Herald of Xotli: Leveling Build and Feat Advice

The Herald of Xotli (HoX) is all about damage and more damage. For many people, it is the most exciting class to play in Age of Conan. I’ve heard it referred to as a glass chainsaw and it is a very apt analogy. They dish out huge numbers, but the combination of cloth armor and a relatively small health pool for a melee fighter means a HoX is always at death’s door.

This leveling build is primarily focused around increasing the HoX’s core damage dealing abilities, which is essential for efficient leveling and PvP. At higher levels when quests start to run dry, you will spend much of your time grinding groups of mobs and this build also gives you the tools to AoE effectively.

This build recommends respec’ing at level 40 to get Horrible Visage of Xotli (HVoX) as soon as possible. The lack of crowd control abilities is one of HoX’s primary weaknesses. Getting HVoX, a point blank AoE stun, sooner makes a dramatic impact on the HoX’s viability, especially in PvP.

Summary

10-14 Hellfire
15-19 Fiery Weapons
20-23 Improved Fiery Weapons
24-26 Rage of Xotli
27-28 Demonic Leech (2 points)
29-30 Mindless Brute
31-32 Flame of Xotli (2 points)
33 Fire Lance
34 Flame of Xotli
35 Blood Pit
36-37 Reaching Flames
38-39 Spreading Flames
Respec at level 40

• 5/5 Fiery Weapons
• 1/5 Improved Fiery Weapons
• 5/5 Hellfire
• 5/5 Flame Tongue
• 5/5 Xotli’s Vengeance
• 2/2 Improved Word of Command
• 3/3 Demonic Link
• 3/3 Fury of Xotli
• 1/1 Thundering Flames or Undying Glory of Xotli
• 1/1 Renewed Exultation of Xotli
• 3/3 Horrible Visage of Xotli

41-45 Spreading Flames
46-48 Rage of Xotli
49 Improved Fiery Weapons (1 point)
50-51 Flame of Xotli
52-53 Mindless Brute (2 points)
54 Fire Lance
55 Blood Pit or Mindless Brute
56-58 Improved Fiery Weapons
59-60 Butcher
61-62 Wrath of Xotli
63-67 Demon Within
68-71 Desecration
72 Avatar of Xotli
73-74 Molten Flesh

Build by Level (Conan Armory feat calculator)

• level 20
• level 30
• level 39
• level 40 respec
  
• level 50
• level 60
• level 70
• level 74

Avatar Feats

• Fiery Weapons - Adds a chance to trigger additional fire damage to all melee attacks. It triggers fairly often for good damage. Significant DPS increase.
• Improved Fiery Weapons - Further increases the fire damage and gives team members a chance to trigger Fiery Weapons as well.
• Spreading Flames - The DoT effect from the Burn to Death combo spreads to nearby mobs, in essence making BtD into an AoE DoT. A great feat for grinding groups of mobs.
• Rage of Xotli - Hell Strikes is somewhat underwhelming when you first get this combo, but it soon becomes your standard bread and butter combo due to the short cooldown. This feat increases the damage.
• Demonic Leech - Increases the mana drain from the Body and Spirit Wrack combo. Helpful for longer PvE encounters.
• Mindless Brute - Increases the HoX’s health for a very small decrease in magic damage (-3%). Very helpful for the squishy HoX.
• Flame of Xotli - Increases the damage output of the Burn to Death combo. Especially at mid and higher levels, the damage is significant. Very good for larger groups in conjunction with the Spreading Flames feat.
• Reaching Flames - Increases the AoE radius of the Pillar of Internal Flames Combo. It’s more a PvP feat because in PvE, melee mobs tend to be bunched together.
• Fire Lance - Longish cooldown (3 minutes), but does exceptional damage.
• Blood Pit - Creates a ‘Blood Pit’ that provides a decent Heal over Time (HoT). Nice for AoE grinding and reducing downtime. Not really necessary because potions are cheap, but it’s only one point and a passive ability.
• Butcher - Each point reduces the cooldown by 1s for Hell Strikes, your primary PvE combo. Only need 3 or 4 points to have Hell Strikes available whenever you need it at higher levels.
• Wrath of Xotli - A decent DPS increase for the demon form’s DoT. Good for PvE and PvP.
• Demon Within - A must have ability. Increases the duration of your demon form to 37s.
• Desecration - A must have ability. Reduces the cooldown of your demon form to 1.5minutes.
• Avatar of Xotli - A must have ability. The primary reason you invested so many points in the Avatar tree.

Possession Feats

• Hellfire - Should be the first 5 points for every HoX, no matter what their build. Reduces the casting time to 0.5s, which makes it possible to cast Hellfire Breath while queuing up your next combo.
• Flame Tongue - Underwhelming feat, but it’s the requirement for Fury of Xotli.
• Xotli’s Vengeance - There is some debate over the effectiveness of this skill. Some testing had found that it augmented the damage of Hell Strikes. At this time, +fire damage is being re-evaluated by Funcom, so the effectiveness is still in question.
• Improved Word of Command - Increases the effected area of the root and some people have found it seems to reduce the chance the root breaks on damage.
• Demonic Link - Increases the fire damage bonus (melee and magic) from the demon form. More DPS is always great to have.
• Fury of Xotli - Triggers often, which helps quite a lot with mana management. You should be casting Hellfire Breath as much as possible, so this is a must have ability.
• Renewed Exultation of Xotli - EoX is a great way to increase your overall damage and for 1 point, this feat reduces the downside of using EoX.
• Undying Glory of Xotli - A self-rez is always nice to have and reduces the lost time from dying. The boost to damage and health regeneration makes it even better.
• Horrible Visage of Xotli - A must have skill. Adds a 5s point blank AoE stun to Desecrating Essence. Essential in PvP and great in PvE too.
• Molten Flesh - A situational ability (great when used against enemies with fire damage), but the primary use is for AoE grinding at higher levels.
• Thundering Flames - Kind of working as of the 7/10 patch. It doesn’t interrupt casts in progress. It adds a passive effect to HfB that silences for about 1s, with a 10s immunity. It doesn’t seem to make any difference in PvE. For one feat point, it’s a nice added bonus to Hellfire Breath, which you are going to using as often as possible anyways.

NOTE: For more information about feats not included in this leveling build, do a title search for ‘feat’ in the official HoX subforum. There are several feat reviews by helpful members of the HoX community.

Alternative Feat Choices

By level 74, you have all the feats you need for leveling and PvP. How you spend the remaining points is up to you. By now, you should have a great sense of your own playstyle, so use the remaining points to invest in feats that support your gameplay.

• Insanity of Xotli - A PvP feat that drains a significant amount of mana/stamina from stunned victims.
• Burning Word - Adds a moderate DoT to the area root.
• Mage Blood - A great passive ability that reduces downtime and helps for longer PvE and PvP encounters.
• Demonic Leech + Ether Thirst + Demonic Fortitude - Mana and Stamina management feats.
• Roots of Hell (Does not currently work) - If the feat worked as described, this could be a very useful ability.

General Advice

• Get used to constantly drinking and buying potions. They are cheap and make a huge impact on your survivability. Always carry around a big stack of potions (potions stack to 50).
• Because the HoX has such a high damage output, they are always at risk of getting aggro in group elite instances. The HoX does not have any tanking ability, so pulling aggro away from the tank is a quick way to die. Learning how to manage aggro in groups is an important group skill. If you do get aggro, learn to double-tap back for evade bonuses. Try to refrain from running around randomly, which makes it harder for the tank or healer to help you.
• In PvP, a slow HoX is a dead HoX. HoX’s don’t have the luxury of a huge health pool, self heals or great defensive abilities. HoX’s have to react quickly and think fast.
• In group PvP, being overly aggressive can easily mean death for a HoX. Healers are usually the primary targets in group PvP, but if a HoX charges into the fray and rampages in demon form, they are painting a huge target on their head. Think ‘assassin’, instead of a bulldozer. It’s usually a smart idea to let the tougher members of your group absorb the initial attack.

