Just dinged 80 - clueless with tons (!) of questions

Hello, first of all I'd like to apologize for the disjointed, possibly incomphrehensible question dump that follows, and note that I've probably forgotten a lot of questions that I may add later provided someone bothers replying ^^. Also, many of these aren't HoX specific, but I felt that making two similar topics in this forum and general would be a bit demanding.

Anyhow, I turned 80 like an hour ago, and this is my first character over 40 in AoC. Saying that I'm pretty clueless about what to do is an understatement. I've read a bunch of stickies, but to be honest I didn't understand all of them. In addition, I'm guildless so far, I have Khitai expansion but not Turan/DragonSpine, and have done zero PvP (though hilariously I've been getting pvp aa from Scorpion Cave+Main System mind control). So without further ado:

1. I'm currently in Tarantia Commons - think I'm close to done with the Rat/Crow quests, and other than that I think it's just dungeons (except Iron Tower), Cemetary group quests and possibly "Sister" quests (haven't found any) that I lack. I've previously done most quests in Atzel and Kheshetta (not Destiny quest yet). In terms of non-dungeon content, what should I do now? Any reason to do more in "old world", or should I start Grasslands? Are most of the Khitai quests faction-based, or can you still progress through the zones without joining factions?

2. I'm pretty perplexed about dungeon progression. I've done Scorpion/some Onyx/Iron Tower, but haven't gotten much gear from there even though I'm mostly wearing early 70's blues and late 70's greens. Should I now try to go for Crows/Iron Tower/Attilus/Onyx/Caravan/Atzel/Halls/Scorpion/Xibalaku, or can I go for Khitai NMs straight away without having gear/aa/exp, which presumably gives better gear than older dungeons?

Also, is there any online resource with guides for AoC's dungeons (and eventually list of quests)? I come from TSW where most dungeons (esp nightmares) require understanding and tactics, and although most of what I've done so far has been tank-and-spank, Iron Tower bosses seems to suggest AoC dungeons require understanding.

3. What is the relationship between "old" HMs, Khitai Godslayers, Turan/DragonS HMs and unchained dungeons? All my groups in Iron Tower tried to do HM (and failed due to lack of communication), but it didn't seem more difficult than NM. I assume Xiba HM is more difficult though, and certainly Godslayers.

4. Speaking of gear and Khitai; I don't understand factions very well, but I think I'd like to progress with multiple cause I think all of the gear and mounts look amazing and I'd like multiple sets I think. Is Kjjr's guide (http://forums-us.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=229064) still up-to-date? As in; ignore repeatable quests/grinding, and do Khitai dungeons for reputation/tokens instead? Is it "unrealistic"/impractical for me to try to, for example, get the Hyrkanian epic sword, then betray them and get wolf mount and set from the enemy faction?

5. Any reason to get Turan/Dragon Spine any time soon? Seems Dragon Spine quests are very hard (seen people in epics die to quest mobs in videos), while Turan quests are for lvl 50s.

6. Raids; I've done a T1 loop when I was only lvl 66, and I'd like to do the Black Dragon quest at some point. But is there any reason to try to get a full T1 gear etc? Also, seems T1 pubs will "take anyone", but I assume this isn't true for T2 where you'd need a guild if you have no exp? In addition, is T1-3 "just for fun" since Khitai/unchained gear is better?

7. Regarding mounts; I have basic training and the normal mount, but I only have like 60 gold atm, not the 200 you need for advanced+swift. Is there any reason now to dump the gold on the swift horse, when I think the Hyrkanian/wolf/tiger/snake mounts look much cooler?

8. My current sword is the lvl 70 crafted blue one, but I've been trying to get into Onyx Chambers for Amtah. I've decided that 6 gold is too much for Carnage when I'm not even close to a lvl 80 mount. I'm assuming that Rage of Xotli can't be gotten reliably, and that Hyrkanian sword/Aok unc sword is far off in the distance. Any other weapon (eventually gear) I should try to get atm?

9. I think my feats are good (http://goo.gl/YtxrYW), but I'm not sure about aa except that Red Shadows is good. Should I try to max out Decisive Strikes/the other good stats perk to get to Red Shadows, or take 1/2 points in many of the first perks (seems cheaper?). Also, does Unbinding Charm (for dungeons) have priority over Red Shadows?

10. I've read that you can buy higher combo ranks from PvP vendors or vendors in Khitai... Is this important to get? I assume you can't get higher PoIF?

There's probably a lot I forgot... but anyhow, thanks for reading, and if it's too long, you don't need to answer every single question.

