Returning - looking for advice.

At release I rolled a ... eh who cares. I'm back and finally enjoying exploring the game. I even like the occasional ganking.

I've narrowed a main down to barb or conq, both of which are sitting in the 50's, and it's time to choose. I have questions and need advice. Here goes.
(Apologies for the wall in advance.)

1: For anyone who plays both classes (unless it's a soldier vs rogue game mechanic, in which anyone can set me straight)... In combat does Barb actually move faster than conq or is that just my impression? And if it's so, how relevant is that in pvp?

2. At 80. I usually like at least the option to tank or heal as well as dps. That said, I've zero interest in dedicating a small lifetime to mt'ing ever again... and I don't have extra one anymore anyway. But casual tanking is all good. Is the conq accepted as dps should I ever want to raid something (dps/OT)?

If it's going to be DPS, are there pro's or cons to either Barb or Conq? (an incredibly silly min/max gear set and rotation I'd have to dedicate another lifetime to acquire and master, for instance)

3. I love the active melee. I'm maybe 25% into overcoming the (insert every other lame mmo combat title) "run up and swing away" mentality.

I'm probably further away from it feeling instinctive (honestly, I'm still getting used to skipping the middle hits and waiting to swing the finisher around my positioning, so I imagine I look amusing to the people ganking me)... Any basic tips to improve? Do I have it all wrong anyway?

4. Directional shields. Really? Should I be adding this to the mix right not? Or at all? 'Cause it feels like I'd have to make the gf sit beside me and change these on my commands and she'd likely **** that up to...

5. And last... so either I've got a lot of useless skills on my bar or there aren't enough hotkeys (let alone action bars). I've macro'd a weapon swap/bar swap, so that helps... but not enough. How do you manange? G13? UI recommendations? Pair the skills down to debuffs, class perks/essentials and the best directional finisher for each side?

Thanks in advance.

Oh - number 6. Probably and easy one. AA skills... I get that you get different points from pve and pvp, but does the middle column (mastery points?) cover for both? Or is the tooltip saying I have to have 15 points in each tree to buy the skill center perk?

Thanks again.

No, movement speeds are all the same since the game has been dumbed down

Conquerors have a nice little habit of being high up on parse while main tanking, while barbs will certainly top it, but they're not tanks. Everyone knows that a "dps conq" is just a lazy tank that doesn't wanna do his thing.

conquerors are pretty tanky in melee, but just standing there and taking hits is gonna be bad news bears, everyone moves in pvp. I didn't really understand your question but rebind strafes to a and d, if you have a mouse you can fully macro you should bind 2 accessible buttons to your strafes PLUS the shift key, so you'll sprint and strafe without holding down shift.

directional shields are near useless now.

try getting a custom UI, check the UI and customization forum and you'll have to rebind keys in the controls menu.

the middle column is made up of both. it'll say what the perk requires. say it's (3) and (3) and you have 6 mastery points but 1 prowess you still won't be able to purchase it.
if you have 6 mastery and 3 prowess you will spend 3 mastery and 3 prowess and be left over with 3 mastery.

hope this helps, happy hunting.

Just play Conq, period. I don't even consider barbs a character class anymore. Conqs are like the evolved form of barbs with combat rezz...which is insane OP. Not to mention that they are OP in PvP as well.

Conq Power Levels versus everyone else...9000

1. In combat speeds are same for all classes but rogues do have a short speed up ability.

2. There's no place for a dps soldier at highest ends of pve but it's fine until you get there. Offtanking also works until you're at the highest tiers of raiding and dungeoning. Conqueror can usually get away with being merely dps when dealing with puggers but they're infinitely more useful as a supportive backup tank. Barbarians however are fated to just hit things and hope they don't hit back.
And conq was revamped some time ago and now do more damage than is healthy (or logical) in dps mode, so there's far too many lame rerollers around dragging the vet dps conqs' good name down.
Also tanking is pretty hard in this game, likely much harder than whatever game you're used to as you sound like an extank. It's pretty fun.

3. There's a tempo you must follow to do combos successfully, something like a second between each step. Every class has a certain pacing to its rotations, you'll get better at pressing buttons as you play more. Also read things from around here.

4. Yes you'd probably need a third arm (and maybe a dual core brain) to play with shields in addition to all movement and combos. That's why almost everyone leaves theirs in default state. But always watch for enemy shields.

5. There aren't enough hotbars. I'd say get one of the custom interfaces, but curse.com canned our stuff. You can probably ask google about custom interfaces for AoC to find them somewhere else. Stonerune is the usual choice of UI but there's others too (you also need AoC UI installer program).

6. Perks in middle column need points from both sides. Mastery and Prowess points can only be used at their sides. Expertise points can be used as both. You'll be getting expertise points too so you can get everything without ever doing pvp. AA will become relevant when you're getting close to 80.