My enthusiasm for Age of Conan is waning with each nerf

I’ve played a lot of MMORPG’s. I’ve had to endure a lot of nerfs. Sometimes, I actually agree with them and adjust knowing that the game is now better. I’m usually a pretty laid back person, but I’m now at the point with AoC where even the smallest nerfs are pissing me off. It’s like road rage. Dissatisfaction, annoyance and disappointment grows underneath the subconscious somewhere. Each additional nerf and broken feature adds more and more until I can’t seem to take it any longer.

Practically every single patch, one of my healers has had to endure a significant nerf. Now that I’m also playing a HoX and a Necromancer, I have to endure a huge nerf every single week. Some of the nerfs aren’t minor ones either. Some of them are class changing.

I play MMORPG’s to have fun and escape from some of the frustrations in the real world. I play on roleplaying servers because I really enjoy embracing another identity. It makes it feel even more like I’m stepping away from myself for a short time.

I wouldn’t even be that upset if Funcom seemed to be working as hard as they can to fix the broken content and add features that were promised. Personally, I could care less that one class seems a little too powerful or another seems too weak. Every change made to the game is more time that could have been spent fixing the game and adding new content.

Yes, I am aware that development teams are broken into groups with differing responsibilities. Honestly, I don’t care about that any longer. As long as there is some overlapping skills, Funcom needs to assign as many of their staff as possible on changes that make their customers happy.

Every nerf, big or small, is guaranteed to make someone upset. This is a critical time for the game. Some doomsayers are already foretelling serious issues for Age of Conan’s longevity. Funcom doesn’t need to make it even harder on themselves by pissing off even their most hardcore supporters.

Just a few weeks ago, I would have wholeheartedly encouraged anyone to play this game. Now, I’m not so sure.

I am going to take a break from Age of Conan for the next week or two. I’m going to remove all shortcuts, close all AoC related tabs in Firefox and just not think about this game. Maybe when I come back to it, I’ll have cooled down about the nerfs and I can be more objective.

By the way, I just participated in my first big raid versus raid PvP battle. Unfortunately, my server is far behind the Early Access servers, so I don’t think any of the guilds have a battlekeep. This battle was in Kheshatta (the highest level zone). It was extremely fun, but it brought my computer to its knees. I had severe stuttering and single digit framerates, even after I turned down all the settings to low. In the future, I’m going to have to turn off all particle effects. I’ll probably have to go fullscreen and use a much lower resolution as well. While raid PvP was definitely fun and something that could be great in the future, I simply don’t see a lot of computers out there being able to handle the stress.

Herald of Xotli is great fun!

UPDATE 7/12/08 My leveling build guide for HoX’s can be found here.

I’ve been having fun lately rolling baby characters and trying out different classes in Age of Conan. I’m on a roleplaying PvP server, so the added fun is coming up with a back story and reasons for why I occasionally go on murderous blood sprees. World PvP is definitely one of the best parts of the game and it’s even more fun when you feel like you have a reason to kill everyone in sight!

Herald of Xotli (HoX) is the perfect class for roleplaying and PvP. I’ve heard them referred to as ‘glass chainsaws’ and that is very apt analogy. Like the glass cannon ranged mages, HoX can dish out seriously impressive damage, but they are so fragile. Even normal mob encounters can turn into mini-adrenaline rushes because there is a constant threat of death. Sometimes I can kill a half dozen mobs at once. Sometimes just two mobs can turn me into a coward. The HoX also has some AoE abilities, especially at higher levels. This makes it a far more interesting leveling experience.

My HoX’s story is simple. She was forced into a blood pact by an evil necromancer when she was a teenager. Like so many teens, she rebelled against her parents and society. The lure of blood rituals seemed so exciting, but in the back of her mind, she didn’t believe it. It was all just an exciting game that gave her a reputation and upset her parents. One night, she participated in a ritual that she thought was a scam. The next day, she was horrified to discover she had participated in a human sacrifice. She fled town, all alone, penniless and not even sixteen. Since then, she’s been searching for a way to break Xotli’s hold over her and control her bloodlust.

As you can imagine, going on a PvP rampage is easy! I just conveniently lose control of my demonic powers. So I pretend to be an innocent young woman, working hard to earn a few tin coins to pay for her next meal. But I lose control (and my memory) and go on a murderous spree, attacking everyone, even people of a higher level. It’s great fun.

She’s level 41 now (still a baby!). If I roll a big number, my HoX can instantly kill a lot of players. The biggest thrill is watching someone go from 100% health to dead as I fatality them and chop their head off. As always, I don’t gank or grief anyone. If I attack someone, I wait until they look ready, then charge, transform into demon form, and watch the blood fly.

Being in groups, especially elite instances, is a totally different experience. I’m so used to being a healer and keeping track of everyone. As a pure DPS, I almost feel selfish. I just combo, Hellfire, combo, Hellfire and it’s easy going. I have to admit that it can get a bit boring at times for elite instances. For world PvE groups, the HoX is great because they can kill normal mobs quickly and efficiently.

Leveling build and feat advice for baby HoX’s

As always, I do lots of research and experimenting to see which build order is the most effective and efficient way to level. The HoX has a few very important feats, mixed in with a lot of mediocre and broken feats. For any build, the first three recommended feats are the same.

• 5/5 Hellfire - Without this feat, Hellfire is almost useless because the casting time is so long. With this feat, it has a 0.5 casting time, which means you can even use it while queuing up a long combo. It does significant damage and this feat should be the first choice for every HoX.
• 5/5 Fiery Weapons - Adds a fire damage proc that triggers very often and hits hard. Makes a big difference to your overall DPS and is a no brainer.
• 5/5 Improved Fiery Weapons - Further increases the damage and gives team members their own Fiery Weapons buff. The first point has the biggest impact, so if you want to experiment with other feats, invest 1 point, then come back to it later.

For general leveling, go down the Avatar tree and aim for Avatar of Xotli. As you progress down the tree, you will eventually reach feats that have level requirements you have not met yet. Switch over to the Possession tree until you fulfill the level requirements. In the Possession tree, the goal is Horrible Visage of Xotli and Molten Flesh.

Most people don’t recommend any feats in the general mage tree. Unless you know exactly what you are doing, it’s a safer bet to stick with the primary HoX trees.

At a future time, I may put in the time to do a proper leveling guide, but for now, hopefully this section provides some general direction. If you want detailed feat information, do a search in the official forums.

Priest of Mitra: Leveling Build and Feat Advice

This build is focused on creating a Priest of Mitra (PoM) capable of solo grinding efficiently, while maintaining the core skills required to be an effective group healer. For the most part, the PoM community has a consensus about the important feats for leveling. This guide will explain the best order in which to select the feats and the reasons for picking them.

Summary

10-14 Improved Smite
15-19 Cleansing Fire
20-23 Holy Vengeance
25-25 Revivication (2 points)

26-30 Lance of Mitra
31-34 Divine Lance

35-39 Ether Flow

40-41 Glowing Radiance
42 Searing Light

43-44 Far Reaching Spirit
45-47 Spirit Armor or Grace or Vindicator
48-51 Presence of Mind

52-56 Holy Accession
57-60 Wrath of Mitra
61 Clarity of Mind
62-64 Force of Will
65-67 Purification
68-70 Improved Repulse
70-74 Holy Surge
75-79 Overwhelming Light
80 Empowered Repulse

Leveling Build (feat calculator)

• level 20
• level 30
• level 40
• level 50
• level 60
• level 70
• level 80

Detailed Progression

NOTE:  Some people like to invest 1 point in Lance of Mitra as their very first feat choice, before going down the Vengeance tree.  It’s unnecessary, but it’s nice to have Lance of Mitra so early.