TLDR: I'm a fresh 80 super-newb HoX; what should I do?

well.. personally i would start doing t1 and t2 raids. raid gear is nicely balanced and offers a good starting point for khitai hardmodes, gear wise that is. all t1 and t2 raids take almost anyone in, no matter if you can play or not, know tactics or not. just dive in and get your hands on that sweet loot ;)

old world dungeons don't offer anything but crappy rewards and some mastery exp.

although some dungeons have an item or two that you might want. you mentioned crows nest. quests will take you there and there's a nice quest reward cloak for you to get things going.

after you have gotten some gear from t1 and t2 raids i guess you can start doing those hardmodes. i'm not quite sure how many normalmode groups there are but you can practice in those and get some of those blue items which can be nice too for a beginner.

to join those hardmode groups you need some understanding on how the stuff works and some of them require a perk too, unbinding charm.
check out this thread for all the things khitai hardmodes http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=181863

t1/t2 raid tactics go mouth to mouth so while in raid you probably get the instructions from raid leader or you can always ask what to do. go yakhmar, kyllikki, vistrix, wing 1, 2 and 3 weekly. you catch up quick.

you might want to join a guild tho, it helps (usually).

and ofc there is the matter of your featbuild, good featbuild takes you far. plenty here on these forums.

what comes to khitai factions.. that process you can start right now. just need to join the correct factions. some factions offer armor pieces but not much else, some factions offer right accessories but no armor for your class. choose wisely. it don't happen overnight so prepare for a long journey.

so.. raiding, questing for factions, normalmodes/hardmodes, join a guild, try different featbuilds to find which one suites you best, don't trust everything people tell you, ask for different opinions.

if you don't know, ask :) there are no stupid question, only stupid answers.

Don't spend your HM tokens or PVP tokens to buy higher combo ranks right now. Don't spend them for Hyrkanian sword too. You can buy them later when you farm enough HM tokens.

Get 4th rank in Brittle Blades or Scarlet Circle and buy boots/bracers

Destiny quest give you epic amulet/ring. King Conan's questline give you Black Dragon Cloak

Don't forget solo dungeons, they give you AA, potions with Const/Int/Magic Damage, nice blue rings/amulet

Most of Dragon Spine quests not hard, but you must use your brains and read quest text, because unlike quests in other locations your target can be not such obivous

Find people with cleared T2 wings and complete Bowls of Set quest in Black Ring Citadel for epic sword

Check out the threads in the hox forums also: things like this are in there and helpful to start with:

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=180588

Hardmodes for newbies:

In khitai: Reliquary of Flames & Vortex of Storms in NG, Palace of Yun Rau in Chosain. Also The Cavern of Malice/The Celestial Necropolis/The Enigmata of Yag in Kara Korum where you can get epic legs.

Easy none-khitai HMs: House of Crom in FotD where you can get epic cape, Amphitheatre of Karutonia in Ymir's Pass. In Amphitheatre you can get epic HoX sword

Disjointed and possibly incomprehensible random info coming up:
-First of all, if you're not subbed you might as well quit now. Free game ends when you reach 80, almost everything is closed to free players from now on.
-If you're subbed, you already have Dragonspine. It's hardest outdoor zone tying with Paikang, so you shouldn't go there yet.
-Rat/Crow questline will take you to Crows Nest, finishing that opens Watch/Sisters line that leads to Iron Tower. IT then leads into Thoth Amon's Stronghold (but not finishing solo storylines doesn't prevent you from entering any dungeon/raid).
-Most Khitai quests are faction based. But not randomized poster quests and a few unaligned NPCs have their own stuff.
-The only reason to do anything in "old world" or "new world" is wanting to do it. So if you like Hyboria, you can finish up Kheshatta, Atzel Approach and Commons and if you're bored of Hyboria, you can migrate to China and start on Grasslands.
-You're not stopped from going to other Khitan zones but it's usually best to wait until all your factions tell you to go.
-I hear there's some guides around these forums about dungeons and new players.
-The fastest possible way of gearing up is Threshold of Divinity in House of Crom for all newbies except tanks.
-The best way of gearing up for any newbie is T1 and T2 raids. Especially T1 pieces are very cheap with tokens.
-You buy raid gear with tokens from Tarantia.
-Khitai normals are also good for newbies, assuming you can survive in Khitai. So mostly blue items.
-Many Khitai hardmodes are nowhere near as hard as people will claim, but you usually must get archetype perks to do hardmodes. Mages are lucky that their Unbinding Charm is very rarely needed, so you're good enough to join most hardmodes as soon as you get some blues and clues.
-AoC is nowhere near as neatly organized as TSW. There's far too many things that Secret World does better but our dungeons are best you'll find anywhere.
-I hear there's also a guide for dungeons themselves in here. Plus there's bound to be more info on internets.
-Difficulty varies insanely between dungeons in AoC. Usually normal modes are much easier but sometimes not. Unchained means difficulty switch added to an old dungeon entrance, Godslayer means last boss is pissed off in some fashion to trigger harder battle by deliberate player action.
-Xibaluku got ****ed in a recent patch and is stupidly easy now. We're hoping they'll fix it.
-You should join all factions you're gonna join right away and rank up in all of them. It's possible to switch factions when you get all you want from them with a bit of reputation grinding.
-While it's probably faster to rank up with tokens from dungeons, you need to learn to actually play. So it's best you do repeatable faction quests to not become a baddie whose virtual life depends on imaginary items, especially on your first 80.
-Turan is a 50-55 leveling zone whose storylines end when you come back at 80 for a dungeon and raid. It's main use is being an alternative to Eiglophians and repeatable solo dungeons for tokens at 80.
-Dragonspine is the end for now. Both the zone and its dungeons are roughly equivalent to Paikang. You can imagine it as the starting zone of a second expansion that's on par with ending of Khitai (an expansion that'll take years).
-T2 is mostly as easy as T1 so they do take anyone for pugs. Even T3 isn't all that hard after a few tries but it needs a lot more skilled players so pugs are much less frequent.
-T1/T2 is easy to get and has good enough stats.
-Entire game is for fun. Those who are playing to "reach the end" are doing it wrong.
-Swift horse is best thing evar when you have enough veteran points to get it free. But if you're gonna be paying gold, there's no real reason to choose it over something that looks cooler.
-None of the raid weapons can be gotten "reliably".
-Get Bowls of Set quest from Kalanthes, find a raider who's cleared T2 this week, join up, enter empty Black Ring Citadel, break all bowls, acquire Searing Sword. But you probably need to have finished both destiny and Black Dragon quests for it.
-Red Shadows 4eva!
-Hit rating and critigation is very high priority in Khitai. Unbinding Charm is low priority.
-High rank combos drop in specific dungeons, no need to buy them.
-That guide is somewhat outdated, in that Khitai grind has been massively decreased. Today it's infinitely easier to get various types of tokens. It's a good guide though.

