Asuryan's Flames

Yep that is right, in fact Global chat in AOC is worse than Barrens Chat in WOW, which is kind of hard to achieve considering the poor choice in topics there. At least it is entertaining.

So, like all games you try and hit level cap as quick as possible so that you can get a real feel for what the game is like. I am sitting at just over 4 days played total and I am close to level cap. In War, it took a similar amount of time, and even in WOW is was close, but there seems to be a greater feeling of accomplishment with the higher number that AOC provides.

Now there is more to level in War then just hitting level cap, there is renown rank, which AOC does have PVP rank, but it seems to be way less important than hitting RR 80 in War. Ontologically, they are focusing on different areas. Where as War focuses on getting your character to 40 then the real grind begins because the best items are PVP related and earned, AOC has the PVP caveat for those who like it, but that are encapsulated in a raiding environment where PVP is not the core.

In both instances you will end up doing the same thing over and over, but in War you will end up doing that substantially quicker due to the limited scope that endgame seems to focus on. Now with the huge expansion on the horizon that might change, but that is still a ways off and it could be the Trials of Atlantis that plagued DAOC being brought to war. I say that lightly, but we are not 6 months after release and we have seen several huge promise that where made by Mythic broken.

So when I started out playing AOC a couple of weeks ago my buddy fatpork was coming over with me. He decided that he was going to roll a necromancer, so that was off the table so I tried out a few classes over a couple of days while he got the game downloaded and installed. First I tried the demonologist, your basic heavy direct damage/aoe DD caster class. It has low survivability but hits like a Mac truck. You get a naked succubus, or partially clothed incubus if you are into a guy trailing you around. Overall, I enjoyed the class, but I was not interested being so dependent on potions and healers.

The next class I played was a Herald of Xolti, this class I know will be my first alt, she was so much fun it was staggering. I read on AOC Forums

This is not a class I would recommend for beginners, it has a limited number of tools to deal with most situations and PvP. If you're looking for AE damage with more survivability and versatility, the overwhelming consensus is to play a Tempest of Set. If you're a masochist, want a little extra damage, and if a fire-slinging, sword-wielding, crocs-wearing battlemage sounds fun to you, roll up a HoX.

That just struck me, a melee mage that has almost the best of both worlds, of course there is the huge weakness in being a clothie, but you get a self restoring shield and so on. I passed on this for now since I would be grouping with a buddy, and there was only one other class that just stuck in my mind.

The tempest of set and healers in general in AOC are probably the best healers of any game I have ever seen. You can heal moderately well, and you can dps like any other dps class. In some cases, priest of mitra, you have a ton of CC as well. There are down sides, you have little survivability, healing in AOC is not like healing in other games where you can full heal yourself with one spell, it takes a lot of work, so you have to live by killing.

Onto the tempest, tempests are aoe healers and very heavy aoe dps. They can put out very high numbers if speced properly, and can heal very well while doing it. I chose this class largely because I like the idea of being able to heal well and dps well all in one package. It is Shadow Priest 2.0 + extras. Being that AOC relies a lot of group pulls of mobs and so on the aoe ability is key to leveling quickly, and with my buddy at the helm of a necromancer we are off.

I will give more details soon a few notes.
AOC so far is a great game, a lot of the commotion that was around when it was released has been fixed and the game is on much better footing.
Classes in AOC in some cases are very different and in others are very similar to what you have seen before.
Combat is very interactive for melee classes, you have to control combos, actively block, positions and so on to be effective, which is something button mashing games don't offer.
Finally, the graphics are amazing, as I have been leveling I have seen oceans with tropics, to the frozen tundra’s, in some areas it makes Crysis graphics look weak.