Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer Impressions
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I've also received my first alternate-advancement perk, but it's very low ranked and the difference it has made is negligible. Alternate Advancement is the new set of skills and perks added with the Rise of the Godslayer expansion, in which the experience you gain normally also goes to a separate tab. I originally believed that it took a million points to get an AA point, but a million in fact gets you four points three of either "mastery" (from quests and player-versus-environment) or "prestige" (from player-versus-player) and one for expertise as a bonus, which can replace either a mastery or prestige point. I'm on a PvE server and PvP matches have been few and far between, so it's tough to imagine how one could ever make more headway with prestige than mastery, but things may be very different on a PvP server. By spending these points on the AA perks, you can enhance your character in ways you can't strictly through gear or leveling. For example, the perk I chose improves my melee, and ranged damage by 0.4% and my magic damage by 0.2% for the first rank. There are five ranks, though, so although I don't feel that much stronger right now, by the time I reach rank 5, the difference could easily be noticeable.
Visually, DirectX 10 makes the outdoor areas go from "pretty" to "downright gorgeous", although performance takes a big hit. The music is of a very high quality, and there seems to be a lot to do. I'm still in the first zone, and need to see several others (including the new low-level zone) before I can say how I feel about the expansion as a whole, but so far I'm quite impressed with Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer.
