Ancient Kingdoms

Kirun

Kirun

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There are a ton of EQ references. A lot of the zones have a definite EQ vibe to them, let alone the itemization.

I'm really enjoying this, but I feel like the 30-50 stretch is lacking a lot. You're basically just farming the ice dungeon on repeat in your 30s and the elemental dungeon in your 40s. There's a big lack of content that's relevant in those ranges.
 
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velk

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Getting ganked by the ancient cyclops in the middle of a newbie zone brings me back.

All the old flair - like killing a named then finding a quest given to kill that named then waiting an hour for it to respawn ;p
 
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velk

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Kirun said:
There are a ton of EQ references. A lot of the zones have a definite EQ vibe to them, let alone the itemization.

I'm really enjoying this, but I feel like the 30-50 stretch is lacking a lot. You're basically just farming the ice dungeon on repeat in your 30s and the elemental dungeon in your 40s. There's a big lack of content that's relevant in those ranges.
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There's some others that I found - the troll dungeon is 30-40 as well, there's also some dungeons with weird gaps, like abandoned tombs is a level 10 dungeon, but the eastern wing is level 35 with a level 40 boss. Given the gaps in the bestiary, I'm probably missing several other 30-40 ones.
 
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Tried this out and it’s pretty fun. Was trying to hit 20 and get another merc before I needed to go to sleep but coildnt get it in time. Playing a wizard with a warrior merc. Think I’ll get a Druid next for some healing. I see they have bard songs planned when you hover over charisma. Will be cool to see what all classes they add.
 
Kirun

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velk said:
There's some others that I found - the troll dungeon is 30-40 as well, there's also some dungeons with weird gaps, like abandoned tombs is a level 10 dungeon, but the eastern wing is level 35 with a level 40 boss. Given the gaps in the bestiary, I'm probably missing several other 30-40 ones.
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Yeah, I forgot about Troll Cave, but it's really just the main boss there that has worthwhile drops. There are a couple of offshoot areas, sure, but typically it's just that one boss, and the loot is either worse than or comparable to what you can get elsewhere. Ice Cave is really the only run in that level range where you can consistently get three or more bosses per reset.

The 40s are rough because the elemental dungeon is the only place with consistent boss runs. Everywhere else, you can't reliably farm bosses yet since you don't have your fourth mercenary. And because the elemental dungeon is tuned for the early 40s, the grind to 50 for that last merc is painfully slow. That said, the elemental dungeon is probably their best-designed content, in my opinion. It has a solid number of bosses(five once you unlock the final chamber)and they all have worthwhile drops. I really wish they had designed each level range around a dungeon like that, then used offshoot areas to round out each tier and preserve that sense of exploration.

Still, it's a really fun and addicting game. I'm hoping they add more classes soon - I'd love to see another tank of some sort and maybe a Necro. I've got a level 46 Ranger, but I'm seriously considering rerolling. The tanking secondary spec feels pretty underwhelming compared to Warrior, and the bow mechanics are frustrating. It feels like ranged attacks miss more often than melee, even with a ton of dex. On top of that, having to constantly manage arrows is just an unnecessary annoyance.

Also, has anyone had any luck with treasure hunting? I've had a few maps drop and picked up a shovel, but I can't seem to pinpoint any of the locations. I spent about an hour running around before giving up and selling all my maps. At this point, I'm assuming the rewards are probably just a sack of gems or something equally underwhelming and not really worth the time investment.
 
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velk

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Prolly depends on what class and mercs you have - troll cave minibosses ( mushroom, troll, crawler ) have the sorcerer set, which is a significant upgrade over the ice cave set for mages - makes a pretty short loop while farming gold.

With tank main I pretty much have to take druid and cleric to stay alive, can't decide on dps spot, the different ones seem to be better based on resists of what you are fighting, or how long it takes. Kinda leaning ranger at the moment (40) - kind of wild that merc ranger gets free arrows and the player doesn't. How do dps mercs go at higher levels ?
 
