon AOCs raiding too much, as it'd be too biased towards WoW; But I can say that the impression that I've been given is that raiding on AOC still requires careful tuning and management, while WoW's raids such as Ulduar have quickly become common knowledge and can be cleared with less stressing requirements. So, I'm going to have to keep any points for this, as it'd be unfair.
Guilds are a very big feature and crucial recipe for success is both WoW and AOC, both requiring top notch players and participation to reach the goals that Blizzard and Funcom throw at them, but in AOC it's something a little bit different... As you level up in Age of Conan, you Valour points which allow your current guild to level up, upon a high accumulation. This is called the "Renown" system, which gives the guild's members to receive better deals and bonus rewards. While this system really does make you respect your guild more, it asks for inexplicably large amounts of points in return for one level up. But despite this, the guild system really does overshadow WoW's; which provides standard promotions, guild bank access and member moderation. And this is before mentioning possibly the greatest thing about AOCs guild operations: Guild Cities. Yes, that's right! GUILD CITIES! Players in the guild can donate resources and gold to the guild, in exchange for new City locations, shops, towers and defences. These all help in the major City Siege wars that go on. And so, the point goes to Age of Conan for Guilds, but hey, WoW: Cataclysm promises some very nice guild additions, so let's hope that Blizzard does the right things! UI and Add-ons Naturally, WoW is the winner here. It's been out for longer, has a very large modification community, and there's Add-ons for just about every player's needs. Concerning Ui, AOC is almost impossible to play at higher levels if you rely on your UI for fast actions. You have 33-37 spaces for your favourite moves, but trust me: Those will get filled very carefully is you're UI hungry like me. So the only (and best) option was to download a UI-Addon, which done the job very nicely. Point goes to WoW on this one, as the start-off ui and add-on community is much more user friendly than AOC's. But hey, the new expansions may bring about some well-needed changes. *Cross Fingers*
I'll make the next comparison the finisher; I think 5 is a nice even number to judge upon. So far it's: WOW: 2 AOC: 2; Hmm, very close! So here it is, something which all MMORPG players seek out when they start a new game, the... Auction House. WoW has an auction house. AOC has an auction house; WoW has a mailbox nearby. AOC has a mailbox in the auction house GUI (Graphical User Interface); WoW's GUI feels soft and is easy to navigate. AOC's however, isn't for the new players. Wow's AH lets you view all pages, AOC lets you view one. And so, while a quick judgement, WoW has to be the winner here. As it's very simple to navigate, buy goods and responds very well to clicks. While with my time on AOC, some clicks were ignored, some of the items were deeply hidden and I had to get pin-point accuracy on typing an item to get it to show on the first page. So, it's 3:2 to WoW. Well done, Blizzard. And WoW players, give yourself a pat on the back; if it wasn't for you, Blizzard would be relying on Warcraft 3 for its long term advancements. But, kudos to AOC, you are a great game, but there are still a few rough edges, which will hopefully be fixed in the next expansion, out on May 11th.
idwt0723
While WoW has the very simplistic method of just clicking a button and watching the skill unfold, AOC added a little extra, you select your skill and then add another combination of buttons to it. To understand this, look at the picture: As you can see, a move requires certain arrows be pressed, which gw 2 gold are linked to key bindings. Complicated? Well, I got used to it in about 20 minutes, and towards the higher levels it gets quite complicated! One major aspect in AOC is where you stand: If you're standing in front of two enemies and use a move, it'll hit those two enemies. Sounds great huh? But the enemy AI is quite smart, so you need to get lucky for these situations to arise. In WoW, players will have undoubtedly noticed trinkets that activate upon killing an enemy, giving a temporary buff or stat increase, well, in AOC it's like you have one of these one 24/7 from level 1! There's a stat called 'Fatality', see it as a kind of crit chance, this allows you to perform a finishing move on the target as you finish his HP, and gives a buff that increases your damage done and regeneration. Although, combat in AOC can get cluttered quite easily, due to the graphics required, and the fact that players cannot pass through each other automatically, so WoW has to win on the point of group and raiding combat, as it provides an easy way to move about and keep track of the fighting. But for solo playing, AOC is, in my opinion more fun as it's just amazing to see your character fell 3 foes at the same time, while finishing one off with a head-chop and blood flying in the air. I guess they can both have a point! PVE.
