Age of Conan...Will It Succeed?

I am not sure that I am fully convinced that Age of Conan will hold me past the release of Wrath of the Lich King. In fact, I am pretty sure that I will most likely quit AoC as soon as WotLK talents are introduced. It is a great game, but there are things that worry me.

1) The Game Is Not Addicting -

It is not an addicting game at all. Sometimes I find myself choosing between watching terrible television, and playing some AoC. Addiction isn't something that should be looked up to, but it is really the most important thing for an mmorpg's longevity. I don't know if it is addicting enough for me to want to reach a higher level.




2) Lack of Promised Content -

So far there is a lot of missing stuff on the beta client. Content that was promised, and supposedly still exists. Developers have said that the content will be there at release, but I don't understand the reason behind hiding the content from beta testers. I think it is a bunch of bull****, and a lot of people will be disappointed when they see the first few major patches devoted to adding content that should have been there at the start.




3) PvP -

Most battles don't last long enough for people to use more than one or two spells. The PvP is way too bursty, and it puts ranged attackers at a huge advantage when getting the jump on a melee toon. Usually, when I play my ranged characters I have my enemy dead before he can even get to me. Also, ranged attackers have a huge advantage because almost every attack in the game is an AoE. This puts melee toons in the middle of AoEs about 100% of the time. Even if a melee isn't being focused on, he will still receive a lot of damage just for being in the fight.

The stealther classes are out of control. They have huge opening burst, and the stealth in the game is very powerful. Many of the stealth mechanics (shadows increasing stealth) are greatly exaggerated. I can stand on a torch, next to someone, and avoid being seen. Each class has a spell called "Perception" which increases stealth detection; however, this has to be casted, and doesn't last long.

Another thing that bugs me is the way that health regens out of combat. It makes the game feel like Halo. The second I think I am gonna die, all I have to do is LoS my attacker for a few seconds, and we will both regen to full health.

The most annoying thing about PvP is critical attacks. They are HUGE, and make the combat seem so random. They can do over 50% of total health in damage.

I think that the PvP in this game is way too simple, and not skill based at all. I think in comparison to other MMORPGs, it is almost as simple as Shadowbane, and may hold the title for the least skill based MMORPG to date. So far on my character I have 172 Kills, and 2 Deaths.




4) Classes Are Lame -

The classes are all a bit lame. In fact, I have gotten each class to 25+, and still can't find one that I like.

The caster classes are all very lame. They have only a couple of damage dealing spells, and have no real useful survivability spells. They do a lot of damage, but are very boring to play. There are only two real caster classes, and both are pet mages. The necromancer is kind of worthless, and the demonologist is powerful, but in PvP it seems like they just run away from everyone, letting their pet kill people.

The melee classes are very generic. There are several classes that seem too similar. Three of them can stealth, and they are all OP. I have played rogue classes in every MMORPG I have played, and I can safely say that the ones in AoC are a bit too powerful. The other melee are good in cluster **** fights. Using a two handed weapon lets you hit like everyone at once, but a lot of the time if you are up close in a fight, then you will be getting hit by two handers as well.

The healer classes are pretty powerful. They probably have the most thought required to play, and even then its pretty minimal. Most of them have ridiculous nukes, stuns, and roots. One of my two deaths was from a Tempest of Set, who killed me within his opening stun. Bear Shaman are similar to paladins, and are very powerful as well. Running around w/ a two hander, hitting for a million, and doing nearly insta casts cone heals that heal group members, and themselves.

All of the classes are very boring. Limited skills, and an overall blahness. I have yet to find a class that I really like.



5) Performance Issues -

A lot of the performance issues experienced last week are no longer existant, but there are still some problems. Bugged quests, terrain, textures, mobs, cut scenes, etc. all still exist. Also, people with older computers  will still be unable to play the game w/o being frustrated.

Also, there are some very annoying quests that must be completed early on. Dungeons that have to be soloed, and require you to pull groups of mobs that will rip you apart, unless you kill one of them, run away, and wait for them to run back to their spawn location, rinse and repeat. You will die a lot from these quests, no matter how good at the game you are. It is just unnecessarily annoying.

Also, leveling is a very annoying process, and it has become clear to me why Funcom has locked the open beta at the level it did.