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Kirun said:
Yeah, I forgot about Troll Cave, but it's really just the main boss there that has worthwhile drops. There are a couple of offshoot areas, sure, but typically it's just that one boss, and the loot is either worse than or comparable to what you can get elsewhere. Ice Cave is really the only run in that level range where you can consistently get three or more bosses per reset.

The 40s are rough because the elemental dungeon is the only place with consistent boss runs. Everywhere else, you can't reliably farm bosses yet since you don't have your fourth mercenary. And because the elemental dungeon is tuned for the early 40s, the grind to 50 for that last merc is painfully slow. That said, the elemental dungeon is probably their best-designed content, in my opinion. It has a solid number of bosses(five once you unlock the final chamber)and they all have worthwhile drops. I really wish they had designed each level range around a dungeon like that, then used offshoot areas to round out each tier and preserve that sense of exploration.

Still, it's a really fun and addicting game. I'm hoping they add more classes soon - I'd love to see another tank of some sort and maybe a Necro. I've got a level 46 Ranger, but I'm seriously considering rerolling. The tanking secondary spec feels pretty underwhelming compared to Warrior, and the bow mechanics are frustrating. It feels like ranged attacks miss more often than melee, even with a ton of dex. On top of that, having to constantly manage arrows is just an unnecessary annoyance.

Also, has anyone had any luck with treasure hunting? I've had a few maps drop and picked up a shovel, but I can't seem to pinpoint any of the locations. I spent about an hour running around before giving up and selling all my maps. At this point, I'm assuming the rewards are probably just a sack of gems or something equally underwhelming and not really worth the time investment.
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My wizard nukes don’t miss. If you like ranged but hate whiffing maybe you’d like wiz more.
 
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velk said:
Prolly depends on what class and mercs you have - troll cave minibosses ( mushroom, troll, crawler ) have the sorcerer set, which is a significant upgrade over the ice cave set for mages - makes a pretty short loop while farming gold.

With tank main I pretty much have to take druid and cleric to stay alive, can't decide on dps spot, the different ones seem to be better based on resists of what you are fighting, or how long it takes. Kinda leaning ranger at the moment (40) - kind of wild that merc ranger gets free arrows and the player doesn't. How do dps mercs go at higher levels ?
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From what I’ve read the merc dps at higher levels is fairly weak, but the next patch is supposed to address their dos at mid and high levels to make them better, it’s a recognized problem by the devs. Their discord people are super helpful with questions like that and are really tied into the development.
 
Kirun

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My wizard nukes don’t miss. If you like ranged but hate whiffing maybe you’d like wiz more.
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I ended up going Rogue, and the DPS is honestly pretty insane. It really highlights how rough of a spot Ranger is in right now.

Ranger's best feature is basically Spirit of the Wolf, which says a lot. He gets a "block" buff but can't even use a shield, doesn't get an AOE taunt until level 50, and only has two active shot abilities outside of auto-attacks - only one of which actually hits hard. On the melee side, he gets just a single ability, so even if you spec into tanking, the damage output is terrible.

On top of that, he's completely mana-starved unless you're running a Druid for the regen buff. So he doesn't really function well as a DPS, but he also can't properly tank. He just ends up feeling like a confused, in-between class that doesn't excel at anything.
 
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Kirun said:
I ended up going Rogue, and the DPS is honestly pretty insane. It really highlights how rough of a spot Ranger is in right now.

Ranger's best feature is basically Spirit of the Wolf, which says a lot. He gets a "block" buff but can't even use a shield, doesn't get an AOE taunt until level 50, and only has two active shot abilities outside of auto-attacks - only one of which actually hits hard. On the melee side, he gets just a single ability, so even if you spec into tanking, the damage output is terrible.

On top of that, he's completely mana-starved unless you're running a Druid for the regen buff. So he doesn't really function well as a DPS, but he also can't properly tank. He just ends up feeling like a confused, in-between class that doesn't excel at anything.
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So what you’re saying is they orettt much nailed the EQ ranger? How’d they do with Paladin?
 
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Intrinsic said:
So what you’re saying is they orettt much nailed the EQ ranger? How’d they do with Paladin?
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Only have warrior, Druid, cleric, wizard, rogue, ranger so far. They confirmed they’re adding more after 1.0 though, and said paladin is likely.
 