One thing to note in AOC is that there's not a lot of players on it, although while the low amount of servers accommodate for that, there's many-a-time of running around on your own, missing out on content such as low level dungeons, group quests and even rare spawns. But, all of these problems can easily be avoided if you get yourself into a guild as soon as possible! I'll detail 'why' later on in more depth, but for now, I'll just say that there are many players willing to help a "noobie" out. Dungeons in the game are for groups of 6, which usually consist of two tanks, guild wars 2 gold two healers and two DPS, a big change from WoW's style of one tank, one healer, three DPS. Why is this though? Because AOC dungeons are a heck of-a-lot harder: It's non-debatable. If you want to complete a dungeon in AOC, make sure to have a fantastic group who know their class/role very well. While WoW's instanced dungeons leading up to high-end raids, are, sadly: Quite easy. They've been nerfed quite a bit in the past, and hardly provide any challenge (SM can be 2-manned, enough said). Please bear in mind, that I'm not including ICC 5-mans in this debate, as they're difficulty is on par slightly under AOCs. Sadly, in my time in AOC I wasn't able to participate in raiding, but from what I heard from my guild and friends, you needed to be very well geared. I feel this is a knock-back to Pre-TBC and even in The Burning Crusade, as the raids there were really something to brag about. So, I can't really judge upon AOCs raiding too much, as it'd be too biased towards WoW; But I can say that the impression that I've been given is that raiding on AOC still requires careful tuning and management, while WoW's raids such as Ulduar have quickly become common knowledge and can be cleared with less stressing requirements. So, I'm going to have to keep any points for this, as it'd be unfair.
Guilds are a very big feature and crucial recipe for success is both WoW and AOC, both requiring top notch players and participation to reach the goals that Blizzard and Funcom throw at them, but in AOC it's something a little bit different... As you level up in Age of Conan, you Valour points which allow your current guild to level up, upon a high accumulation. This is called the "Renown" system, which gives the guild's members to receive better deals and bonus rewards. While this system really does make you respect your guild more, it asks for inexplicably large amounts of points in return for one level up. But despite this, the guild system really does overshadow WoW's; which provides standard promotions, guild bank access and member moderation. And this is before mentioning possibly the greatest thing about AOCs guild operations: Guild Cities. Yes, that's right! GUILD CITIES! Players in the guild can donate resources and gold to the guild, in exchange for new City locations, shops, towers and defences. These all help in the major City Siege wars that go on. And so, the point goes to Age of Conan for Guilds, but hey, WoW: Cataclysm promises some very nice guild additions, so let's hope that Blizzard does the right things! UI and Add-ons Naturally, WoW is the winner here. It's been out for longer, has a very large modification community, and there's Add-ons for just about every player's needs. Concerning Ui, AOC is almost impossible to play at higher levels if you rely on your UI for fast actions. You have 33-37 spaces for your favourite moves, but trust me: Those will get filled very carefully is you're UI hungry like me. So the only (and best) option was to download a UI-Addon, which done the job very nicely. Point goes to WoW on this one, as the start-off ui and add-on community is much more user friendly than AOC's. But hey, the new expansions may bring about some well-needed changes. *Cross Fingers*
I'll make the next comparison the finisher; I think 5 is a nice even number to judge upon. So far it's: WOW: 2 AOC: 2; Hmm, very close! So here it is, something which all MMORPG players seek out when they start a new game, the... Auction House. WoW has an auction house. AOC has an auction house; WoW has a mailbox nearby. AOC has a mailbox in the auction house GUI (Graphical User Interface); WoW's GUI feels soft and is easy to navigate. AOC's however, isn't for the new players. Wow's AH lets you view all pages, AOC lets you view one. And so, while a quick judgement, WoW has to be the winner here. As it's very simple to navigate, buy goods and responds very well to clicks. While with my time on AOC, some clicks were ignored, some of the items were deeply hidden and I had to get pin-point accuracy on typing an item to get it to show on the first page. So, it's 3:2 to WoW. Well done, Blizzard. And WoW players, give yourself a pat on the back; if it wasn't for you, Blizzard would be relying on Warcraft 3 for its long term advancements. But, kudos to AOC, you are a great game, but there are still a few rough edges, which will hopefully be fixed in the next expansion, out on May 11th.
idwt0723
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