PVPlab

I’ve been playing Age of Conan for a couple days now and I’m really enjoying it.  The combat system is great, albeit with a couple bugs, as with any MMO.  At any rate, my goal is to rock out some levels and get to the real large-scale pvp action where the game really shines.

There are tons of guides out there for sale (like this one from Ashling which I hear is decent) but why pay when it’s free? Here’s the guide I’m using to make this happen.  Extra credit goes to Gravemaker and Hexan for their informative thread on our guild forums.

Levels 1-5

You will get these just from the single player beach instance. You will not leave this area without at least being level 5. But, since most of you are obsessive compulsive, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the Beach quests:

1. Run up and talk to Casilda. She’ll give you a quest to get the key to her chains. Run west and then south along the shore. You see the dude you need to kill. Kill him and grab his key. (If so inclined, you can continue along the beach that way and there is a lvl 2 crocodile boss guarding a chest) Run back to Casilda and free her. From here on out Casilda will follow you around and make annoying noises everytime you kill something.
2. Head east into the jungle. There are two pirate camps directly to the north and south just after you pass where Casilda was locked up. Clear them both for the loot.
3. Follow the winding path east killing everything you see. Nothing here is too hard to kill unless you’re retarded or just not very good at video games.
4. You will eventually run into Saddur, the fat guy from your slave ship. He is guarding a locked gate. He will talk shit, then you fight him and kill him. He will tell you that the key to the gate is held by a demon in some ruins to the north.
5. Go north into the ruins mudering Picts along the way. You will come to an area where there are some green demon minions. Clear the minions then go after the big guy himself. After you kill him you have to click on the altar near where he was to open it and get the key.
6. Go back to gate where you killed Saddur, open it, and proceed east. You will fight some gorillas and come to a wodden bridge. Kill the King Gorilla and proceed over the bridge.
7. When you get to the gate there will be a short cutscene with Casilda where she promises to get with you later.

After that, click on the gate to Tortage. Success!

Levels 5-10

These will go by just as fast as 1-5. Many of these quests will be done in a single player instance, Tortage Night, that is very straightforward and easy. There are a few other instances within that single player area that you will travel to including a volcano and a witch’s mansion. You can leave the single player instance at any time by talking to Tina or your “trainer” at the Thirsty Dog.

You will be standing in the main Tortage area next to a bunch of other nublets. Head down the path and to the main gates of the city. Talk to the guard with the exclamation point above his head.

Protip: The first quest you do in the volcano — kill enough extra mobs in there to get to lvl 10. If you don’t make it to level 10 cashing that quest in, you will be forced to grind in the jungle or do day quests until you hit 10 to get the next step of the night time quest. Just hit it in the instance.

Protip: Or if you didn’t listen above, you can kill the Lv10 Boozed Bullies in the Bar inside Tortage. Fairly fast spawns, not too bad for the level.

Levels 13-19

Group up (6 people would be great, but 2-3 will do just fine) do underhalls and/or white sands quests/grinding/pvping blah blah blah…

There are effectively two grinds; 10-15 and 15-19. You will probably have gained a level or two from your destiny quests (night) so it’s more like 13-15 and 16-19. The 16-19 is of course harder, but there are plenty of quests in Tortage such that you can hit 19 and still have several quest lines you didn’t manage to complete. If you are a soldier or barb, Otho’s quests give some very nice loot and involve a non-PvP zone (Acheronian Ruins) so if you just want to level it’s a very nice area. I would suggest completing them all.

Never think that you have to grind mobs to make a level, but if you really want to, I guess you can.

Levels 19-20

Finish your destiny chain and get the hell out of Tortage.

The Wide Open World (after Tortage): After leaving Tortage, each race gets sent to it’s respective “starting city”. Cimmerians go to Conarch Village, Stygians go to Khemi City, and Aquilonian go to Tarantia. This starting area will have an NPC you need to talk to that furthers the quest line.

After talking to this NPC you cannot further your Destiny quest until level 30. So, you head out into your starting town and make note of where important NPC’s are. Somewhere near your Destiny Quest NPC there should also be a traveler/travel type merchant that will port you to another starting city if you so choose. All 3 cities have a level 20-30 adventure area connected to them.

My experience so far has only been with Conarch Village/Conall’s valley so I will start there.

Levels 20-30

Conall’s Valley (Cimmerian), Khopsef Province (Stygian), Wildlands (Aquilonian): Personally, I did all of Conall’s Valley and most of Khopsef, Khopsef Province and it was enough to get me from 20 to around 31 or 32 I believe. There are a lot of quests and quests chains in these 3 zones, and doing two zones will be enough to boost you up. Even at 30, the zones will still have some quests that are yellow/orange, so these places could probably be done until maybe 34/35. Even when the quests are gray though you still get exp for them!

