AFK

Well, the new job has turned out to be way more of a time sink they I had ever anticipated. Because of this, I haven't been able to find even a full hour to sneak in any playtime :( It's rather depressing, I miss the virtual world of fun!

So, I've made the decision to cancel my AoC subscription for the time being until I'm able to figure a way to get some serious playing back in. As such, updates are going to be few and far between until I get back to playing (which is my goal, this won't be my end with this game). Thanks for all the support from everyone thus far, and keep an eye out for my return :) Good luck to everyone out there and feel free to stop by and drop a line.

Test Patch Notes. Pretty good overall!

Ok, I'm not posting the full patch notes, they are quite long and honestly.. this is a blog for Barbarians. So, here are the snipits that I've found to pertain to us and a little bit of what they mean for our future.

Before we get started, sorry again for the lack of updates. Still in training at the new job and it takes a good chunk of my time.

For some reason, lists aren't agreeing with indenting subtabs, so this might not look the best. I'll try to tidy it up later.

Combat

* Combos and all other actions will be aborted when you start to charge.
* The combo chain will now be stopped when you begin a charge.
* You can no longer start combos in the middle of a charge.
-Easy enough. No more exploiting Finishing Blow, with any combo. Time to respec out of it.
* You can now abort multihit combos without all the damage being rolled back.
-Awesome! No more lost damage when our combos get interrupted.
* Aborting multihit combos will not make the target's health become desynced from the client/server anymore.
* Fizzle and immunity rolls have been moved to the end of your spellcast. If your target becomes immune after you start your spellcast but before it deals damage, your target will resist the spell.
* Stealth is checked again at the end of your spellcast. If your target hides before you land the spell, your spellcast will fail.
* The distance to your target while casting a spell is checked again at the end of your spellcast, with a 25% bonus to your range.
* Line of sight to your target is checked again at the end of your spellcast.
-All the above are putting casters in check. Now if you LoS them mid cast, they fail. BIG boost in PvP.
* Combo finishers (the last attack in the combo chain) now have 25% extra range, making them easier to land in PvP.
-Again, awesome pvp boost.
* Aborting unarmed attacks (using a knockback, for example) will now properly cause the damage not to be dealt.
* Active Blocking now displays a buff in the debuff GUI indicating the effect.
* Active Blocking now has an initial stamina cost upon activation.
* Active Blocking has been modified to increase the player's shielding bonus rather than evade chance.
* Attacks and heals performed while in Active Blocking will now have reduced effect.
-Again, starting to put casters and healers in check in PvP.
* Clickable abilities with instant effects will not be queued after your attack anymore, but executed right away.
* For each attack in the combo chain that you do without a valid target, your end damage (on the combo finisher) is reduced 15% per miss.
-Ambiguous wording FTL. It seems that any directional swing you take that misses will reduce damage done by the actual combo by 15%. Not the best news, but PvP will be a whole new game if these notes all hit at the same time. Also, this is good news for Smash n Crush and Brutal Cyclone.
* Attack animation speed should be more balanced between genders.
-Neat.

Player Character

* You now only prohibited from entering stealth mode if team members are in combat nearby.
-O.M.G. YES!
* All your team members and their pets will now get the fatality buff when a team member performs a fatality.


Full Notes

Goonheim feat calc fixed

Well, I was just about to sit down and re-do all the feat builds in the calc since recently goonheim went bonkers, BUT turns out they were a step ahead of me and have made their calc backwards compatible :) So, just letting you all know the links should be working fine. If you find any that still seem to be wrong. I'll be working on some of the bits I mentioned below as the week goes on; started training at the new job today, though, so it might take me a day or two.

Holiday weekend

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates. The past few days I've been a bit busy planning a 4th of July celebration for tomorrow. I also have a new job starting on Monday, so updates may slow down a bit until everything settles back down (haven't even been able to play :( ) But here's a little preview of some things I have in mind the near future:

-Fix the feat calc links
-Analysis of our t1 raid gear
-"How To" make a nice combat log
-PvP stats/gems

Anything else offhand you'd like to see?

Issues with Feat builds in guides

Apparently, the folks over at goonheim decided to change the way their feat calc was displaying saved feats. So, none of my old links work. I'll try to reupdate them sometime soon. Until then, just hang in there.. you should be able to figure it out without em :P

Today's patch

Is going up.. here's a link to the notes: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=1350788#post1350788

I'm not going to post any of them since none are of particular interest to us. Enjoy your freshly patched day :P

Update from FC about the female attack speed bug

You female barbs will be happy to know that FC is, in fact, working on the issue of different attack speeds. Unfortunately, since it is game wide, it still may be up to another month before we see the fix rolled out. But hey, at least they're keeping the communication open.

"Let me begin with saying “yes, we here at Funcom agree with you; this is an unacceptable bug”. We never intended for any character to be stronger/weaker than another based on its gender, and we have been working on making the necessary adjustments to correct this issue for quite some time already."


Here's a link to the thread on the official forums: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=115251

Update on the 2H hybrid

If you recall, I had been discussing trying a build that focuses on 2H damage, but includes Haste and Predatory Instincts.

For the past day or two, I got around to giving it a shot and I must say it worked well. The damage bonus from Haste seemed to but Staggering Blow just slightly below what CoS was doing. Also, with PI, the stam usage was negligible, which was a nice change for the style.

Anyone else have anything to report? I've gone to a deeper 2H/General build for today, since there are a still few general feats I'm interested, but I wouldn't discount the 2H hybrid yet. Might be something I get back to soon.

Pics of the new PC

IF you were wondering, it's all together and running now. Quite well I might add. I have every bar all the way to the right and the shader set to 2.x (3.0 killllls it) and get 60+ FPSeverywhere. So, that's good.

Refresher on the specs:

Processor Intel Core 2 Duo 6MB L2, 45nm (caused some problems with mobo bios): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
Mobo (evga nforce 680i sli): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188013
Heatsink: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106061
RAM - 2x (for 4gb): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231121
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136178
Video Card (evga 9800gtx): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339
PS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023&Tpk=thermaltake%2b430w
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103010
DVD Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153
Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009108

And, a few pictures:





Can't see the LEDs using a flash :(


^ Temporary testing Keyboard

It's tough to take a steady pic without a flash or tripod.. but you get the idea ;)

Final piece of the new PC has arrived!

A while ago, I posted that I was building a new system.. after RMAing 2 motherboards and finding a spare processor to get my final mobo to work with a 45nm processor I found out the stock Intel fan/heatsink was pretty useless (broken) and I had major overheating issues.

So, THIS came today:


Another angle:


The good ol' Thermaltake Big Typhoon (they don't lie. it's big.) Hopefully this will get my heating issues under control :D

However, it also means most of my night will be spent getting this all rigged up and getting the new PC running. I'll have pics and SSs when I'm done, if all goes well :P