General

* By popular demand we have added a new "Level up" sound effect.
* Player Building tooltip displays correct predecessor information now.
* Fixed some randomness in when you would see the tutorial popup flags.
* Trading with another player will no longer cause traded items to appear in the incorrect inventory tab.
* Removed the commandline to setting hotkeys since it was only intended to debug hotkeys before the GUI was there
* The "usable items only" checkbox with traders should now work as intended.
* The facemarking 'Freckles' should now work for new characters.
* Minor issue with tradeposts and setting up items for auction has been resolved.
* Corrected several animations for mobs as well as NPCs during cut scenes.
* Increased the xp gained from group normal mobs and group bosses.
* Players will now be able to experience the destiny event in the Field of Chiefs.
* New voice over for some of the events in the Capture The Skull minigame.
* More client and server crashes resolved.

Age of Conan Combat

* Evadebonuses are now applied when you are being attacked from behind.
* Players with Shield of the Risen will not be affected by secondary effects from combos.

Age of Conan Chat

* If you drag a chat window with only one tab in it over the tab-bar of another chat window it will now be added as a tab to that window (inserted before the tab that the mouse is over in the "target" window).
* When pressing enter the input focus will by default go to the last active chat tab rather than the selected "default tab". The previous behaviour can be achieved by checking the "Default Window" menu entry for one of the tabs.
* Tweaked the areas you click to resize the chat window to make them easier to use.

Age of Conan GUI

* Guild Feats: It should now show a scrollbar.
* Buff icons no longer get stuck on after teleporting or talking to an npc.
* Resolved a GUI related crash when clicking on the bank (broker).
* Fixed an issue causing buffs placed outside the currently visible area of shortcut bars to still flash when ending cooldown.
* Whisper replies now always go to the chat tab you sent the original message from, in addition to the tab that is subscribed to the "Tell" channel.
* Added some missing class icons used by the team/raid GUI.
* Raid leaders now have an orange name in the raid GUI.
* Removed an unused hotkey (Show chat config).

Age of Conan Items

* The weapons should now always appear sheathed in the character selection screen.
* Potions: Fixed an issue with the stamina potion 'Old Redrouse', it will now get consumed when used.
* The 'Nemedian War Flail' has been renamed to 'Nemedian Mace'.
* The Rending Strike and Rupturing Strike proc from some equipment will no longer linger on the target indefinitely.

Age of Conan Tradeskills

* Gemmed items should now work (giving bonuses) and viewing them should no longer crash the client ==> UPDATE: This issue has not been fixed with the latest Patch. We will provide you with more information about this asap..
* Becoming a Woodcutter should no longer erroneously tell you that you've learned the 'Evading Roll' combo.
* Harvesting: Script now keeps track of the persons that are using a resource node. This prevents the user from trying to use it twice and thus not harvesting anything at all.

Age of Conan NPC

* Monsters 4 levels or higher will now correctly have increased evade and immunity chance.
* Resource gathering npcs will now display the '?' over their heads when you have the goal and items to return to them.
* Princess Akivasha now attacks back when attacked in Sanctum of the Burning Souls.
* The encounters in the Armsman's Arena should be less chaotic.
* Demonic Pict will no longer try to cast spells at players without being able to do so.
* The Quest NPC's for the Frost Swamp, Imerian Ravine and Oasis of Zaara have been shuffled around in the Resource and Building playfields to make it easier for players to spot them amongst all the other tradeskill NPC's

Age of Conan Pets

* Movement speed of pets have been increased both in and out of combat.

Age of Conan Playfields

* The Armsman's Arena is now a private instance.

