Vanir armor

This is the Vanir counterpart to the post about Nemedian armor from a few weeks ago. Age of Conan contains a decent amount of low-level green Vanir-themed gear; much like the Nemedians, any Vanir mob can drop armor that is within a couple of levels of the mob’s own level. Most of this gear occurs across several levels, such that the different-level version of an item have different stats (and often also different names) but the same appearance. The lists below will try to indicate which levels each item is available on, but this information is probably a bit incomplete; there is so much Vanir gear that I didn’t explore it as thoroughly as I did Nemedian gear for my previous post. When not mentioned otherwise, the gear in this post is green and bind-on-equip.

Vanir weapons

Each sub-list below is a group of weapons with the same 3-d model, but different names (the corresponding levels are given in parentheses). Many of these 3-d models are used numerous times in the game for various quest rewards, dungeon drops, etc., and I don’t pretend to have collected all these variants; the lists only include those that I’m aware of.

• One-handed blunt
  • Crazed Vanir’s Mace (41)
  • Vanir Prospector’s Mace (45, 47)
  • Vanir Raider’s Mace (23, 25)
  • Vanir Avenger (80 blue bind-on-pickup) from Overseer Olik in the Vile Nativity
  • Scoundrel’s Spiked Mace (80 green bind-on-pickup), quest reward from War on the Roofs, Tarantia Commons
  • Skullcracker (31 blue bind-on-equip), drops from Commander Vakarr in Conall’s Valley (I’ve seen it in the epic instance, not sure if it also drops in the normal one or not)
• One-handed edged
  • Vanir Aggressor’s Axe (20, 22)
  • Vanir Beastmaster’s Axe (26, 28)
  • Vanir Sentry’s Axe (24)
  • Vanir Butcher Axe (80 blue bind-on-pickup) from Overseer Olik in the Vile Nativity
• Dagger
  • Vanir Ambusher’s Dagger (21, 23)
  • Vanir Flametender’s Dagger (25, 27)
  • Vanir Oracle’s Dagger (31)
  • Vanir Ritemaster’s Dagger (45, 47)
  • Vanir Fleshcarver (80 blue bind-on-equip) from Overseer Olik in the Vile Nativity
• Two-handed edged
  • Vanir Assailer’s Greataxe (40)
  • Vanir Infiltrator’s Greataxe (20, 22, 24)
  • Redspray (80 blue bind-on-pickup) from Tramplerage in the Onyx Chambers
• Two-handed blunt
  • Vanir Basher’s Battlehammer (46)
  • Vanir Cutthroat’s Battlehammer (20, 22, 24)
  • Vanir Deathbringer’s Battlehammer (30)
  • Vanir Reaver’s Battlehammer (28)
  • Oxleg (80 blue bind-on-pickup) from Nefru in the Onyx Chambers
  • Spinebreaker (29 blue bind-on-equip), world drop
  • Icebreaker (32 blue bind-on-pickup); prob. a quest reward
  • Remorse (50 blue bind-on-pickup); prob. a quest reward
  • Malignant Crusher (80 bind-on-equip), old-world drop
• Shield
  • Vanir Beastmaster’s Shield (27)
  • Vanir Champion’s Shield (31)
  • Vanir Desecrator’s Shield (29)
  • Vanir Raider’s Shield (21)
  • Vanir Sentinel’s Shield (25)
  • Vanir Warrior’s Shield (43)
• Thrown
  • Vanir Champion’s Throwing Axe (30)
  • Vanir Raider’s Throwing Axe (20, 22, 24)
  • Vanir Reaver’s Throwing Axe (26, 28)
  • Vanir Warder’s Throwing Axe (40, 42)
  • Vanir Warrior’s Throwing Axe (44, 46)
  • Throwing Axe of the Ziggurat (80 blue bind-on-pickup) from Narvi in the Threshold of Divinity
• Bow
  • Vanir Digger’s Bow (39, 41, 43)
  • Vanir Lookout’s Bow (21)
  • Vanir Master Scout’s Bow (31)
  • Vanir Sharpshooter’s Bow (45, 47)
  • Vanir Skirmisher’s Bow (23)
• Shield
  • Vanir Square Shield (80 blue bind-on-pickup) from Overseer Olik in the Vile Nativity

Heavy armor

Each of these sets consists of 7 parts (everything except hands) at every possible level. They occur under two names: Vanir Champion’s (level 30, 32) and Vanir Warrior’s (level 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48). Regardless of name and level, all these sets look exactly the same.