1. 5/5 Improved Smite - More damage for your standard nuke.
2. 5/5 Cleansing Fire - Much easier to use in solo situations than Lance of Mitra. At this level, people are spending most of their time solo, so this will be more useful.
3. 5/5 Holy Vengeance or 5/5 Improved Rebuke - Both add to your DPS. Since you are always casting Wave of Life, HV is a nice added bonus. It works well if you are party focused and want one less thing to think about. On the other hand, Rebuke is a fast casting nuke that works well in the nuke rotation and quickly finishing off opponents. For PvP, Rebuke is more useful as well.
4. 2/3 Revivication - 2 points is enough to ensure it will trigger early in every battle. You don’t ever have to worry about casting Emanation of Life (EoL) again when playing solo. Useful in tough situations and great for running away or traveling. Especially useful for PvP where you will get surprised a lot and spending 2 seconds to cast EoL is far too long.
5. 5/5 Lance of Mitra - A great nuke, but requires positioning yourself properly to use it effectively. Melee mobs tend to surround you and usually two targets is the maximum you will hit using Lance. Use repulse to throw them back, giving you time to line them up for a Lance. By this level, most PoM’s probably have a guild or friends they usually play with. In a group, it’s very easy to use Lance to its full potential.
6. 5/5 Divine Lance - Makes Lance of Mitra into a nuke and a heal. Very useful in groups. Useful in solo situations as well because it can heal you if it hits a nearby target. I recommend getting this skill prior to level 35 when most people start doing Sanctum groups. For most PoM’s, Sanctum is their first elite instance and it is extremely helpful to have all your healing tools available.
7. 5/5 Ether Flow - By now, the PoM has upgraded versions of their skills and mana management starts to become an issue. If you have mana problems sooner, consider getting this skill at an earlier level.
8. 3/3 Glowing Radiance - The debuff from Radiance also grants a +5% damage buff.
9. 1/1 Searing Light - Gives Radiance a powerful AoE nuke that does damage on par with Smite.
10. 2/2 Far Reaching Spirit - Significantly increases Radiance’s range.
11. 3/5 Spirit Armor or 3/3 Grace or 2/2 Vindicator - A 3 point filler to get to the next feat. Spend 3 points in the 2nd tier general tree that best suits your playstyle.
12. 5/5 Presence of Mind - Makes Radiance into an instant cast. This makes the emergency heal far more useful. It can be cast on the run. With Searing Light, it means Radiance is a powerful instant cast AoE nuke. Soon after you get this feat, you will start running out of quests and need to grind experience. Cannibal Caves is a great grinding spot in the 50’s and you now have all the skills required to kill groups of mobs efficiently.
13. 5/5 Holy Accession - At 5/5, it triggers constantly, reducing the mana cost of your next nuke to zero. It is a great mana management feat. This makes it much easier to heal and nuke nonstop.
14. 5/5 Wrath of Mind - Gives a significant damage buff to all your nukes. Scales with your level.
15. 1/1 Clarity of Mind - The next nuke can be cast for no mana cost. 2 minute cooldown. Not that useful until you get Force of Will.
16. 3/3 Force of Will - This makes the nuke you cast using Clarity of Mind do double damage.
17. 3/3 Purification - Every nuke has a chance of triggering bonus damage.
18. 3/3 Improved Repulse - Improves the damage of your highest damage AoE nuke. Great for PvE and PvP. There is some question whether this feat is working properly, but hopefully it will be fixed soon.
19. 5/5 Holy Surge - Increases the critical strike chance of your nukes. Good way to increase your DPS.
20. 5/5 Overwhelming Light - Increases the critical damage multiplier of your nukes. When you land a critical strike, it does more damage.
21. 1/1 Avatar of Mitra - Instant cast, point blank AoE 5 second stun. 2 minute cooldown. Extremely helpful in both PvE and PvP.
22. 2/2 Empowered Repulse - Increases the knockback power and distance of Repulse. This allows Repulse to knockback most players. Good skill for PvE. Great for PvP.

Alternative Feat Choices

• Blessed Armor of Faith + Unyielding Faith - Reduces the Armor of Faith holy damage penalty to -20 at level 80 and significantly reduces the mana penalty. Unyielding Faith reduces the unholy vulnerability to 20%. Armor of Faith provides a big defensive boost, which is invaluable to the relatively squishy PoM. This is an expensive investment, but one that many PoM’s are willing to make.
• Exemplar - Passive damage increase that stacks well with other damage boosting feats.
• Vengeance of the Gods - 20% damage buff that lasts 30s with a 3min cooldown. Great for PvP and difficult PvE encounters.
• Saintly Warrior - Provides mana and stamina when struck by melee. A good way to reduce your downtime.
• Purification of Mitra - Although the damage is much lower than it used to be, for only 2 points, it is basically free additional damage since you are always casting Wave of Life. Decent DPS increase for leveling.

General Advice

• Smite and Rebuke have a small AoE radius. Take advantage by adjusting your positioning to ensure both nukes always hit two targets. Backpedaling will usually force melee mobs to follow you and bunch up closer.
• Lance of Mitra takes some practice to learn how to maximize the number of targets. At close range, proper positioning can allow you to hit multiple mobs.

Tempest of Set: Leveling Build and Feat Advice (version 2)

UPDATE 7/1 After a pretty bad week of nerfs, the dust is starting to settle and overall, it’s not as bad as it could have been. Yes, the more extreme AoE massacres are no longer possible (my longest chain kill was 10 or 11), but 3 to 5 mobs at once are still within reason. Active blocking doesn’t seem to do anything. Double-tap back does provide a very short evade bonus. Otherwise, use your other nukes or swing that big club. It can actually do decent damage.

—————-

On June 23rd, the Tempest of Set (ToS) was nerfed yet again. This time it was a change to their core leveling abilities. The primary change is a 3 target limit to Storm Field and Lightning Strike now does splash damage instead of pure Area of Effect (AoE) damage. This impacts ToS leveling at all level ranges, so the goal of the leveling build is to minimize the changes while still maintaining an effective AoE nuking strategy.

Leveling Build Summary

10-14 Ether Flow
15-19 Arcing Charged Blast
20-23 Improved LS
24-26 Pillar Lightning
27-29 Static Charge
30 Respec

• 5/5 Arcing Charged Blast
• 5/5 Improved LS
• 3/3 Pillar Lightning
• 3/5 Static Charge
• 5/5 Growing Storm
• 2/3 Storm Crown

31-32 Static Charge
33-34 Ether Absorption
35 Elemental Fury
36-38 Ether Absorption
39 Coalesce Ether
40 Set’s Storm (2 points)
41 Column Lightning
42 Storm Crown
43-45 Storm Throne
46-47 Storm Regalia
48-49 Set’s Brutality
50 Titanic Storm (2 points)
51 Storm Regalia
52 Set’s Brutality
53-57 Ether Flow
58-61 Spirit Armor
62-64 Saintly Warrior
65-66 Spirit Aegis
67-70 Exemplar
71 Vengeance of the Gods

Detailed Leveling Build

This build incorporates a respec at level 30 to take advantage of Storm Field. Also remember that this is a leveling build, so it has some potential weaknesses in PvP. When possible, I tried to give some options for ToS’s playing on PvP servers.

• 5/5 Ether Flow - Lightning Strike (LS) is extremely mana expensive. Although the cooldown was removed (6/23 patch), LS now does 40% splash damage on up to 3 additional targets. This means you kill single targets faster, but you need more overall casts if you encounter a group.
• 5/5 Arcing Charged Blast - Adds splash damage to your fast casting nuke, Charged Bolt (CB).
• 5/5 Improved LS - Increase the damage of your core nuke.
• 3/3 Pillar Lightning - Increases the radius and the number of targets affected by the LS splash damage. At this time, this feat is questionable. It doesn’t seem to work properly, so consider spending the 3 points in another feat instead.
• 3/5 Static Charge - Increases the damage of all your nukes. Scales with level.