Age of Conan Archetypes

Mage

* Contract of Protection, Protection of Set, and Runed Flesh now have 1 hour cooldown. While any of the three is active, the player will temporarily receive a 'Weakened Protection' debuff indicating if the maximum amount of absorbed damage has been expended until the shield refreshes.
* The maximum damage Protection of Set and Runed Flesh can absorb before failing has been increased by 50%
* The Archmage feat has been moved to the 2nd tier of the Mage general tree

Age of Conan Player Characters

Demonologist

* The base splash damage inflicted by Fires of Gehenna has been increased from 10% to 30%
* The base splash damage inflicted by Shockstrike has been increased from 15% to 20%
* The base column radius of Hellfire Stream has been increased by 1 meter
* Hellfire Stream and Shock have received a minor damage increase
* Inferno of Amher and Shockblast have had their cooldown reduced by 0.5 seconds
* The splash damage bonus of Discharge Shockstrike has been increased to 100%
* Swift Shockstrike now additionally increases the damage of Shockstrike by 1/2/3/4/5%
* Shock now has 35% splash damage, up to 3 targets and 3 meters from the primary target
* Shockstrike and Shock have had their base chance to crit increased
* The scaling of the Shock spell has been corrected, leading to a damage increase at most levels
* The bonus of the Lingering Flames feat on the Incinerate effect has been increased from 30% to 250% at maximum rank
* The casting time of Detonation has been reduced from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds
* Living Thunderstorm and Living Firestorm now correctly use a percentage-based manacost
* Living Thunderstorm should now correctly appear in the hostile spells tab
* The casting time of Infernal Knowledge, Diabolic Insight, Mark of Dagon, Shield of Infernal Flames, Abaddoron Warrior, Mystic Suppression, Cursed by Hell, and Cursed by the Heavens have been reduced by 50%
* The beneficial effect of the Pact of Earth Walking spell has been increased from 200% to 400%
* Pact of Earth Walking is now instant cast

Necromancer

* Fixed a bug causing the available pet point indicator in the pet list GUI to sometimes show 0 points available rather than the actual number.
* Spellweaving can be cast and cancelled normally now.

Dark Templar

* 'Mystical Bane' combo: The damage dealt by the Incinerate Ether component of Mystical Bane combos will now correctly deal 50% of the mana burned to be consistent with other power burn effects

Priest of Mitra

* Revivication Feat: The healing effect granted by the Revivication feat will no longer fail to trigger if the Priest is level 65.
* Condemnation now receives a partial cooldown if the spell does not complete channelling.
* Purification procs will no longer incorrectly apply a cooldown to Condemnation.

Barbarian

* Barbarian's should no longer be unable to attack or move directly after performing any rank of their 'Savage Rage' combo.
* 'No Escape' combo should now always give you a cooldown when used and you will always get disarmed.

Herald of Xotli

* 'Fire Lance' combo now only needs 3 attacksteps to execute so it can be triggered faster. The combo now also hits targets a bit further away than before making it more effective.

Conqueror

* Combo 'Throat Slash' has been corrected to be a spear attack instead of a ranged attack.

# Tempest of Set Mark of Set now has the correct casting animation and effect for all ranks.

Age of Conan Quests

* Updated quest journals of "Phoenix of the East" to reflect new position of NCP General Tatius.
* Fixed animation problem where Arias could not decide to sit or stand during conversation.
* Ninus and Si-Khu will reliably spawn when logging out near the Temple of Mitra.
* The access quest for the Armsman's Arena revamped.
* The Phoenix of the North: Resolved an issue with Mithrelle not standing up if not viewing the small cutscene.
* Resolved an issue that forces quests to not update on zoning.
* Wagon Wreck: Revamped with a new quest goal.
* The Poisoned Cup: Revamped with more interaction with the objects in the quest.
* The Curse of the Werewolves: Slight enhancement on quest targets.
* Wolf Hunt: Slight enhancement on quest targets.
* Greater Prey: Slight enhancement on quest targets.
* Death to the Vanir: Slight enhancement on quest completion.
* Finding Safe Passage: Revamped with a new quest goal.
* Captives of the White Hand: Revamped with a new quest goal.
* The Cheiftains Vengeance: Revamped with a new quest goal.
* Wolves at our Throats: Revamped with a new quest goal.
* Bartholomo's Wife will respawn more often, if you happen to kill her before required to by the quest 'The Awakening III'
* It should be easier to deal with Renton's Corrupt Friends when doing the quest Awakening II
* Sanctum of the Burning Souls: The boss drop 'Bloodtainted Hoop' will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
* Field of the Dead: 'Fur of Bloodclaw' will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
* Tarantia Noble: Improved these quests: Bloodroot, Concealing the Chinks, Purging the Fallen, Source of Contagion.
* The Lurking Horror: The Area marker is now set on the map
* Pool of Black Blood: Quest now updates when you kill the Lesser Black Ones as well.
* The Slave Rebellion: Replaced radius with a fixed waypoint for one of the goals.
* Fetching Fungi: A waypoint will now lead the way to Sanctum, and to the mushrooms inside.
* Lifting the Curse: Waypoint will now lead you to the Sanctum of Burning Souls.
* The Sinister Sepulcher: Orb is now destructible, and all the Undead Thralls in the area will update the quest.
* The Black Skulls: Corrected some wrong waypoints.
* Fleet of Mouth: Cycaelus has upped the difficulty. You now need to beat his record on half the time you needed before