Medium armor

Each of these sets consists of 2 parts (head and chest) at every possible level. They occur under various names: Vanir Assailer’s (level 40), Vanir Deathbringer’s (30, 32), Vanir Raider’s (level 20, 22), Vanir Reaver’s (level 26, 28), Vanir Sentry’s (level 24), and Vanir Sharpshooter’s (level 44, 46, 48). Regardless of name and level, all these sets look exactly the same. In the following screenshot I combined the two medium parts with the other 5 parts of the heavy set (legs, feet, belt, shoulders, wrists).

Light armor

Each of these sets consists of 7 parts (everything except hands) at every possible level. They occur under various names: Vanir Ambusher’s (level 21), Vanir Berserker’s (level 27, 29, 31), Vanir Hunter’s (level 41), Vanir Infiltrator’s (level 25), Vanir Pathfinder’s (level 45, 47, 49), Vanir Skirmisher’s (level 23), and Vanir Warder’s (level 39). Regardless of name and level, all these sets look exactly the same.

Cloth armor

Each of these sets consists of 7 parts (everything except hands) at every possible level. They occur under four names: Vanir Acolyte’s (level 20, 22), Vanir Mystic’s (level 30, 32), Vanir Ritemaster’s (level 44, 46, 48), and Vanir Runecaster’s (level 24, 26). Regardless of name and level, all these sets look exactly the same.

Vanaheim Conquest armor

This is conqueror culture armor; like other culture armor sets, it consists of 6 parts: the head, chest, and legs are level 78, and the hands, belt, and feet are level 79. These are all crafted blue bind-on-equip items and the recipes (one for the big pieces and one for the small pieces) drop from the Ghost of Rorik in Atzel’s Fortress. This set looks exactly the same as the Vanir heavy armor we mentioned above (except of course that it lacks wrists and shoulders, and on the other hand it includes hands, which the Vanir green sets lack).

In principle you could combine the conqueror culture armor with low-level green Vanir heavy armor to obtain a complete set (the conq culture set has hands, the low-level green sets have wrists and shoulders, and the other 5 parts are available in both sets and look identical). However, the result isn’t that great, in my opinion; as the following picture shows, the hands don’t go too well with the wrists.

Excavator armor

This is a level 80 social armor set (containing all 8 parts) that drops partly from the Overseer Olik in the Vile Nativity and partly from Narvi in the Threshold of Divinity. It’s closely related to the Vanir heavy sets shown earlier. Here’s a screenshot of it from my old post about the House of Crom armor sets:

Miscellaneous armor

One of the Clan Vigdis vendors (in Conarch Village) sells level 39 purple chests using the same models as the green bind-on-equip sets we’ve seen above (to buy them, you need rank 2 in that faction): Housekarl’s Harness (light), Vanir Bloodied Mail Jerkin (medium), Pathfinder’s Jerkin of the Wilds (medium), Raider’s Feral War Coat (heavy).

Narvi in the Threshold of Divinity also drops a few additional pieces of armor (blue, bind-on-pickup, often with interesting stats, especially a high amount of constitution) that reuse the same models:

• Vanir Armguards of Subterfuge (heavy shoulder, using the same model as shoulders from the low-level heavy sets above): 446 armor, 102 critigation, 74 str, 40 evade rtg, 46 hit rtg
• Vanir Bracers of Deterrence (light wrists, using the same model as wrists from the low-level *cloth* sets above): 284 armor, 132 critigation, 75 con, 30 hit rtg
• Vanir Helmet of Vitality (medium head, using the same model as heads from the low-level medium sets above): 699 armor, 263 critigation, 96 con, 5 nat stam regen, 45 hit rtg, 48 crit rtg
• Vanir Boots of Rapidity (cloth feet, using the same model as feet from the low-level cloth sets above): 295 armor, 161 critigation, 65 con, 7.5 nat stam regen, 48 hit rtg, 58 crit dmg rtg, 5% out of combat movement speed

There are also several low-level cloth feet that use the same model as the feet from the Vanir cloth sets: you can get Frayed Padsoles (level 5, white) and Coarse Padsoles (level 10, white) from the armor vendor NPC in Tortage; green versions (with additional adjectives in the name, e.g. Dense Frayed Padsoles) in this level range also drop randomly from mobs.