Cimmerians: These will all take place in the Conall’s Valley Area. There are four spawn points in this area: Conall Valley Entrance, Mountain Glade, Cimmerian Village and Cascade Falls. The area is a large wilderness with rolling mountains, forests and waterfalls. You will mainly fight Vanir, wargs, spiders, and a few yeti and boars. Raise your climbing skill to at least 120 for this area as you’ll need to climb for a few quests.

Stygians: Khemi city quests and Khopsef Province quests, and I mean all of them! Get your world pvp on! (wild lands is also an option but I find it more crowded)

Levels 30-40

28-36 - Black Castle (Khopsef Province): An instance in the Khopsef Province. You can grind this place solo. Super fast respawn rate and level 32 mobs that die easy. The last room of the place has a boss who will 100% green drop (boss respawns). You can literally grind this last room from 30-40 easy with an AoE class.

32-36 - Old Tarantia Sewers (Old Tarantia): A quick instance in Old Tarantia. It’s located on the docks in Old Tarantia, right next to the Khemi boat dude and the Tortage boat dude. The mobs in here are all around 35/36. There are some good quests to complete in here, and mobs are pretty good exp at this level.

There is a book on a tomb that opens up a quest for the Sanctum, which has you kill a boss Princess bitch in there. You can pick up this quest once you hit level 35 I believe.

34-39 - Black Pyramid (Khopsef Province): An instance in the Khopsef Province. A couple of quests can be found for this place in Bursba, Khemi, right outside the instance, and some inside it. You can solo pretty far at around 36, depending on the class. Most of the mobs are 37/38. No good drops, but good mob exp and good questing exp. Good group will blow through this zone.

37-39 - Treasury of the Ancients (Khopsef Province): An instance located right next to the Black Pyramid in Khopsef Province. So far, the zone is very buggy. However, there are about 16 or 18 mobs in here and one boss. They are in a straight line, all level 38 and a good solo class can take them all out in 10 minutes. Each mob nets around 500 exp. If you want a safe place to solo, just keep resetting this instance and doing this place.

35-42 - Sanctum of Burning Souls (Wild Lands of Zelata): An instance in the Wild Lands of Zelata. This place can maybe be reset and done over and over and over again. Loot is great for the level (all drops are blue) and quest XP and mob XP is good as well. This instance gives you a breather from the grinds and gives you your first real group feel PvE-wise. The quest loot cape is by far the most exciting item acquirable so far.

Levels 40-50

38-45 - Tarantia Noble District (Old Tarantia): A lot of quests here open up at 39/40, most of the mobs are around 42-43. You can find this zone off of Old Tarantia, it’s the giant bridge to your north. The zone itself is one giant city, interspersed with enemy NPC’s running amok. A lot of 40-45 players are running around, making it not safe for a lone goon. Bring a group here at around 39 and you’ll make a lot of exp in safety.

This place has 3 quests that net 9k exp each, and are completed in instances!

40-50 - Fields of the Dead: This zone has numerous quests, but is notoriously camped by multiple guilds. Progression is camp by camp, with each successive camp having 3-6 quests. In a group, the Haunted Forest to the south can be good XP by simply rampaging around killing everything. This is an outdoor zone similar to Conall’s Valley. The zone itself is located off of Conall’s Valley on the very east side.

Levels 50-60

50-52 - Eiglophian Mountains: Zone right next to Field of the dead. Just do enough quests here to get to 52 or 54 and then head to…

54-57 - Cannibal Caves: This is an instance in the Eiglophian Mountains that has 54-56 level mobs. Good grinding for all since the quests will not give you enough exp to hit 60.

57-60 - Eiglophian Mountains: Finish off the quests here and you should be 60, maybe 61 depending on how long you spent grinding.

Levels 60-70

60-70 - Thunder River: Zone connected to Poitain. One of the two zones for 60-70. Head here first since it’s been found to be easier.

60-75 - Atzel’s Approach: Zone connected to Lacheish Plains. The other zone for 60-70. It’s recommended doing Thunder River first since there aren’t enough quests to get you to 70 without grinding. You should probably be grouped in this zone and Thunder River unless you like getting molested by other groups that are questing. Once you are 67 and solo or 65 and grouped, you can grind mammoths in the south-east corner of the map.

There is a ton of them and they are passive and weak as hell.

Levels 70-80

71-80 - Khesetta: Zone connected to Purple Lotus Swamp and the only 70-80 one. Don’t know much about this zone since I (Deathplague) just started and I probably won’t learn much about it since I will be grinding in…

71-76 - Apprentice Quarters: Personal instance in the main city of Khesetta. Has a fairly small number of pulls, but the guards are all 75. I have found this preferable to being outside and ganked mercilessly. Just watch out for the guards as they all have a knockdown which can be troublesome. Think of this as Treasury of the Ancients 2.0.