In addition to being able to take a beating, the age of conan guardian will also be able to do a lot of damage. The conan guardian will also have two debuffs. The first debuff is his numbing strike line which lowers the DPS of his opponents. The second debuff is the guardian's ability to drain the stamina of his foes.

Please come back to MMO Explorer for more Age of Conan guardian guides.

Age of Conan is currently scheduled for launch on March 25, 2008. It is currently in beta and is being tested by over 10,000 beta testers. Since Curse's last previe it noted that the combat system has been overhauled greatly and is now less confusing to new players. The combat system has been updated to make it much easier to determine which combinations you are going to trigger.

The second area that has changed most drastically is the character creation. Additionally, video options have become more robust as well as the audio and interface options.

Curse.com also stated that the Age of Conan class selection process has been drastically overhauled. No longer do you start as a Commoner, and then work your way to your final class. Instead, you choose your final class at the beginning and you work through single player quests to unlock new skills for your class. Funcom calls these "destiny quests." These destiny quests will continue all the way up to level 80, the current max level for Age of Conan. These destiny quests also tell the story of Hyboria and King Conan.

Age of Conan Feat System:

Age of Conan now includes a feat system. This feat system is similar to World of Warcraft's talent system. There will be multiple tiers of feats which get unlocked as you put more points into each tree. Each class gets two trees and a third tree, which is tied to your class archtype. You will begin to acquire the points at level 10, and it currently has a maximum of 65 total points. According to curse.com you will be able to unlearn feats by simply clicking a button. Funcom does not plan to charge players for unlearning feats.

Age of Conan Character Creation:

Cursed.com was very impressed with Age of Conan's character creation system. You will be able to choose your nationality, and distinguish yourself with over 35 different customization options. This character customization options will make sure that each character in Age of Conan is truly unique looking.

Age of Conan Combat:

Combat has been changed at lower it levels to make it much easier to start fighting. Age of Conan has gone from five fighting directions down to three fighting directions. In order to activate a combination you first have to trigger the combination. Then follow through by swinging in a particular direction. There is also a new system that has been added to the game called "shielding". The shielding system provides a graphical representation of how your target is defending themselves. Once you start attacking an enemy from one direction, it will begin to defend itself from attacks in that direction. This reduces the damage that you to that location.

Age of Conan PvP:

Age of Conan will have two types of PvP combat. The first type, your standard player versus player in the world of Hyboria. The second player versus player system will be mini-games such as capture the flag and other battlegrounds type scenarios. Mini-games will come in two types, ranked and skirmish. Ranked matches will allow you to build up your character's ranking within these mini game PvP competitions. Players will be able to join these mini games from anywhere in the world by simply opening their player versus player search window. This will drastically decrease the amount of time having to stand around and waiting in queues. You can go off and fight your battles anywhere and decide to join in the mini-game at any time. Once you're done with your mini-game, you can simply be placed back to where you joined the match from.

Age of Conan End Game Content:

According to the developers of age of Conan the end game content will include both content for player versus player and player versus environment. The player versus player content will include two types of dungeons: outdoor dungeons and indoor dungeons. These dungeons will also scale in difficulty based upon your group size, which is a very cool feature that most MMOs do not contain.

Age of Conan Raids:

Funcom has confirmed that Age of Conan will have raids. Currently raid groups are cappped at 24 people.

I hope you enjoyed this summary of curse.com's recent preview of Age of Conan.