Leveling Build at level 29

At level 30, you gain Storm Field (SF), a class transforming skill. SF is a passive skill that attacks targets while you are free to run around, cast other nukes, swing your weapon, evade or active block. Combined with Storm Crown (SC), this will be your core leveling strategy. LS cannot be cast while SF is running, but CB and other nukes can still be used.

Unfortunately, with the 6/23 patch, SF can only attack 3 targets at once. Until you get Set’s Storm at level 40, you cannot have SF running constantly, so there will be times when need to rely on LS. The priority is to get Titanic Storm as soon as possible (level 50). This increases the number of targets to 5, which allows the ToS to level almost as well as before the latest nerf.

Respec at level 30

• 5/5 Arcing Charged Blast
• 5/5 Improved LS or 5/5 Grounding Charge - Grounding Charge gives CB a 50% of rooting the target for 4 seconds. Useful for PvP.
• 3/3 Pillar Lightning
• 3/5 Static Charge
• 5/5 Growing Storm - Reduces the mana cost of Life of Set every time LS, CB and SF is cast. Small, but nice bonus.
• 2/3 Storm Crown - A 30s passive buff that triggers an electric shock to a nearby enemy every few seconds.

Respec Build at level 30

Due to the nerf to SF and LS, it is more important to get the SF improving feats as soon as possible.

• 5/5 Static Charge
• 2/5 Ether Absorption or 2/5 Brutal LS - Ether Absorption returns a portion of your damage as mana. Since you are relying on Storm Field and Storm Crown, you usually don’t have mana problems. Ether Absorption is the better PvE choice. Brutal LS gives a higher critical hit chance to LS and it is a good choice for PvP servers, since it’s also a prerequisite for 1/1 Inner Charge (instant cast, guaranteed critical strike on next LS, 1 minute cooldown).
• 1/1 Elemental Fury - Instant cast AoE nuke with a 45 second cooldown. Instant casts are great for PvE and PvP. Another nuke to use with Storm Field.
• 5/5 Ether Absorption or 5/5 Brutal LS
• 1/3 Coalesce Ether or 1/1 Inner Charge - Coalesce Ether is another mana management skill that also provides mana for your teammates. Get Inner Charge if you invested in Brutal LS.
• 2/2 Set’s Storm - Reduces casting time and reduces the cooldown so you can always have Storm Field up. Essential for leveling.

Leveling Build at level 40

• 1/1 Column Lightning - Column area nuke that does great damage. 3 second cast, 60 second cooldown. Can also be used with Storm Field. Good for PvE and PvP. If you play on a PvP server, consider getting this skill before Set’s Storm. Set’s Storm is hugely helpful for PvE, but Column Lightning is only 1 point. It also has a splash damage component that can add to up significant numbers when used against a group.
• 3/3 Storm Crown
• 3/3 Storm Throne - Improves SC by increasing damage, number of targets and restoring mana. Adds a weaker SC to all team members.
• 2/3 Storm Regalia - Further increases SC damage and adds a chance of restoring the team’s mana and inflicting electrical damage.
• 2/3 Set’s Brutality - Increases the chance of critical strike for SF.
• 2/2 Titanic Storm - At level 50, get this essential leveling feat. Increases the number of targets for SF to 5 and improves the range of attack.
• 3/3 Storm Regalia
• 3/3 Set’s Brutality

Leveling Build at level 52

At this point, you have a choice. Either go directly to the general tree or invest in Idol of Set. The general tree build provides Saintly Warrior sooner, which helps with keeping stamina up when active blocking. I’ve been experimenting a lot with Idol of Set recently and I’ve changed my mind about the usefulness of that skill. The Idol of Set build order can be found further down the page.

• 5/5 Ether Flow - Provides very good mana regen both in and out of combat.
• 5/5 Spirit Armor - Provides a passive defensive boost, helpful for AoE nuking.
• 3/3 Saintly Warrior - Provides mana and stamina when struck in melee combat. No longer as helpful now that active blocking is far less effective, but can still reduce downtime. Also good in extended PvP battles for both mana and stamina.
• 2/5 Spirit Aegis - Provides a small passive magic defensive boost. Nice filler.
• 5/5 Exemplar - Passive increase to melee and nuke damage.
• 1/1 Vengeance of the Gods - Great for PvE and especially for PvP. 1s cast, 30s duration, 3m cooldown. 20% damage buff.

Leveling Build at level 71

At this point, you have a lot of options. I recommend the following skills. Consider getting any of these skills sooner if it suits your playstyle.

• Empowered Cobra Stare - Stun doesn’t break on damage. Essential for PvP servers. Very useful for ToS’s who group a lot. If you get aggro, this stun is a great way to stop the incoming damage and give your tank a chance to regain aggro.
• Power of the Serpent Ring + Wrath - 10s duration, 60s cooldown, 30% damage buff - Similar to Vengeance of the Gods, provides a nice damage boost. Helps with burst damage for PvP.
• Empowered Life of Set - Only 1 point. Adds a good damage buff to your next LS, CB or SF.
• Idol of Set + Idol of Set’s Power - 60s cooldown reduces the usefulness of this skill, but it is still a very good way to boost damage.
• Far Reaching Spirit + Presence of Mind - Makes your emergency direct heal into an instant cast. Makes it far more useful. Can be cast while running.
• Fury of the Storm + Pillar Lightning + Imp. LS - Always good to improve your primary nuke.
• Ether Absorption + Coalesce Ether + Blood Mana - If you didn’t get these skills before, it’s helpful if you do any LS spamming.
• Set’s Life Spark - Only 1 point. Gives you the ability to resurrect yourself once every 30 minutes. Can be very useful. Unfortunately, you resurrect at the location you died, which is typically surrounded by whatever killed you in the first place. Without your buffs, you die a much faster second death. For parties, it can be invaluable, especially if you are the only rezzer.
• Visions of Hatred + Brain Spasms + Puppets of Set - An essential part of the PvP build right now. Visions of Hatred provides a channeled 6.5s stun (5 minute cooldown). Puppets of Set is a 2.5s cast with a 10s ‘confuse’ (2 minute cooldown). For PvP, I don’t think I need to explain why these skills are useful. In PvE, having more crowd control skills can be very useful as well. Brain Spasm grants a significant chance of immediately recovering from stun, charm or feat. I’m not sure if it works, but potentially very useful.
• Lightning Cast - Makes your next LS into an instant cast, but increases the cooldown.

Idol of Set build order

Note: Before you read further, you should know that you do not need Idol of Set. The ToS grinds and kills fine without it. The Idol can speed up some grinding and create a different gameplay which can be fun. It also helps make up for some of the power lost in the June 23rd nerf.

Note #2: This is probably unintended, but it is possible to place two Idols at once. Queue up another Idol while the first Idol is being cast.

Leveling Build at level 52

Investing 5 points in Idol of Set and Idol of Set’s Power provides a dramatic damage boost to your Storm Field grinding. You can take down a group significantly faster. This makes it possible to pull a bigger group of mobs and get more bonus experience from longer chain kills.

Since Idol of Set has a long cooldown and the duration (50s) is shorter than the cooldown (60s), you have to manage it properly. Unlike a non-Idol build, you are less mobile, so you have to plan ahead.

• 1/3 Piercing Storm Crown or 1/3 Empowered Cobra Stare - A filler point to get you to the Idol of Set feats, but both are useful choices. Empowered Cobra Stare is the PvP choice. It’s not a bad decision to go 3/3 on either feat before moving on to Idol of Set.
• 3/3 Idol of Set
• 2/2 Idol of Set’s Power - This skill provides additional Storm Field pulses from the Idol itself. I don’t recommend getting the Idol until you have the Storm Field feats first. That gives you more damage and a longer range.
• 1/1 Empowered Life of Set - Every time you cast Life of Set (which is very often), your next LS, SF or CB gets a damage bonus. The damage bonus is significant, so it’s often worth casting Life of Set prior to every LS, SF or CB cast.
• 5/5 Ether Flow
• 5/5 Spirit Armor
• 3/3 Saintly Warrior

Note that this build is better for grinding, rather than questing. It’s often not worth the time or effort to place an Idol if you are only killing a few mobs. Be careful of using Idols in instances with elite mobs. All that DPS will make the mobs very angry at you.

