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Asheron's Call just had a big February update with a lot of changes and additions.
New skills:
Dual Wield - just as you would think, hold a melee weapon in each hand and slice creatures up.
Recklessness - gain an increase to your damage ouput at the cost of taking increased damage on incoming attacks
Dirty Fighting - depending on where you attack a creature/player determines which debuffs you land on the creature. Including debuff to their defense skills, bleeds, healing debuffs.
Shield - The effectiveness of shield is now determined by the shield skill
Sneak Attack - do increased damage from behind the target. Also if you train Deception you have a chance to do increased damage to the front of the target.
Changes:
All one handed melee weapons combined down into the following three skills:
Heavy Weapon
Light Weapon
Finesse Weapon
Each skill has all types of weapons so no longer are you stuck only using an axe or a sword. Now you can use them all.
All missile weapons (Bow, Crossbow and Thrown Weapons) combined into a new skill called Missile Weapons.
Damage increase for all combat skills
Masteries: Now you can choose a melee (Sword, Axe, Two Handed, Staff etc.) mastery and a ranged mastery (bow, crossbow, thrown weapons, magic) and you will receive a damage bonus with those types of weapons
All racial skills have been removed and all races now receive Arcane Lore trained free, 2 extra credits at creation and 6 extra specialization credits. This means you can now choose the race you want to play instead of choosing the race which has the racial advantage.
Quest weapons have been rebalanced to be more effective.
If you played Asheron's Call before it is definetly worth coming back to play with the changes. If you haven't played before.... well that's just wrong so go play it.
Comments
Very nice, thx may check it out.
Now if they would only wipe DT for me
I'm happy with most of the changes, the one exception being my axer.
He's not a max level toon(~L85) and his axes were destroyed for all intents and purposes in the conversions. I think they went a little too far on axe variance IMO.
Otherwise it's a nice update, with a few new added skill to breath a little fresh air into the game.
Happy I came back a few months ago and was able to finally get AC working again(curse you AC and your antiquated net code, lol).
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
young: Darktide has really been busy since the patch, a lot of killing. You should definetly hop in there and join the fun.
This update along with everything they've done the last couple years has really brought a lot of life back to AC. A lot of races to choose from now. Previously before this update they added the combat skills Void Magic and Two Handed Combat, so a lot of new skills lately.
They are still working on getting Lugians in as a playable race so that will be fun.
Overall it is a game often overlooked but also often very fun for those who discover it and try it out for at least a week (there is a good amount of knowledge to build up. However, they have also made the new and low level experience a lot better over the course of the last 2 years as well. They've also made leveling a lot faster with high creature/quest xp).
Resubbed yesterday to check it out
I didnt get a chance to play yet but im looking forward to checking out all the new stuff specially the latest patch.
So it didn't have dual wield or sneak attack before? I'm guessing next patch will introduce a new class, the "healer". =P
Never played AC have you....
There is no holy trinity in AC. Every player can take a healing skill and heal well. People who use magic can take just as much of a beating as people who take a melee weapon. AC realized from the start that you should let people play how they want and not force some kind of holy trinity on them. That is why the game is so fun.
AC also never had elves or orcs or boars etc. They came up with most of their own fantasy creatures and settings.
Sneak attack isn't like other games where you get to go invisible and wander around. You stay visible the entire time. It just gives you a lot of extra damage if you hit a target in the back.
Nope, never played, always been interested though. Maybe now is the time to try it. =D
Sounds like time to resub and roll a new character. Thanks for the update SnarlingWolf!
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Nice, now to just get everyone else to realize what they're missing and to hop in.
There is a free 14 day trial everyone, no excuse not to try it out.
To top it all off they are having a bonus XP/Luminace weekend (actually 4 days I believe) this upcoming weekend. Definetly a good time to jump back in.
Always sad to see an old MMO remove depth and complexity.
Unfortunately, the "free trial" still, after all these years, requires a credit card to use.
Given the track record of game companies and their "security" the past couple years, I don't give my CC info to ANY game company any more.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
This change adds depth and complexity.
Instead of being locked in to one weapon, you can choose the best for what you want to do at any given time; whether you want tighter variance, or more high-end damage, or faster attacks. Each weapon had its own unique strengths and weaknesses, enabling you to use more of them increases options, rather than decreasing them.
As does enabling you to fully customize, rather than having to pick a certain race to play a certain way.
The only problem is that the trial still requires a CC and there are no alternate payment methods available - thats' the only thing that's kept me from resubscribing for years now.