Nemedian armor

Ever since the launch of the game, various low-level mobs have been dropping green armor with names and appearance specific to their culture. Thus, we have Vanir, Nemedian, Darfari, and Pictish armor. The introduction of the achievement system has encouraged us to perpetrate small-scale genocides against Vanir, Nemedians, and Picts, and this in turn has enabled me to work on cataloging as much of their loot as possible. This post will be about Nemedian gear, and hopefully one about Vanir gear will follow in due course.

It appears that any Nemedian mob has a chance of dropping a piece of Nemedian gear (in addition to whatever other things you might expect a mob of that level to drop); however, a mob can only drop Nemedian gear close to its own level. Thus, if there is no Nemedian gear of a suitable level, the mob in question won’t drop any Nemedian gear. As we’ll see below, two pieces of Nemedian gear are level 37 (two-handed weapons) and everything else is on level 26–30. This means that you can’t get Nemedian gear from Nemedians in Tarantia Noble District and in Poitain; and the level 37–39 Nemedians in the eastern parts of the Wild Lands of Zelata can only drop two pieces of Nemedian gear (level 37 two-handed weapons). Thus, the best place for farming Nemedian gear is in the southeast of the Wild Lands and in the Border Range. Since this gear is green and bind-on-equip, you can also buy it from other players.

Nemedian weapons

• Nemedian Crossbow
• Nemedian Double-handed Axe
• Nemedian Falchion
• Nemedian Mace
• Nemedian Pugio
• Nemedian Scrotum Scutum
• Nemedian War Maul

These weapons are available in several versions with different levels: 26, 28, 30, 32. Additionally, the Double-handed Axe (2he) and War Maul (2hb) are also available in a level 37 version.

There is another weapon which is a bit of a special case, called Nemedian Skinning Knife. This is a blue bind-on-pickup weapon (unlike everything else in this post, which is green and bind-on-equip), exists only in a level 34 version and drops from General Zarathus in the Border Range.

Nemedian Legionary’s armor

This medium armor set consists of 6 pieces (head, chest, wrist, belt, legs, feet) and exists in a level 30 and 32 version.

Some items with the same models also appear elsewhere: the helmet uses the same model as Zukas’ Prized Helm (from Zukas in the Main System) and Border Kingdom Helmet (quest reward for Atzel’s Head on a Pike, from Aelfrith in Conan’s castle); and the leg piece looks the same as Dogmatist’s Tasset (from Zukas in the Main System).

Nemedian Mage armor

The only Nemedian Mage item is a chest piece (Nemedian Mage Robe), which also exists in a level 30 and 32 version.

This robe uses the same model as generic level 20–29 mage cloth chest pieces; the basic level 20 white version is called Rough-stitched Robe (you can buy it from NPC vendors) and there are also lots of green versions with additional adjectives in front of the name. Another similar robe, but not quite the same, is the Dark Ember Robe (from the HoX level 40–49 world-drop set).

Nemedian Scout’s armor

This light armor set consists of 7 pieces (everything except hands) and exists in a level 30 and 32 version.

It looks exactly the same as the Pathfinder set (level 40–69 world-drop set for rangers), except that the latter also contains hands. The Pathfinder set is medium armor, so Nemedian Scout’s might be a useful option if you want it for vanity on a character that can only wear light but not medium armor.

Some of these models are also reused elsewhere: the legs look the same as Corruptor’s Tasset (from Renato Savill in the Cistern); the shoulders look the same as Proselite Armbands (from Zukas in the Main System).

Nemedian Cursecaller armor

This is HoX culture armor and is thus not really part of the Nemedian armor system; it doesn’t drop from any Nemedian mobs (although you can see some of them wearing at least some parts of it, e.g. caster mobs in the Noble District, so I just mention it here for the sake of completeness. Like other culture armor sets, it consists of six parts: the head, chest, and legs are level 78, and the hands, belt, and feet are level 79. These are all crafted blue bind-on-equip items and the recipes (one for the big pieces and one for the small pieces) drop from Black Ring Slave Masters/Mistresses in the Onyx Chambers.