At this point, you can either continue down the general tree to get Vengeance of the Gods or any of the other useful feats I recommended above.

Idol of Set leveling build at level 70

Nerfs, nerfs and more nerfs in Age of Conan

While I’ve been enjoying my time thus far in Hyboria, the basically endless stream of nerfs is starting to really bother me.  The game has only recently passed its one month anniversary.  While it had a successful launch, now is the true test of the game’s longevity.  How many people actually committed themselves to a subscription?  The core game is great, but it still has a long list of bugs.  In MMORPG’s, it has been shown time and time again that nerfing class after class is a sure way to anger the players.

Let’s take a look at some of the major changes so far.  Some are ‘fixes’ stemming from either poor execution or poor design, but they are still nerfs to how the classes played at launch.  These ‘fixes’ should have happened in alpha and beta testing, not after the game went live.

• Priest of Mitra’s Purification of Mitra was changed from a good PBAoE nuke into a poor DoT.
• Priest of Mitra’s Repulse was significantly reduced in damage and is no longer improved by Force of Will (a 2 minute cooldown that boosts damage for the next nuke).
• Guardian’s Overreach was changed from their highest damage dealing combo into an average combo.
• Barbarian’s similarly had a powerful combo dramatically decreased in damage (I don’t have a barbarian, so the name of the combo escapes me.)
• Herald of Xotli’s Flame of Xotli was reduced dramatically in damage.
• Tempest of Set’s Idol of Set was changed to only allow one to be placed, when previously there was no limit.
• Tempest of Set’s Cyclone of Set was changed to only allow a maximum of three, when previously there was no limit.
• Tempest of Set’s Triumphant Life of Set was changed from a great AoE nuke into a relatively poor DoT.
• Ranger’s overall DPS was significantly reduced.
• Necromancer’s AoE nukes and DoT’s were significantly reduced in power (their pets had a buff in the same patch).

I’m sure that I’m missing a lot of changes, especially considering Funcom’s tendency to leave some of the bigger nerfs out of their patch notes.  Many of these ’stealth nerfs’ occurred without the general public knowing they even happened.

Most of the nerfs happened because of one of two reasons.

1. Remove all abilities that can one-shot kill another player in PvP.
2. Remove all abilities that allow classes to solo grind/farm too many mobs at once in PvE.

I have to admit that many of the nerfs ARE merited.  Both of these issues are potentially game breakers in terms of balance.  Unfortunately, when the core game still has what seems to be an endless list of bugs and features still missing, it is much harder for the players to accept these nerfs to their precious characters.

There are still at least a couple significantly overpowered abilities in the game, so I doubt the nerfing process is finished.  Hopefully Funcom will get their priorities in order, stop screwing with the classes and focus their full effort on fixing the bugs.

By the way, there are some absolutely ridiculous bugs.  Can you believe that females attack SLOWER?  Is this a sexist message that Funcom is trying to send to their community?  Testing has shown that for some classes, females deal more than 25% less damage.  Apparently this bug existed in beta as well.  It boggles my mind that this bug still exists a month into live.

For now, I’m still having fun, but Funcom has burned me badly in the past with their tendency to bash classes with the nerf bat.  Every patch day adds a bit more stress and anxiety because I am starting to expect yet another nerf to come my way.

Bear Shaman: Revised leveling build and feat advice

Blood Fever vs Untamed Regeneration

With the significant reduction in Untamed Regeneration’s regeneration and increase in vulnerabilities, it becomes a good situational tool instead of a skill you run all the time. Blood Fever’s 20% damage increase becomes a more attractive option.

Untamed Regeneration (UR) is no longer a must have skill for many BS’s. It is still a very good skill, but one that should be managed properly. Preliminary testing has shown that invulnerability works differently in PvE vs PvP. In PvE, it is a straightforward % increase in damage. In PvP, it appears to impact the chance of critical hits and increases the damage as well. Running UR in PvP is a quick way to die, especially with the BS’s small health pool.

Aspects can be clicked on or off instantly, with a 5 second cooldown between changes. If you have Blood Fever (BF) and UR, learning to switch between aspects depending on your situation can be a powerful tool.

For leveling purposes, at low levels, the regeneration from UR is less impressive. The immediate 20% increase in damage from BF speeds up killing, which is the primary task when leveling.

At higher levels, picking up both aspects can be helpful. With the nerf, some BS’s are skipping UR in favor of other skills like Balance of Nature and Saintly Warrior. Remember that potions are always cheap and work well to supplement your natural regeneration.

General Notes

Many of the feats are underwhelming (especially the feats deep in both trees) or just broken, so some of the feat choices are not set in stone and can definitely be tweaked to suit your playstyle.

With the UR nerf, another very good option for BS’s is to get 5/5 Ether Flow, 5/5 Spirit Armor and 3/3 Saintly Warrior. Spirit Armor provides additional melee invulnerabilities which is a good thing and Saintly Warrior provides a lot of stamina when solo leveling. In most cases, if you are willing to use potions, this is unnecessary, but it’s still nice to not have to worry about downtime.

In my leveling build, I skip back and forth between the Spirits and Wrath trees. I do this to try to get the most useful skills at that time. Some of the skills are decent at lower levels, but do not scale well. So it’s sometimes better to get these skills early when it could be helpful. Feel free to shuffle the feats around to suit your playstyle. Every level, look at your progress in both trees and decide which is best for you, instead of blindly following my build.

Leveling Build

• 5/5 Blood Warrior - Adds a damage buff to your primary heal over time (HoT) skill. Casting spells does not break combos, so you can cast Blood Flow in between combo swings.
• 5/5 Empowered Renewal - 50% damage increase for the hit that triggers renewal. This is arguably the most useful feat and one you should learn to use properly as soon as possible. Use it immediately before the final blow of your combo. This should usually be the last blow of the Crush Armor combo.
• 5/5 Improved Spirit of the Bear - Significantly increases your health buff. One of the BS’s weaknesses is a small health pool and this skill is essential.
• 5/5 Aspect: Blood Fever - 20% damage increase with a 22% reduction in healing power. During solo leveling, the 20% damage increase is a good tradeoff to speed up killing. Turn off the aspect if you need more healing, especially in groups.

Feat build at level 28 (conanarmory.com)

• 5/5 Nature’s Wrath - Very high chance of proc. Adds a secondary heal to your primary HoT.
• 5/5 Animalistic Fury or 5/5 Ursine Onslaught - Increase to your standard melee attacks (but not combos) vs 40% damage increase for the Ursine Brawl combo. Someone parsed their combat logs and found that Animalistic Fury added more DPS over time. The problem is the very long cooldown on Ursine Brawl. For PvP, Ursine Onslaught is the better choice.
• 3/3 Aspect: Untamed Regeneration - Some BS’s now choose to skip this skill, but I still think it has its uses. It provides good regeneration for health, mana and stamina at the cost of -15% invulnerabilities.
• 1/1 Manifestation of Rabies - 30s short range area damage (40s cooldown). Decent damage when you first get the skill, but it does not scale well with level. It is useful for PvP because it pops people out of stealth. If you plan to get this skill, get it now when the damage is useful or wait until much later to use as a PvP skill.
• 2/5 Animalistic Fury or 2/5 Ursine Onslaught - Whichever skill you didn’t get earlier.
• 3/3 Improved Grizzled Hide - Adds 3% invulnerabilities and increases the grizzled hide defense bonus by 30%. Very helpful for the relatively squishy BS.
• 2/3 Poisoned Hide - ~25% of triggering a small poison DoT when hit by melee. Small, but noticeable DPS increase.
• 1/1 Rupture - Increase damage of one of your primary combos (Crush Armor) by 10% and decreases the cooldown by 1.5s.
• 1/1 Battle Roar - 3% damage buff, moderate health buff for entire group. 30s duration, 60s cooldown.
• 3/3 Ursine Roar - 10s debuff that reduces damage by 15%. 60s cooldown. Instant cast.