Void

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I went ranger because I thought I'd just sit back and plink while my mercs did everything. I kinda still do, but unless it is a tough fight I just melee instead, because fuck buying arrows. So stupid. Granted, they are cheap and they stack to 9999, but like most of us I hoard shit like potions so arrows are included in that.

I immediately picked cleric for my first merc because healing > all. Fuck those clerics are great. And in case you didn't know, I figured out that you can click the little sword icon near their name (the leftmost of the two swords) and change it to a shield which means they focus on defense instead of offense. At this point I just leave them on sword, but I could see maybe switching it for a really long endurance fight.

I picked warrior next for tanking, and they are pretty good at it. Then I went druid for extra heals and buffs, but honestly other than the buffs I have no idea what a druid actually does. I've only ever seen them nuke, but I thought there were dots? Maybe I'm wrong.

I've got a ways to go for 50 but I was intending to pick wizard next. Now I'm not so sure. Traps suck, and not needing mana for dps seems like an overall win for the rogue. Of course I've got a full set of the blue gear for a wizard, but by 50 I'd likely have much better anyway.

I'm trying to be a little more casual about it instead of racing to 50, but I'm also doing the EQ gamer thing and camping specific drops. Right now I've killed the Troll King at least 15 times and still haven't got his 10% drop bag. Focusing on bags has netted me a ton of other equipment, and more inventory space is always a good thing. But my bow sucks compared to my melee weapon and the rest of my gear, so gonna probably try to camp a purple if I can manage it.

I'm not sure I'd go ranger again if I were to start over (I'm not, I never liked alts), but I'm also not sure what else I would pick. I played SK my entire career in EQ (way longer than most people played) so I'm definitely not looking to tank anymore. Healers are out, because I'm not a chick. Managing mana isn't my bag, so it is between rogue and ranger. Meh.
 
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Slaanesh69

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Kirun said:
Also, has anyone had any luck with treasure hunting? I've had a few maps drop and picked up a shovel, but I can't seem to pinpoint any of the locations. I spent about an hour running around before giving up and selling all my maps. At this point, I'm assuming the rewards are probably just a sack of gems or something equally underwhelming and not really worth the time investment.
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Because I am not THAT much of a masochist, I just punched in the name of the map in the compendium and it shows where it is located. There is no fucking way you could figure out any of those on your own. The rewards, at least at level 42 and 43, are chests with a few temp stat boost potions in them. Had to use the treasure hunting to find the red scabbard for one of the quests, that's when I decided to use the compendium.
 
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Void said:
I went ranger because I thought I'd just sit back and plink while my mercs did everything. I kinda still do, but unless it is a tough fight I just melee instead, because fuck buying arrows. So stupid. Granted, they are cheap and they stack to 9999, but like most of us I hoard shit like potions so arrows are included in that.

I immediately picked cleric for my first merc because healing > all. Fuck those clerics are great. And in case you didn't know, I figured out that you can click the little sword icon near their name (the leftmost of the two swords) and change it to a shield which means they focus on defense instead of offense. At this point I just leave them on sword, but I could see maybe switching it for a really long endurance fight.

I picked warrior next for tanking, and they are pretty good at it. Then I went druid for extra heals and buffs, but honestly other than the buffs I have no idea what a druid actually does. I've only ever seen them nuke, but I thought there were dots? Maybe I'm wrong.

I've got a ways to go for 50 but I was intending to pick wizard next. Now I'm not so sure. Traps suck, and not needing mana for dps seems like an overall win for the rogue. Of course I've got a full set of the blue gear for a wizard, but by 50 I'd likely have much better anyway.

I'm trying to be a little more casual about it instead of racing to 50, but I'm also doing the EQ gamer thing and camping specific drops. Right now I've killed the Troll King at least 15 times and still haven't got his 10% drop bag. Focusing on bags has netted me a ton of other equipment, and more inventory space is always a good thing. But my bow sucks compared to my melee weapon and the rest of my gear, so gonna probably try to camp a purple if I can manage it.