Always sad to see a poster make a statement about something they haven't actually tried, but hey this is MMORPG.com right?
You obviously don't play nor have you tried the changes.
As already stated, the game is just as in depth and complex as it ever was if not more so now.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
Just to clarify since your original post, masteries for weapons are still a part of these updates I guess? I had read somewhere that they had decided to take them out altogether, but I'm really hoping that's not the case. I've always liked being able to specialize in a certain weapon, as it helps me give my character an identifiable "theme".
Anyway, I just wanted to double check. I'm thinking of giving the game another go and I'll be going melee this time. Don't suppose any actual attack skills have been added to melee combat in the recent years? That was my only gripe with melee - it never seemed like there was a whole awful lot to do aside from turning on auto attack.
Thanks in advance for the info
Yes they are part of the update. The devs have never mentioned taking them out all together. Some players wanted them to be taken out so they could hit max numbers on every weapon type.
They added two handed combat skill a while back which is just as it sounds. You can wield two handed weapons at the cost of no shield.
With this patch they added recklessness, works on where your power bar is, dirty fighting, effect depends on which height you hit at, sneak attack, increased damage from behind the target, and dual wield, just as it sounds you can wield two weapons.
So yes, they've recently added quite a bit to melee combat. Come back and you will enjoy it.
Figured this was worth mentioning, as of today AC(and LotRO/DDO) can have subscriptions paid with paypal so there is an alternate payment method.
http://forums.ac.turbine.com/showthread.php?t=54733
Hey, sorry for the response delay. It looks like they've added a lot of exciting things to the game to make melee a bit more interesting. I've actually been messing around with different build ideas and I've been thinking of going with something that uses heavy weapons (or maybe light...I'm still not sure of the main differences of them) and life magic. I plan to specialize it for vulning purposes. I figure having the casting element added to my melee build will make my character a lot more fun to play. The drawback of course is having to switch back and forth between melee and wand, but with my gaming mouse, I can have it assigned pretty easily so I don't think it will bother me much.
I guess my only real concern/deterrent from playing now is wondering about the remaining logevity of AC. I've read on the official forum that they removed the multi-monthly subscriptions plans and now only have the single month plan. I hope that's not a sign of anything. This game has stood the test of time for so long, and I really hope that they decide to keep it around for many more years to come.
This game, with an updated UI and graphics, would be about as close to the perfect MMO as you could get. Well, with the old magic system that is, not the one they have currently.
I am tempted to jump back in, but it's been a damn long time since I played...
Why haven't I seen this game before??? This thread has really raised my interest and I will most likely DL and try it out today or tomorrow with the free trial.
Here is an interesting video series explaining the features of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WQCpzY8Yis
EDIT: PvP questions: FFA, full loot, friendly fire?
on the Darktide server it is FFA, some items drop on death not all, no friendly fire unless you target them. but just because you have sombody targeted doesnt mean you hit them with spells you can dodge magic and arrows in this game.
That's actually a good question, how have you not heard of this game before? It is headed towards its 13th anniversary and has been around essentially as long as UO and EQ.
You do get to loot your kills in PvP. The Darktide server is the 100% PvP server so it sounds like that is where you want to go. You hit anyone you attack, so if you're in a group with other PvPers and target one of them and attack, well you'll hit them. With spells and cleaving weapons you might hit them if you're not careful so you really have to pay attention.
Players drop a few items each time they die and you can loot them all. With spells and arrows they do shoot the direction they were fired which means if a person moves out of the way, you miss. People do delay casts to confuse opponents on when their spell will be released to make it harder to dodge, there is a lot of skill to be learned on PvP.
It is definetly a game I recommend everyone to at least try for a week. If it isn't for you it isn't for you, but a lot of people would be amazed to see how fun it really is (and always has been).
They increased quest and monster XP a while back. They also added a few intro quests to get you around the town on a newbie followed by a "Facility Hub" which has portals directly to quests that will get you up to level 50. From there they have contracts which will help you get up to level 100. And then from that point there are plenty of options to continue the quick leveling.
The high levels take a decent amount of time but the low levels are very quick. Without any help from any other players you can easily be past level 50 in a weekend. Typically it isn't tough to find help from players either.
Looks like Lugians (as a playable race) are almost ready.
They posted a couple pictures on facebook and listed them as coming soon in part of an e-mail today.
Can't wait to run around and throw a big boulder with one of those .
Yeah me too! I have been waiting to resub once they introduce them. It's really nice to see Turbine really putting in a lot of effort to this game after all these years.