Feat build at level 50 (conanarmory.com)

• 1/3 Ursine Rush - A charge. Additional points increase DoT damage (not recommended).
• 3/3 Poisoned Hide
• 5/5 Animalistic Fury or 5/5 Ursine Onslaught - Filler. Can spend the 3 points on anything else.
• 2/2 Weight of the World - Next 3 attacks do +40% damage and -25% movement snare. 2min cooldown. Great in PvE and essential in PvP to increase your burst damage.
• 3/3 Stone Hide - Recent testing has shown that this skill does provide a percentage based reduction in damage in PvE and PvP. Instant cast, 15s duration, 90s cooldown.
• 3/3 Rampage - Provides a good damage boost and health regen. Very nice because it is a passive skill that triggers off any attack. BS’s have tons of other hotkeys/skills to worry about and it’s nice to have a good passive skill.
• 5/5 Blood Champion - 10s buff that provides 20% damage every 2 minutes. Primarily for PvP burst damage, still a good way to increase your DPS. Consider getting this skill sooner if you play on a PvP server.
• 1/1 Rune of Grounding - 90% spell immunity for 15s, but snares you. Great against casters. Use Ursine Rush to close the gap.
• 1/1 Grace of Nature - Removes roots for your entire party. Provides 6 seconds of immunity, with a 40 second cooldown. Good for PvP.

Feat build at level 70 (conanarmory.com)

• 2/3 Deft Renewal or 2/3 Manifestation: Regrowth - Add a 5% evade bonus with 10s (?) duration to your standard group HoT or a small 30s HoT with a 60s cooldown. Grants a small bonus to survivability to your BS and group. Pick whichever better fits your playstyle. Deft Renewal is an easier choice because it is linked to a spell you already use, instead of adding yet another spell to your loaded hotbars.
• 5/5 Balance of Nature - Moderate (30% to 40%) chance to add a short stamina regen buff to Blood Flow.
• 5/5 Claws of Life - ~90 natural regen (at level 80, scales to level) with a small proc heal.
• 3/3 Deft Renewal or 3/3 Manifestation: Regrowth

Feat build at level 80 (conanarmory.com)

Other Options

• 5/5 Rune of Slaughter - Not useful in solo PvE, but can help in groups when facing epic mobs and in long PvP encounters.

General Playing Advice

• The BS is not a tank, no matter how tough you look. In groups, wait for your tank to establish aggro before jumping in with HoT’s and combos. BS’s have limited crowd control abilities.
• If you get in trouble in groups, remember you can always double-tap back for evade buffs and active block. That’s better than running around, which makes it impossible for your tank to help you.
• Take full advantage of food buffs and potions. I always carry a big stack of food and a ton of stamina and health potions. Potions stack to 50. They are cheap and help immensely to your survival and killing speed.
• For melee combos, only the position of your target when you swing your last attack matters. After that, it doesn’t matter if the target runs around. In PvP, you can wind up your combo while running around.
• Casting spells does not break combos. You can cast Blood Flow in between swings. This is useful for some of the procs that depend on Blood Flow.
• If you can find a leveling buddy that specializes in AoE attacks, it can significantly help both of you. The ToS and PoM are leveling machines by themselves, but with another healer, it’s even better. The mages are also much better when supported by heals, especially the HoX.

Overpowered? Tempest of Set and Priest of Mitra

Are these two classes really overpowered? It appears that a lot of people in the official forums seem to think so. Both class forums and even the general forum is getting a flood of ‘nurf l33t preists!!’ posts (I don’t know l33t speak at all, but you get my point). I call these people the nerf squad. They all cluster together, latch onto a few classes and cry and whine endlessly until the nerfbat swings. ToS and PoM have been targets for quite a while now, but the nerf squad was placated by the numerous fixes that have already come and significantly downgraded both classes.

Unfortunately, with the ’success’ of the nerf squad in getting barbarians and guardians nerfed (the last 2 patches), they are crying louder than ever for the priests to be powered down. I don’t know if Funcom really did listen to the nerf squad. The barbarians and guardians had 1 hit kill power in PvP. Arguably, that is too overpowered for a game that emphasizes PvP. The timing of the fixes makes the nerf squad think they truly did have an impact on Funcom’s decisions.

Considering the PoM and ToS are my main two characters, I have a lot to worry about right now. I really enjoy the current state of both classes. It’s nice to play a healer that can dish out the damage. It’s nice to play a healer that is very well rounded. They reminds me of one of my favorite characters, my trader from Anarchy Online before Funcom nerfed traders into the ground.

The problem is the combination of AoE (area of effect) nukes and healing. In the case of the PoM, add in powerful crowd control in the form of repulse (point blank AoE knockdown). This allows the ToS and PoM to solo level faster than many of the other classes. There have been a few youtube videos and plenty of ’stories’ of priests who kill a dozen mobs at a time.

The nerf squad fails to realize that this solo leveling is only one small aspect of the game. Group PvE, raids, group PvP, sieges, PvP mini-games…these are all significant aspects of the game and much of it occurs after all the leveling is done. While the priests do well in some areas, they definitely do not deserve to be called overpowered.

• In group PvE, both classes are healers. Neither class compares when it comes to pure DPS. They are far too squishy to risk unleashing their area attacks with regularity, unless they want to spend most of the game dead and waiting to be resurrected.
• In group PvP, everyone targets the healers first. No amount of HoT’s or the 1 minute cooldown emergency heal is going to save a priest who is getting focused fired by several opponents.  The three healers only get 50% of the benefit from their own HoT’s.  ToS and PoM are in light armor, have small health pools and their primary source of healing only does 50%.  The ToS is especially vulnerable because they lack some of the powerful crowd control abilities that the PoM has.
• Even in 1 on 1 PvP, the priests have their weaknesses. Against some classes, it’s an easy battle. Against others, they are literally unable to dish out enough damage to kill them. Some classes can kill the priests in a matter of seconds.

Level 80 priests are reporting that healing does not seem to scale as quickly as damage output and the size of the health pool. Currently, there are no items in the game that boosts healing power. That is not a good sign for future expansion. As more and more people reach level 80 and participate in raids, everyone’s damage output is going to increase with better itemization, while the priests become more and more vulnerable.

Because of the somewhat misguided impression that ToS and PoM are so powerful, a lot of people are rerolling as priests. Some people think this is a bad thing. I disagree. In most MMORPG’s, there is always a lack of healers. Is it such a bad thing to have a lot of healers playing this game? In any case, most of these people rerolling as priests will discover soon enough that their new class isn’t as overpowered as they hoped. They will discover that healing in groups isn’t what they want to do. In the end, it will be the people who enjoy playing healers who will stick it out and things will go back to normal.

Every patch, I cross my fingers and hope that Funcom doesn’t ruin the priests…at least not before I have a chance to reach level 80 first. I’ve been burned badly by Funcom before, but that was years ago. I’ve talked to a few people who played Anarchy Online recently and they insist that Funcom has been very good about making logical and balanced changes to the game. Since there is absolutely nothing that I can do to change the outcome, I’m going to have fun playing my 3 healers and hope for the best.

A picture of my Tempest back when she was in her 30’s. She was bugged with a permanent flaming aura and invisible chest armor. Was quite a sight to see running around town.

