Learning to tank in Age of Conan is going to be an interesting endeavor. Instead of simply throwing my ideas and the things that I learn into some shabby document, I'm going to log them on here. This will mainly ensure that I have access to it anywhere, and that I don't lose the information. Heh.

In any case, here's what I've learned so far:

Staying alive certainly has not been a problem. It seems that Guardians are most definitely built to be THE tanking class in the game, much as Warriors are built to be THE tanking class in WoW. (Go cry in a corner, Paladins.)

Guardians are the only class in the game who can wear plate armor, and the ability to wear such gear happens at level 60. From what I've heard, full-plate armor is supposed to look quite bad-ass in the game.

Now, I've determined that any Guardian who aims to be a tank (not a sometimes-tank, not an off-tank, not a "I'll tank when I need to" tank), they should always go with the Sword+Shield. Polearms should only be used on trash.

That being said, I'm going to need to pick up a polearm here at some point so I can try out the multi-tanking factor using that kind of weapon.

Now, tanking in and of itself works much differently in this game than it does in any other MMO.

Some things are the same:

1. All monsters have a hate list, and they will attack the person at the top of the list.
2. The main idea as the tank, obviously, is to generate more threat than your healers and DPS.

The way to generate the best threat is quite different.

First of all, there's no crowd-control in this game. If there's a 5-pull, you're tanking all 5. Period.

I've learned that targeting is a major bitch. Sometimes I have to click on a target repeatedly before it finally targets it.

Also, I believe the threat generation is going to be patched soon. I can see quite a few posts on the forums saying that it's broken right now.

All that aside, here are some tips that I've come up with and that I plan on trying soon:

1. The first obstacle is getting out of the WoW mentality. Forget what you learned about tanking in WoW. It won't work here.

2. Ensure you have no heals ticking on you before you run in to engage a pull. Also, the tank shouldn't be healed at all until he hits each mob at least once.

3. A lot of multi-tanking depends on positioning. You must keep everything you're tanking bunched up in a group in front of you so that your attacks hit as many of them as possible.

4. Keep Counterstrike up all the time on as many targets as humanly possible. Brutal Enraging Strike and Over Reach are the other two important tanking combos.

5. Keep Taunt maxed. This is a skill you dump points into, and should always be maxed if you're a dedicated tank. Taunt is a proc -- it works when you're hit by something. Therefore, it's a way of generating threat without doing anything yourself.

6. Know your abilities. You have about 20 more ways of generating threat than any other tank in any other game. The trick is remembering what they are and how to get the most use out of them.

These are the basics that I've come up with so far in playing the game and doing some research. A little later on, and probably more-so in end game material, there are even more things to keep in mind:

1. Weapon swapping
2. Stance dancing
3. Evading Left, Right, Forward, Backward
4. Switching maneuvers

All in all, there are a ton of things to learn and know, which is an enjoyable part of the challenge. Also, you're going to need help from your party members:

1. As I mentioned, no heals on the tank early on unless he's dying.
2. DPS needs to wait until the tank is ready for you to start attacking. This is so much more important here than it is in WoW. Monsters are more difficult to get back under control if the tank loses them.
3. DPS needs to ensure they are focusing on ONE target.
4. The tank should always have initial aggro. Stand back.

Obviously, none of this is important until you get to the real dungeons in the game -- the first of which is the Sanctum. It's here, when every pull contains all elite monsters, that these mechanics will come into play for the group to be successful.

More to come as I delve deeper into the Guardian class!

I had every intention of calling off today, given that both my head and my stomach were killing me last night. Of course, given that I'm a responsible human being, I tend to drag myself into work even when I'm dying.

Fortunately, however, I felt really good when I woke up this morning. I actually got to work early.

Go figure.

Today I examined the Guardian feats tree for AoC, in an attempt to better understand the class and if I'm sure it's the class that I am interested in playing. Also, it will be interesting to see if, after I've played the game and learned the class, if my initial analysis of the talents were accurate in what I chose.

Link to the tree.

I created that feat build with being a tank in mind, since that is what I fully expect to be doing in this game. I thoroughly enjoy the art of tanking in WoW, so I'm looking forward to doing the same thing in AoC. And, if it ends up being less of an endless grind, less of the hundreds of annoyances that must be dealt with in order to raid, and less of the time wasted before I can actually kill something, then it's money in the bank.

In any case, I'm reading up on the game all I can, but I don't plan on purchasing it just yet. I've been reading about a lot of launch bugs so far -- some that are so bad that you can't zone into certain places. So, I'm going to give it some time to stabilize before trying it out...at least a month I'd say.

So far though, reaction to the game has been quite positive, so I'm optimistic about it.

Women's Love Poem

Before I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for a man, who's not a creep,
One who's handsome, smart and strong
One who loves to listen long,
One who thinks before he speaks,
One who'll call, not wait for weeks.
I pray he's gainfully employed,
When I spend his cash, won't be annoyed.
Pulls out my chair and opens my door,
Massages my back and begs to do more.
Oh! Send me a man who'll make love to my mind,
Knows what to answer to 'how big is my behind?'
I pray that this man will love me to no end,
And always be my very best friend.

