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How hard is AoC to play?
Shari
Member UncommonPosts: 746
Hi all, I just wondered if AoC is as hard as lotro later levels to play. I mean in respect to soloing mainly and some grouping also?
Comments
The low to mid range game is pretty straightforward and entertaining. I solo as well as run around in a two man or three man group. In general we can do quite a few of the quests, but some of the group quests you would probably need a full group of six or more. If you find yourself running out of soloable quests in an area you can always try another zone for a change of scenery and good xp.
As long as you have a good computer that can run AOC, I think it's a good game. Not only are graphics and sound well done, but the story can be very good as well. I find myself reading the quests and enjoying myself, and feeling kinda bad when I'm in a group and rushing through things. I feel like I miss something because the story is good. Ofcourse...you are still killing 10 of this or 20 of that. But atleast the story can be engauging at times.
Be ready for the occasional bug here and there. What game doesn't have them. Personally I haven't met any yet that I couldn't work around, but they seem to be more frequent than LOTRO or WOW for sure. Again, nothing game breaking, just the occasional annoyance.
its not bad for leveling at all really. and they give you free levels as well, like 1 level every 4 days. you can use the levels on any character or just save them. but you can only have so many levels saved up at one time, i think 10 is the max you can save before you stop getting them.and once you hit 50 you can make a second character that will start out a level 50 if you want. the combo system is fun, but for me atleast, got annoying after a long while where i wished it was just hit a button and do the damn attack.
my main problem for that is, i use a nostromo key pad, and it's limited on keys for the attacks and the damn combo swings eat up my keys. its not bad when you only have 3 different swing directions for the combo but killed it for me once they add in 2 more directions and i don't have the room on the pad to map them. you don't get the other two directions till like level 40 or 50 tho i think.
PVE is not hard. you can level up all the way to 80 all by solo questing if you want or you can look for people and explore the many dungeons in every zone. either way most of the quests are very fun and the zones well done and interesting.
PVP is quite hard simply because of the game mechanics like combos, directional hits, cone of damage, all the knockbacks, stunns, cc, roots, not to mention buffs and debuffs, cones of healing, etc, etc . the combat mechanincs are some of them most complex of any mmo. PVP also lags pretty fast unless you have monster machine.
tbh I'm not that interested in pvp so that isn't an issue, I'm just a little feed up at trying to keep my runekeeper alive in mirkwood at the moment (mostly solo, he's not so bad in a group) and I'm looking for a mmorpg where I can be a little more laid back when I'm doing solo quests mostly.
I enjoy lotro at times but tbh, Moria and Mirkwood are just a little hard for my tastes and is a pain in the butt to me. It feels like you start out powerful and just get weaker as you level up lol. I like difficulty progression in my rpg where I feel that the work I put into getting some new equipment or new levels was worth it and makes me a little bit more stronger.
If AoC is fairly casual and not to hard later levels then I will get the demo and check it out.
it also has very fun unique classes, the Herald of Xotli is my favorite. melee class uses 2 hand edge weapons,wears cloth,also casts fire magics and can turn into a demon for a very strong buff. with the right skill tree points you can be in demon form i think like 50% of the time or more. its labeled a caster but to me plays more like a melee, its one of my all time favorite hybrid classes of any MMO.
I can't speak for how the game is now as i haven't played for quite some time but when i did it just got easier as you got higher. Even the squishies if played with a bit of sense could go and solo AoE the areas most were using as group grind spots.
I played AoC until about lvl 65, until the fish in a barrel gankfest zone designs got to me (E. Mountains anyone?). I absolutely LOVE the combat system, except for one game-breaking aspect: mouse strafing. I hate it. It's extremely awkward. It basically forces you to bind all your abilities to within finger reach of the WASD keys in order to be competitive in PvP. I like keyboard strafing...you know, good ol' Q+D, or E+A, but AoC doesn't let you play that way, because they don't allow you to increase the keyboard turn speed.
While some people might not mind this, it kills the game for me. If I could keyboard strafe with the same effectiveness as mouse strafing...I'd still be playing. I know I know, I'm old, but this is just my opinion.
That being said, AoC is a solid game overall, and I would recommend that anyone at least try it.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
do the dps classes need to straff aswell?
not sure what he's talking about with mouse strafing, but what ever it was, was only a problem in pvp from what he said anyway.
The new expansion areas have much tougher NPC. AoC is a blast. Only MMO that don't feel like a kids game to me (besides EVE).
Just take note, PVP servers have been dying because they are pointless gankfests full of trash talkers. My best sum up of the pvp servers is...."Hey look a person!" stab stab stab stab.
PVE servers however rock! Plenty of pvp on the pve servers., and you can actually enjoy the pve content.
Is AoC hard to play? Hard to solo?
] figuring out the combat system and combos. It all takes some time to learn, but if you have experience with other MMOs you won't have a problem. Being familiar with the interface and game mechanics will eleminate most of the gameplay difficulties.
There is a learning curve for complete noobs. I was a complete noob, but i was able to learn the ropes. Learning the interface, unraveling the mystery of the chat window, [ I think the chat window interface is a mess
As far as soloing your way through mobs, finishing quests by yourself... most certainly it can be done. There will be quests you will have to pass over because they require team work to execute, but there is plenty of content that can be soloed. In fact I think many players do solo the PVE content for the most part. On the spot grouping is not really a very common activity in AoC, but I do group on occasion by either asking or being asked.