Tips and Tricks for AoC

I always enjoy the posts that compile a long list of little tips and tricks for various games. It’s nice to learn something new about a game I spend hours playing and funny at time when I realize just how little I know.

Here is my list of tips and tricks for AoC. Yes, it’s a bit short right now, but hey, I’m a newbie at this game too! Some of the tips are advice for people who might be new to the MMORPG genre.

If anyone has more tips and tricks, I’d love to hear about them.

User Interface

• F10 opens the options menu. No need to hit ESC multiple times.
• /camp or /quit and wait 30 seconds to get to the login window.
• 2 additional hotbars can be enabled in Options/Interface Options/HUD
• Right clicking on the additional hotbars changes their orientation from vertical to horizontal.
• Yes, the user interface is moddable. I recommend WerikUI or go to aoc.curse.com for more downloads.
• Helmets can be hidden from view in Interface Options/Basic.
• The timer bars can be moved. Check ’show timer bar’ under Interface Options/Advanced. Then drag the timer bars to your desired location and uncheck the box.
• Tells can be sent to offline characters. Tells are saved until the next time they log in.
• Type /e then hit tab twice to get a popup list of all the emotes
• Change the background transparency of the chat windows to make the text far more readable.
• For skills, hover your mouse over the name of a skill to see how you can quickly allocate points and respec.
• Type /cc addbuddy name to add people to your friend list.
• Right click on the map to add markers. This is a great way to keep track of resource locations.

Combat

• Hold down ‘x’ to active block. Significantly cuts down the incoming damage, but you can’t attack, cast or move. Very useful in groups if you aren’t a tank. It’s a better option that running away from the mob, which makes it impossible for the tank to get aggro away from you. Costs stamina.
• Double tap ‘w’ (forward) to get a 5s buff that increases the change of stunning your target. Costs stamina.
• Double tap ’s’ (back) to get a 2s buff that increases your evade chances. Costs stamina.
• Double tap ‘a’ or ‘d’ (left or right) to get a 4s 10% immunity to magic. Costs stamina.
• Turn off ‘Enable target autofacing’ to make it easier for melee to hit multiple targets. Interface Options/Basic/Targeting.
• Potions and food are cheap and essential for efficient gameplay. Make sure you are always well stocked.
• When rolling on loot, try to be mindful of your party members and don’t roll need on items that are obviously for another class. You will get a bad reputation very quickly if you constantly roll need.
• If your group gets an add, do not switch targets unless you are a tank or have crowd control abilities. As a healer, I often see DPS classes switching targets and getting themselves killed.
• If you are not a tank, but you keep getting aggro, slow down whatever you are doing to make the mobs mad. As a healer, I get frustrated at mages and rangers who die every other pull because they don’t understand the concept of aggro management.

Traveling

• The fastest way to travel is by dying and spawning at a resurrection point. The death penalty is negligible. Sometimes the game doesn’t even give you a death penalty when you die.
• When climbing down a steep mountain, going backwards makes it less likely you will take fall damage. Of course, make sure your path is free of obvious drop-offs or rotate your camera before starting down.
• To climb up a steep mountain, zigzag or criss cross up the slope. You can negotiate steeper inclines on a diagonal. Note that some slopes are impassable, no matter what you do.

Misc

• Screenshots are located in the Program Files/Funcom/Age of Conan/screenshots folder.

Feats

• NPC’s labeled ‘Trainer’ are available for respecing feats in all 3 home cities. The first respec is 50c. The second is 2s 50c and continue to increase on subsequent respecs.

• Khemi - Zahra - [Trainer] - On the Docks - 833, 1144
• Old Tarantia - Minerva - [Trainer] Base of the Temple of Mitra - 796, 541
• Cimmerian - Cowal [Trainer] at (250, 490)

Quests

• If you are having trouble finishing a quest because there are too many people or the respawn timer is too long, first try switching instances. If that’s not possible, consider trying the quest in elite mode. Many elite mobs have a much larger health pool, but don’t hit significantly harder.
• You can return to Tortage by talking to the NPC labeled ‘Tortage Smuggler’ at the starting location for your race (Old Tarantia, Khemi or Conarch Village). Everyone should do this at least once. The first time you return and leave Tortage, you are given a quest for ~4500xp. All you have to do is complete another round trip to get the experience. You need to be at least level 20 to get this quest.
• If your backpack is full, but you finish a quest that rewards with you an item, that object is not lost. Note that quest experience rewards are granted when you accept the reward item. You have several options:

• Keep the reward dialog box open while you finish the conversation with the NPC. When you have control again, open your backpack and delete an item. Then accept the reward.
• You can also keep the reward dialog box open while you run to a vendor and unload your loot.
• If you close the reward dialog box, you are automatically given additional chances to accept the reward, usually the next time you zone.
• I’ve never seen it, but some people say that an exclamation point appears near the mini-map. Click the exclamation point to bring up the reward dialog box.

Tempest of Set: Leveling build and feat advice

UPDATE 6/24/08 Version 2 of the leveling build guide can be found here.  The primary changes are switching the feat order to get the Storm Field feats as soon as possible.

UPDATE 6/23/08 The change I had been dreading finally happened. Funcom has significantly nerfed Storm Field. Unfeated, it has a limit of 3 targets. With Titanic Storm, it has a limit of 5 targets. There were other changes as well. In terms of the leveling build, Titanic Storm should now be acquired as soon as possible (level 50). I will update this guide once the changes are fully tested and we know the full impact of the nerf.

———

Since I already have a Priest of Mitra and a Bear Shaman, I thought it would be a good experience for me to try out the Tempest of Set and learn how the other healer works. Funcom did a great job making the 3 classes play quite differently, even though their core healing skills are similar.

The ToS has been ‘fixed’ and ‘nerfed’ multiple times already. They had several skills that were ridiculously broken that allowed the ToS to kill far too many monsters at a time. I still don’t understand how Funcom didn’t fix these skills before the game went live. A lot of players had plenty of time to take advantage and level up far faster than they should. In any case, these skills are fixed now and the ToS is still a great area (AoE) nuker.

The first level 80 was a ToS

Atomik, on Tyranny server, claims that he was the first level 80. He also claims he did it without taking advantage of the broken skills. I can’t verify that he was the first, but it’s definitely possible. Someone who knew exactly what he was doing would be able to level a ToS to 80 in record time. Here is the build Atomik used to reach level 80.

Atomik’s leveling build at 80 (feats.goonheim.com)

He picked up Ether Flow first, climbed the Lightning tree for the Storm Field feats and picked up the Storm Crown feats at level 50. He admits that this isn’t the best order to follow, but it worked for him. He also played on a PvP server, so it affected his feat choices.

Leveling Build

If you are willing to respec during the leveling process, you can take better advantage of the feat trees. The best leveling build has some weaknesses in PvP, so keep that in mind if you are playing on a PvP server. I tried to point out when you have the option to pick more PvP oriented feats.

1. 5/5 Ether Flow - Lightning Strike (LS) is extremely mana expensive. You will find yourself running out constantly. That’s not good for efficient leveling. Pick up this skill as soon as possible. Note that Lighting Strike seems to get resisted quite a bit at low levels, which makes mana management even harder.
2. 5/5 Arcing Charged Blast - Until Storm Crown is fully feated, it’s better to improve your standard 2 nukes first. This feat is a prereq and provides a small amount of splash damage.
3. 5/5 Improved LS - There is some debate over the actual bonus from this skill. Supposedly it provides a 7.5% damage increase. The damage range for LS is so enormous that it’s difficult to test properly. Since this improves your core nuke, I’m going to assume that this skill is working properly and hope for the best. Your other option is Grounding Charge, which gives your Charged Blast a 50% to root the primary target for 4 seconds. This is a PvP skill. For PvE, you don’t want to root one mob when all the others are running towards you. You want them to stick together for your AoE nukes.
4. 5/5 Static Charge - Increases the damage of all your nukes. Scales with level.
5. 3/3 Pillar Lightning - Increases the area of effect for LS. More AoE goodness.