Step 1 - do your destiny quest and get magic dmg necklace.

Step 2 - do crows nest quest for magic dmg cape.

Step 3 - buy two dreamers keepsake rings from trader. They are very nice for hox because they're magic dmg instead of int (will elaborate on that later) and also give you some con which you will need for solo and some group content.

Step 4 - look for cheap blue gear on trader that provides immediate upgrades. Focus on pieces with magic dmg.

Step 5 - if you've done destiny quest, you should have a quest to head to khitai. You should join brittle blade, yellow priests, last legion, hyrkanians, and tigers IMO. Remember you only need rank 4 with a faction to buy purple wrists/boots and the weapons/accessories/pets/potions. Work out a loop in northern grasslands where you can pick up and complete all your zone factions quests as efficiently as possible. These quests will be your best source of income (besides resource farming which is boring) as well as get you the marks of acclaim you will need. You don't necessarily need to level up last legion, yellow priests, or tigers right away but more often than not their additional quests won't take much more time to complete within your loop so might as well do them.

Step 6 - Ignore tier 1 and 2 completely unless done for fun/experience. The raid gear for hox is terrible. You will want to pick up a searing sword from t2 quest however. It is not ideal sword but can be achieved very easily.

Step 7 - When your green gear is replaced start running the starter 6 man loop which is Monastery (flame and vortex but usually minus coppice for which you need Unbinding Charm AA) and Palace. Also turan is worth it for the solo daily instance which can be run in about 10 minutes once you get used to it and earns you 4-5 rare trophies. House of crom farm is also a good source of rare trophies for a new character.

Step 8 - Branch out to other group dungeons while also grinding solo to get the marks of acclaim and rares needed to buy hyrkanian sword and brittle blade wrists/boots.




Hyrkanians level up very fast. Once all quests are unlocked you are looking at 100,000 faction a day. Therefore the sword will most likely be your first purchase from khitai. Make sure you have the rares needed to buy it when you hit rank 4 with them.

Another thing to keep in mind is that magic dmg is better than int for a hox. Your burn to death dot and some other dots you have only become more powerful with magic dmg and not int. This is somewhat confusing as putting on a piece with int will up your magic dmg but that increase will not be reflected in your burn to death dot dmg.

Once you have hyrkanians sword and brittle blade boots/wrists, you'll most likely have some other purple pieces to go with it. Also there are some really awesome blue gear in house of crom called the bedlam set. Oh also you may want to buy a Mysterious Necklace from the trader if it's available and relatively cheap. It is a good mix of magic dmg with the con you will need as an undergeared hox.

Get the Unbinding Charm AA when you can: its almost a requirement for some of the khitai sixmans and you will find that it is easier to get a group if you have it. Make sure that you tell the group/raid leader that you don't have a lot of experience before you show up or they may get upset and boot you, especially if you have lousy gear.

There are sixmans advertising easy mode with no exp needed. If you start with those you can get rares and some decent blues and a feel for the sixmans, then you can become experienced for the hard mode groups.

Unbinding Charm is almost useless for a HoX outside of t4, Anub. You'll rarely(if at all) ever have to kite the black stuff in Coppice, and the other content can be done without it.

First AA's to work on:

Pressing Strikes(even before decisive) because of the hit rating increase.

Decisive Strikes because, like every other class, crit rating is a HoX's best friend.

Red Shadows of Xotli...start time training this as quickly as possible, as this is your highest DPS increase on almost every fight in the game. Not to mention it's a free rez.

The Nexus neck from Forgotten City Unchained is good too
And yeah the Bedlam blues from HoC are great.