I'm not sure I'd go ranger again if I were to start over (I'm not, I never liked alts), but I'm also not sure what else I would pick. I played SK my entire career in EQ (way longer than most people played) so I'm definitely not looking to tank anymore. Healers are out, because I'm not a chick. Managing mana isn't my bag, so it is between rogue and ranger. Meh.
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The Z key switches the whole party from offense to defense.

The wizard does, in fact, run out of mana when you are doing lots of continuous fights of mobs at or higher level than you. You don't need to break for very long, but the wizard is your bottleneck for sure. The only thing we are missing is an OOM message.

I think warrior was a good pick for a char because there is currently zero crowd control in this game (of which I am aware) so you need to control aggro. I also played a lot of SK in EQ and hope to see that and a paladin in the future for melee characters.

Edit - and how's this for an old school EQ hunt - currently looking for a cursed rune - 10% drop chance from a level 45 mob with a 20% spawn rate on a 20 minute rotation. I have yet to see him (Dekion).
 
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Void

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I found a fungal necklace I think, gave +3 health regen. Worthless when everyone has thousands of hps, but still fun to see. Might have dropped from a giant mushroom too, but I've killed so many mushrooms/spiders/trolls in that dungeon that I can't remember.
 
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Kithani

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Slaanesh69 said:
Edit - and how's this for an old school EQ hunt - currently looking for a cursed rune - 10% drop chance from a level 45 mob with a 20% spawn rate on a 20 minute rotation. I have yet to see him (Dekion).
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For those that have played both, how does this game compare to Erenshor? I think I may stick to that one, 20 minute spawns with 1/50 chance to have the item I want sounds like shit I just can’t do anymore after college, lol. Sounds like this one is fun times though.
 
Void

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Kithani said:
For those that have played both, how does this game compare to Erenshor? I think I may stick to that one, 20 minute spawns with 1/50 chance to have the item I want sounds like shit I just can’t do anymore after college, lol. Sounds like this one is fun times though.
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I played Erenshor for a few hours, and I liked it and intend to go back to it once I'm tired of this one.

Erenshor is the true EQ experience, because you can have someone go pull stuff and bring it back to the party, everyone does their job properly (including enchanters, which is fucking amazing), you can sit at a camp and AFK and your party will still keep killing shit. The only thing they won't do is loot, so if you need a drop you have to check back periodically to loot.

Despite the dev himself comparing it to EQ, Ancient Kingdoms is really UO with mercs. All he did was slap some EQ nostalgia into a UO engine, but there was stuff like EQ in UO too. I remember going on a rare spawn thieving spree every time the server reset, and camping named mobs for drops, etc. The only thing more EQ is the leveling system and skills. UO had "learn by doing" skills, while EQ had level unlocked skills, which this game has.

The benefit this game has over Erenshor is that if something you need is in a dungeon, you can go outside the dungeon and pay the Renewal Sage some gold (not much compared to the drops you probably get each time) and it will completely respawn the dungeon for you with every named up. Unless I'm mistaken, even stuff that is a % spawn chance will be up. If it is a spawn outside of a dungeon then you'll have to wait, but most are in dungeons outside of wandering bosses like the Ancient Cyclops and that fucking dragon in the ice wastes.

So, really two different kinds of games. You can AFK level in this one too, but only 3-4 mobs max are going to be within your aggro radius, whereas Erenshor your party puller goes waaaaaay too far in attempts to grab more mobs for you to kill. And will occasionally train respawns to you. But you can easily leave for an hour in Erenshor and have gained several levels if that's what you want. I didn't really see much about rare spawns, but I only played for a few hours.
 
Void

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Totally unrelated, they need to make a command for your mercs to stand still. Them running around during a fight or following along as you pull is the #1 reason for party wipes. Why does my cleric need to run around during a fight? Sure, if he's nuking he gets backstab bonus damage from the rear, but most of the time he's not moving to that spot, he's just fucking moving for some reason.

Unless I'm missing it and there is a way to do that? Can't look at the game right now to go over the keybinds.
 
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