Mens Love Poem

I pray for a deaf-mute nymphomaniac with
huge boobs who owns a bar on a golf course,
and loves to send me fishing and hunting. This
doesn't rhyme and I don't give a shit.

I have an idea for a game show.

The idea came to me just now as I'm sitting here at work, the inspiration fueled by my ability to find the stupid things that Mark (the friend of mine over the wall) and I think of during the course of the day, which I then must find on the Internet (using Google and You Tube, of course).

The premise of the game show is quite simple. Three contestants are given a clue. Deciphering this clue will yield the name of something. That something could be a song lyric, a television commercial, a character in a book, or just about anything. Then, they must use Google and You Tube to find that item for everyone to see.

Example:

Clue -- "Pretty pretty dancing panda."
Item -- The old Snickers dancing panda commercial.
The link -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ0NG5cUC1w&NR=1

The first person to find it gets $1000. The person with the most money at the end of the round goes to the Lightning Round, where they must find as many items as they can in 90 seconds.

To keep the show interesting, you've gotta throw in comical things for the contestants to find, such as the above dancing panda example.

Then we need to get Drew Carey to host it...

I think I would play a Guardian:

http://www.wikiaoc.com/The-Age-of-Conan-Wiki

Oh Em Gee

Everyone is in retard mode this morning. Seriously. I can see how it would be necessary for me to go around 1 or 2 people who decide to drive the speed limit in the passing lane. But having to own SIX stupid mother fuckers just irritates me. Get the hell out of my way!

/snarl

The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service, at a hotel in Asia, which was recorded and published in the Far East Economic Review:


Room Service (RS): 'Morrin. - Roon sirbees.'

Guest (G): 'Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service.'

RS: 'Rye..Roon sirbees..morrin! Jewish to oddor sunteen??'

G: 'Uh..yes..I'd like some bacon and eggs.'

RS: 'Ow July den?'

G: 'What??'

RS: 'Ow July den?...pryed, boyud, poochd?'

G : 'Oh, the eggs! How do I like them?
Sorry, scrambled please.'

RS: 'Ow July dee baykem? Crease?'

G: 'Crisp will be fine.'

RS : 'Hokay. An Sahn toes?'

G: 'What?'

RS:'An toes. July Sahn toes?'

G: 'I don't think so.'

RS: 'No? Judo wan sahn toes??'

G: 'I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what 'judo wan sahn toes' means.'

RS: 'Toes! toes!...Why jew don juan toes? Ow bow Anglish moppin we bodder?'

G: 'English muffin!! I've got it! You were saying 'Toast.' Fine. Yes, an English muffin will be fine.'

RS: 'We bodder?'

G: 'No...just put the bodder on the side.'

RS: 'Wad! ?'

G: 'I mean butter...just put it on the side.'

RS: 'Copy?'

G: 'Excuse me?'

RS: 'Copy...tea...meel?'

G: 'Yes. Coffee, please, and that's all.'

RS: 'One Minnie. Scramah egg, crease baykem, Anglish moppin w bodder on sigh and copy....rye??'

G: 'Whatever you say.'

RS: 'Tenjewberrymuds.'

G : 'You're very welcome.'

I set up a Twitter. No real reason, just like there's no real reason why I keep a blog. You can see my twitter over there to the right.

Basically, it's a lazy-man's blog. So in essence, I just put a blog inside my blog. Deep.

The cool thing about it, though, is that I can post a Twitter from ANYWHERE, because it's linked to my cell phone. That will come in hand when I'm stuck somewhere bored out of my mind.

Make sure you notice the one in the oven.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1782135


Reminds me of my cat.

We ordered Chinese take-out for lunch at work today. I'm famous for always getting the "strange" fortunes, and today was certainly no exception. Here's my fortune:

Muchos pasos falsos son hechos por quedarse parado.

That's right. I got a fortune in Spanish. What the fuck?

Translated, it means, "False steps are often made while still being idle."


Leave it to me to get the ONLY fortune written in Spanish. Ever.

Cyclone Nargis

I always pay closer attention to news regarding natural disasters, because they've always held a certain fascination with me. And, because I'm a numbers freak, I always throw things into perspective by comparing them to other similar events.

The current death toll of that cyclone is 4,000. That's a tragedy, but let's compare it to other natural disasters.

The worst cyclone in history happened in 1970, in Bangladesh, and killed 500,000 people.

Expanding our natural disasters to more than just cyclones, the Yellow River in China flooded in 1931, and killed 4 million people.

Let's go the polar opposite of floods. The 1921-1922 drought in the Soviet Union killed 5 million people.

How about we throw in "human error". Because of the mismanagement of China's economy during the Great Leap Forward, 45 million people starved to death in the ensuing famine.

And let's not forget the greatest killer of all. The Black Plague killed 75 million people in the 1300s.

While we're on the topic, allow me to share with you my favorite type of natural disaster. Only two cases of this have been reported in recorded history. It's called a Limnic Eruption.

A limnic eruption occurs when a huge concentration of CO2 forms in a lake, and then erupts like someone opened a soda pop can. The release of CO2 suffocates all living things in the vicinity of the lake. The worst case happened in the 1980's, at a lake in Cameroon. 1800 people suffocated and died.