Interestingly, this set used to look pink but was eventually changed into a much less appealing pale green. See the following screenshot of my HoX from early 2009 or so:

It looked a lot less attractive on male HoXes, as can be seen from the following picture (linked from the now-lost EU forum):

There are also some other items with the same models: the chest (Nemedian Cursecaller Robes) uses the same model as Darkcraft Vesture (from Hek’lar in the Main System) and Corpse-mouldered Robe (Trapped Ghost, Slaughterhouse cellar); the head (Nemedian Cursecaller Cap) uses the same model as Border Kingdom Headdress (quest reward from the Atzel’s Head on a Pike quest, given by Aelfrith in Conan’s castle).

Sexy boots!

Some of the lovely Nemedian Priestesses in the Wild Lands of Zelata wear these very cute boots, but unfortunately they don’t drop as part of the Nemedian armor drops:

I’ve also seen some other mobs wear these boots, e.g. Jovus in Crows’ Nest.

It turns out that this model is available to us players on the following items: Leopardbane Slippers (level 44 quest reward from the Armsman’s Arena), Shadowmantis Treads (level 61 world-drop blue bind-on-equip item), Svelte Treads (level 69 world-drop blue bind-on-equip item), Ironsilk Padsoles (generic level 75–79 assassin cloth feet; you can buy a white version from NPC vendors, you can craft green and blue ones (the blue version is called Fine Ironsilk Padsoles), and there are also several green ones with additional adjectives dropping from mobs in that level range).

The Seventeenth Portent

This month’s boss, The Thrice Drowned, is mostly the same as last year, with the same name and appearance, spawning in the same locations, preceded by the same green mob, etc. etc. See my post from last year for more about it.

Crabs with LAZERS!!! (Click to enlarge.)

A notable difference is that they gave the boss a new ability: What is Dead May Never Die, which gives the boss a 15-second shield (including an easily noticeable yellow particle effect). This shield provides it with both damage deflection (so your hits will do a lot less damage while the boss has this shield) as well as retributive damage, so it’s quite easy for people to kill themselves on it if they keep DPSing while the shield is up. The other abilities are the same as last year: Reaper Beam (channeled spell, the boss turns about 180 degrees while casting it; it’s a frontal cone attack that does holy damage and a 3-second stun); Rise Again (piercing damage, probably in a frontal cone); Curse of the Drowned God (frontal cone, does a bit of poison damage and puts a wrack on people, giving them -30% physical invulnerability for 30 sec); Geyser (ranged frost attack which the boss uses as an anti-kiting mechanism). The boss has 19.55 million HP, just like last year (and a bit less than most world bosses).

As usual, killing the boss gives you a buff called Slayer of the Thrice Drowned, but curiously it doesn’t remove the previous buff, Slayer of the Dust Fiend. I guess the devs forgot to update this when they replaced last year’s March boss (Serpent Man Oldblood) with the Dust Fiend.

The new shield particle. (Click to enlarge.)

Last year I had very bad luck on this boss, killing it 236 times without getting the purple pet. This year was better, as I got the pet after 67 kills on my guardian. The boss seemed to take much longer to kill than last year, perhaps because of the new shield ability and perhaps because there’s fewer people and/or more of them are AFK. I wouldn’t be able to manage even half as many kills as last year, even if I didn’t slow down after getting the pet. Fights lasting over 20 minutes are nothing unusual this week.

Here are a few screenshots of the purple pet dropping from this boss, Mini-Pet: Drowned One. The description (“A miniature replica of a drowned sorceress, she is now one with the sea”) seems to allude to Sodabeh, which makes sense since that’s the fight that contains mobs that look like this crab. But in that case, why did they use this model here in Thunder River, which (1) is in Aquilonia instead of in Turan, and (2) is a river and not the sea?!

People used to say that my guardian is a slut that probably has crabs…
Now, in a sense, they are right 😛 (Click to enlarge.)

Occasionally, the pet will KB you, producing a big geyser-style particle effect:

(Click to enlarge.)

I’ll add the loot table later, after I’m done farming the boss and opening the boxes.