At this point, you are level 30 and finally have access to Storm Field. This is a class transforming skill. LS can not be used while Storm Field is active. Respec to pick up the Storm Crown feats.

Leveling build at 30 (feats.goonheim.com)

• 5/5 Growing Storm - Not very useful, but a prereq, so you are forced to take it.
• 3/3 Storm Crown + 3/3 Storm Throne + 3/3 Storm Regalia - A core ToS skill that basically supports everything the ToS does.
• 5/5 Arcing Charged Blast
• 4/5 Improved LS or 4/5 Grounding Charge - Improved LS is the better choice for PvE. Until you get the Storm Field feats, the cooldown lasts longer than the duration. You’ll find that you still use LS for pulls and when Storm Field is down. If you are on a PvP server, Grounding Charge is a very useful utility bonus.

Now that you have Storm Field, you can take on groups of mobs by throwing up your 2 HoT’s and Storm Crown, then casting Storm Field. You can augment your damage with Charged Blast and swinging your weapon. You can also active block or use double taps to get evade bonuses.

Your next goal is to get the feats that improve Storm Field.

1. 5/5 Improved LS or 5/5 Grounding Charge
2. 5/5 Static Charge
3. 5/5 Ether Absorption or 5/5 Brutal LS - At this point, you are basically filling in feat requirements to get the meatier skills further down the tree. Since you are relying on Storm Field and Storm Crown, you really don’t have mana problems. Ether Absorption is the better PvE choice. Brutal LS is a good choice for PvP servers, since it’s also a prereq for 1/1 Inner Charge (instant cast, guaranteed critical strike on next LS, 1 minute cooldown).
4. 1/1 Elemental Fury - Instant cast AoE nuke with 45 second cooldown. Instant casts are great for PvE and PvP. Another nuke to use with Storm Field.
5. 3/3 Coalesce Ether + 1/1 Blood Mana or 1/1 Inner Charge + 3/5 Ether Absorption - More mana management skills or PvP upgrade for LS.
6. 2/2 Set’s Storm - Reduces casting time and reduces the cooldown so you can always have Storm Field up. Essential for leveling.
7. 1/1 Column Lightning - Column area nuke that does huge damage. 3 second cast, 60 second cooldown. Can also be used with Storm Field. Great for PvE and PvP. If you play on a PvP server, consider getting this skill before Set’s Storm. Set’s Storm is hugely helpful for PvE, but Column Lightning is only 1 point and can potentially do incredible damage.
8. 3/3 Set’s Brutality - Increases critical strike chance for Storm Field.
9. 2/2 Titanic Storm - Increases area affect of Storm Field

Leveling build at 52 (feats.goonheim.com)

At this point, you have a choice. Either go directly to the general tree or invest in Idol of Set. The general tree build provides Saintly Warrior sooner, which helps with keeping stamina up when active blocking. I’ve been experimenting a lot with Idol of Set recently and I’ve changed my mind about the usefulness of that skill. The Idol of Set build order can be found further down the page.

1. 5/5 Ether Flow - Provides very good mana regen both in and out of combat.
2. 5/5 Spirit Armor - Provides a passive defensive boost, helpful for AoE nuking.
3. 3/3 Saintly Warrior - Provides mana and stamina when struck in melee combat. Helps PvE because you have endless stamina to active block or evade.
4. 2/5 Spirit Aegis - Provides a small passive magic defensive boost. Nice filler.
5. 5/5 Exemplar - Passive increase to melee and nuke damage.
6. 1/1 Vengeance of the Gods - Great for PvE and especially for PvP. 1s cast, 30s duration, 3m cooldown. 20% damage buff.

Leveling build at 71 (feats.goonheim.com)

At this point, you have a lot of options. I recommend the following skills. Consider getting any of these skills sooner if it suits your playstyle.

• Empowered Cobra Stare - Stun doesn’t break on damage. Essential for PvP servers. Very useful for ToS’s who group a lot. If you get aggro, this stun is a great way to stop the incoming damage and give your tank a chance to regain aggro.
• Power of the Serpent Ring + Wrath - 10s duration, 60s cooldown, 30% damage buff - Similar to Vengeance of the Gods, provides a nice damage boost. Helps with burst damage for PvP.
• Empowered Life of Set - Only 1 point. Adds a decent +damage to your next LS, CB or SF.
• Idol of Set + Idol of Set’s Power - 60s cooldown reduces the usefulness of this skill, but it is still a very good way to boost damage.
• Far Reaching Spirit + Presence of Mind - Makes your emergency direct heal into an instant cast. Makes it far more useful. Can be cast while running.
• Fury of the Storm + Pillar Lightning + Imp. LS - Always good to improve your primary nuke.
• Ether Absorption + Coalesce Ether + Blood Mana - If you didn’t get these skills before, it’s helpful if you do any LS spamming.
• Set’s Life Spark - Only 1 point. Gives you the ability to resurrect yourself once every 30 minutes. Can be very useful. Unfortunately, you resurrect at the location you died, which is typically surrounded by whatever killed you in the first place. Without your buffs, you die a much faster second death. For parties, it can be invaluable, especially if you are the only rezzer.
• Visions of Hatred + Brain Spasms + Puppets of Set - An essential part of the PvP build right now. Visions of Hatred provides a channeled 6.5s stun (5 minute cooldown). Puppets of Set is a 2.5s cast with a 10s ‘confuse’ (2 minute cooldown). For PvP, I don’t think I need to explain why these skills are useful. In PvE, having more crowd control skills can be very useful as well.

Idol of Set build order

Note: Before you read further, you should know that you do not need Idol of Set. The ToS grinds and kills fine without it. The Idol can speed up some grinding and create a different gameplay which can be fun.

This build order starts at level 52. If you’ve been following this guide, your build should look similar to the following:

Leveling build at 52 (conanarmory.com)

Investing 5 points in Idol of Set and Idol of Set’s Power provides a dramatic DPS boost to your Storm Field grinding. I haven’t parsed the numbers, but you can take down a group significantly faster. This makes it possible to pull a bigger group of mobs and get more bonus experience from longer chain kills. Instead of relying on active blocking, you can run around pulling mobs and basically circle your Idol, while Storm Field pulses from you and the Idol kill the mobs following you.

Since Idol of Set has a long cooldown and the duration is shorter than the cooldown, you have to manage it properly. Unlike a non-Idol build, you are less mobile, so you have to plan ahead. But properly done, you can reliably get ridiculously long chain kills depending on the grinding location. With a 10 chain kill, normal mobs give as much experience as boss mobs.

• 1/3 Piercing Storm Crown or 1/3 Empowered Cobra Stare - A filler point to get you to the Idol of Set feats, but both are useful choices. Empowered Cobra Stare is the PvP choice. It’s not a bad decision to go 3/3 on either feat before moving on to Idol of Set.
• 3/3 Idol of Set
• 2/2 Idol of Set’s Power - This skill provides additional Storm Field pulses from the Idol itself. I don’t recommend getting the Idol until you have the Storm Field feats first. That gives you more damage and a longer range.
• 1/1 Empowered Life of Set - Every time you cast Life of Set (which is very often), your next LS, SF or Charged Bolt gets a damage bonus. The damage bonus is significant, so it’s often worth casting Life of Set prior to any LS or SF cast.
• 5/5 Ether Flow
• 5/5 Spirit Armor
• 3/3 Saintly Warrior

Note that this build is better for grinding, rather than questing. It’s often not worth the time or effort to place an Idol if you are only killing a few mobs. Be careful of using Idols in instances with elite mobs. All that DPS will make the mobs very angry at you.

At this point, you can either continue down the general tree to get Vengeance of the Gods or any of the other useful feats I recommended above.

Idol of Set leveling build at 70 (conanarmory.com)