Massively

One of the many questions we have gotten when telling people about the combat system in Age of Conan is, "What's to stop me from swinging around mindlessly?" To which we like to respond, "Great question! Shields and Combos, actually." One thing you'll notice in the last two images are the white 'shield' icons surrounding the NPC monsters. Everything in the game has these shields, which will reduce damage taken from whatever side the shield is protecting. Combos are strings of regular directional attacks that cause a special attack to pop off -- they're similar to your special abilities in other MMOs. The only catch here is that you'll want to use them tactically around the enemy shields, otherwise their damaging effect will end up being reduced. When you drop a special attack into your shortcut bar, clicking it will cause the game to show you how to actually perform the special via combo string. In battle, players will be able to chain up to five combos in a row -- something we're looking forward to trying many times over.

25/03/08