There will be times in your questing when the mobs or quests can be tough, but there are always eaiser ones to tackle if you choose to. You can travel to any zone anytime, so you are never stuck in an area that is over your character's ability to handle. Once you are somewhat familiar with the game world and how it is layed out, it is pretty simple to travel to those areas of the game that are more or less tailored to your level.
"The Pen Is Mightier Than The Demo"
To answer your question. AoC is quite good to play if you prefere solo PVE. You will have plenty of quests all the way to max.
There is also a nice little addition called "offline progression" which means that you can add a level to your toon once in a while. This is helpful if you feel that a particular area is hard. Just level up offline and then go back in and defeat the mobs.
As far as I have read, there are more people complaining that reaching lvl cap is too easy than too hard.
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
Reaching the level cap in AoC is not hard. You can solo or group based on your preferences. Now, pvp can be hard based on the class that you choose. For a character that is strong in both pve and pvp go with a Guardian. My favorite character is a HoX (herald), they are a blast to play but do die in pvp on a regular basis.
Compared to LotRO...
More difficult, really, solo-ing. Later levels have an awful lot of linear areas where mob avoidance is pretty much impossible and they just pile on. Atzels Approach comes to mind.
Very easy to become overwhelmed. But if you play smart it's not too bad. Some of the harder mobs in Khitai can be quite challenging, depending on what class you play. I had a hell of a time killing that undead elephant on my assassin in northern grasslands.
I enjoyed the solo-play in that game. The scenery, the sountrack, and the quests are great. It's not too hard to understand the gameplay, and the learning curve goes well as you level.
Group instances can be hard. At some point, we just run them only once we outlevel them to a point where we gain no experience. Unless you are very good, or very well geared. I've heard it became that way since 1.05, though I don't know for sure.
It seems to be easy to get into a raid group, as long as you get into any guild. Sometimes you'll get frustrated if you are like me and want to understand every class mechanics, since you have to dig through so much outdated crap or should it even be documented online...
From someone that does Solo a fair bit this game is really good to the Solo player. Levelling is fun and never gets dull and the quest a good. The quality of the graphics and sound really make the game.
I am not going to get into is it beter than LoTRO, but I stopped playing LoTRO to play this as it suited me so much more.
Whoa, took the words right out of my mouth. I played Lotro since Beta and I have to admit, Lotro has gone down hill imo. I also gave up my subscription and downloaded AOC for the first time and I have to say I am haveing a blast. I am not much of a PvP'er but there is something about swinging a BFH (Big Freaken Hammer) at someone that I cant wait to try. LOL.
As far as solo play goes, there are quite a few 'dead spots' in AOC which mean you have to turn to things like Villa's (repetitive/repeatable type dungeons/content). I liked Villa's but if you don't like doing the same thing hundereds of times you might find it tough going especially at the later levels. But you can solo to level 80 without issue, though you might wonder what the point was once you get there.
As a solo player I found AOC a worse grind than say Aion, which is suppose to be a grindfest, just due to some of the dynamics of the game. Like gathering for example, it's not an integral part of the game it's almost like separate and there is no real economy for a solo player to take part in overall. In contrast Aion has an active economy that suits a solo player as well as guilds/legions. So you can match say people for gear by buying it. AOC - virtually everybody looks the same at level 80. The gear is dull, you kind of expect after all your hard earned efforts to get some decent stuff at the top levels. But a level 50 Guardian don't look much different to a level 80 Guardian. Gear is a sticking point if you solo, hard to buy good gear because of the stupid Bind on Pickup (BOP) system. Bind on Equip (BOE) is the way to me all gear should be, that would stimulate the economy and make it more interesting for solo players allowing them to buy decent gear. But BOP suits the Guilds in AOC so I doubt it will ever change.
AOC is kind of what you see is what you get, so if you see a bug - don't expect it to get fixed ever. More often than not it's a feature of the game because the bug has been around so long. Most bugs are minor but there are a lot of visuals bugs, that to me just detracts from the game. My beard turns from black to blond when changing area, it's minor but annoys me and the bug has been around for over 2 years. All depends on your levels of tolerance I suppose (development speed in AOC Is painfully slow).
Hey, I missed your posts, has been a while!
Anyway, made some corrections and additions, see above
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Last time I was playing, some players started grinding the faction gear. How does that look now? Is it ignored, impossible to achieve or does it seem good?
You must've hung out with the wrong crowd, the variety that can be seen especially at L80 is large, lots of great looking stuff from blue items and upwards.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I suppose it depends what you class as great looking, to me a sword glowing neon green and three different colours looks great. Things in AOC have no sparkle, armour is dull, weapons are dull, shields are boring - I have a shield in Aion shaped like a Rams head Red, Black and Gold - looks awesome. I have never once thought anything in AOC gear wise looked awesome at all. Gear at lower levels is even worse, people look even more alike at lower levels there is no individuality going on at all.
Factually totally agree, but just shows how subjective art is. I always cite AoC armor/weps as examples of art style I like and Aion as those I detest. Some people like more realism. I in particular find a character wearing shoulder pads that would impale their head if they reach up to scratch their armpit immersion killing.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga