Age of Conan - Dark Templar Impressions

Last week, patch 1.5.5 was applied that did a revamp of the Dark Templar in Age of Conan. You can read more about the changes here...

Dark Templar Patch Notes

Since you can read these, I do not want to run on about the changes overall. I want to talk a moment about how the Templar "feels" now with these changes.

I have noted first that depending on the trees you choose for feats, that you must either go "Survivor" or "DPS'er". Before I could spread out the love and be a good Hybrid of sorts (get some decent damage and not die so easily).

Now, if I do DPS, I can feel the danger of death looming at my feet.

the two pictures show that right now, I am testing the DPS tree, which closely matched what I had before revamp.

Another change is new abilities that work against casters specifically. The Dark Templar is a killer Anti-Caster Tank now.

One noted ability can crank your protection from magic damage up to 2500+ points...holy smokes. Mainly invincible. Others drain mana like crazy.

Basically, if you have a casters dungeon crawl coming, better add a DT.

I tested this against a particularly cranky caster boss in the Slaughterhouse solo dungeon. This boss can have you running and hiding behind various poles in the room to avoid damage and downing pots to live.

The magic damage has been pretty bad.

Now, I am able to stand in front of him longer and smack on him thanks to the protection spell, and had to run just once (and without a pot) and then took him down on round two of attacks.

Finally some trees can get you so many skills, that trying to figure out which ones to use, makes you crazy.

Several skills allow you to stun, drain, protect...oh and summon a demon.

Still feel some skills are quite odd to this class, but I digress.

I am still getting used to the changes, so I still need to play with him a bit. I also have not run a raid in a while, and I am not sure how viable he is or where the Dark Templar actually fits in.

But, for now, the changes were quite different, and I am still playing with my spec, and seeing if I need to go down a new path. I will try the protection set...but, with no raids, I am unsure if I need that

I will report more on if any changes take place and how they work.

Cheers

Age of Conan - 78 Dings and Resourcing.

This morning I hit the awesome level 78 in Age of Conan. Not, only am I two levels away from max (mind you, the FIRST MMO EVAH that I will hit max in...besides Guild Wars, which had 20 levels of goodness), but 78 also lets me start purchasing my "Culture" armor.

Basically as described here before, the Culture sets are Class Specific (why not Race?...hmm), and I just purchased my first piece (at a whopping 15+ gold, normally 20). The Chest Piece, the Hyperborean Hauberk (which for some reason I cannot find on the YG database...odd) has some pretty good attributes. But, as well as that, it has 2 gem slots to fill with some good buff addons.
Still shopping those.







It looks awesome. Once the other pieces come into play, this should really be a treat.
Once my YG database listing gets updated, I will make sure to post that here as well.

Now, I am relegated to spending a LOT of time resource gathering, as I need cash pretty bad. I am at 8 gold after my purchase, and need at least 15 for the pants (and every indication is I will be wearing pants...pretty cool).

Talk about a drag.

Do not think for a second that the resource areas are not cool. They are awesome, with waving fields of grasses and grains, music to comfort and make you even feel emotional (Conan EMO!).
But, like EQ2, the gathering is slow, and you need to stay on top of the resources. They need to replenish.
Luckily, fights break things up once in a while as an angry prospector or mini - bosses will attack you (and you need to be careful as a level 80 raid boss roams the fields of Poitain where I gather. One hit death).
But, this stops me dead in my tracks in the leveling arena. So, now I must decide. Gather or Quest?

My thought is to break it up I guess. Gather one day, quest another. I just do not want to go through a whole level and not have at LEAST my pants for my DT.

Decisions
Decisions

Ok...better get back to the work world. Cheers mates