The Sixteenth Portent

At the end of the first cycle of 12 portents, the devs announced that they would be replacing two of them with new ones, supposedly for being unpopular or something like that. I wonder thy the Dragon Spine portent, Serpent Man Oldblood, whom we fought in March 2014, was scheduled for replacement; there was nothing particularly wrong with that fight, nor did I have the impression that it was unusually unpopular. There may have been a bit fewer people there, but that’s probably just because the Dragon Spine is not accessible to people on free-to-play accounts.

(Click to enlarge.)

Anyway, the new March boss still spawned in the Dragon’s Spine, but is now a humanoid mob called the Dust Fiend. It spawns at (920, 680) in front of the Palace of Cetriss, near the T5 raid entrance. In terms of appearance it is nothing to write home about, and reminded me a little of the sand demons that were introduced with Turan. (Incidentally, there is also a quest called The Demon of the Sands in the Gateway to Khitai, at the end of a chain from Dair Usun in Menudsjin’s camp; but the resulting boss, called Writhing Sandstrosity, actually looks like a kraken.)

Initially, the boss was CC’able, so the fight was completely trivial since he pretty much never had the time to use any of his abilities. After a few days, they patched this in a hotfix and the fight was slightly less trivial, though still not particularly challenging. His abilities include: Swirling Sands (spawns moving fire circles on the ground; the circles knockback any players standing in them); Quicksand (spawns a circle on the ground, gives anyone standing in it +70% hinder movement and a slashing dot); Sandstorm (puts a 15-sec debuff on people near the boss: +50% miss chance, +0.5% fizzle chance, and a slashing dot).

Curiously, the boss has just 18.97 million HP, which is about 6% less than most world bosses.

(Click to enlarge.)

The loot follows the usual pattern: you mostly get a blue box, Hunter’s Trove of the Dust Fiend, or occasionally a purple box called Slayer’s Cache of the Dust Fiend. Presumably you can also get this purple box from the blue box (instead of directly to the boss), but this never happened to me this week (admittedly, I didn’t farm the boss *that* much). On one alt I got a Slayer’s Cache of the Inferno Lord from one of the blue boxes — i.e. I got a purple box belonging to one of the previous bosses, rather than to this one.

There is of course a new pet, Companion: Dust Fiend, which looks like a miniature version of the boss but doesn’t do anything terribly interesting. He does have a few nice spellcasting animations:

(Click to enlarge.)

(Click to enlarge.)

For comparison, here’s the Sand Demon, the combat pet that comes with the Turan pack:

(Click to enlarge.)

Things I got from the blue boxes on my guardian:

Count	Item
Social animations, particles etc.
1	Bottled Spirits
5	Cool Runnings
1	Eighth Plague of Stygia
1	Ritual Knife
Food, potions, buffs
0	Potent Daggamalt, Dire Sweetpressed Haste
0	Ta Neheh Leaf Elixir
0	Kingsmight Ale
3	Elixirs (2 Invigorative Rejuvenation, 1 Precision)
6	Philtres (4 Constitution, 2 Strength)
1	Minor Elixir of Resurgence (self-rez)
Vendors of crappy social consumables
0	Traveller’s Merchant Contract
Social armor sets
3	Harlot’s set
4	Khemi Guard set
3	Shattered Colossus set
6	Slayer’s set
3	Vizier’s set of State
0	other social armor sets
Other social armor
1	Crown of Autumn
1	Tigerskin cloaks
Raid gear
7	T1 armor
3	T1 weapons (1 sword, 2 shields)
3	T2 armor
1	T2 weapons (1 sword)
AA urns
4	Flask of Completion (20000 Mastery XP)
5	Flask of Direction (50000 Mastery XP)
0	Coffer of Radiance (62500 Mastery XP)
Tokens
6	50 Esteen Tokens
5	30 Marks of Acclaim
Pets
3	animal pets (2 Charcoal Firebird Chicks, 1 Topaz Komodo)
3	dancing pets (1 Aquilonian male, 1 Cimmerian male, 1 Stygian female)
Purple caches
0	Slayer’s Cache of the Dust Fiend (purple cache)

Also seen on other characters: Stygian Special Mushroom, Hero Ascendant social armor, Coffer of Radiance.

And an overview of purple caches from all bosses so far, on all of my characters (some of the bosses from the 2nd cycle are omitted as I wasn’t farming them much):

Boss	Total no. of kills	# purple caches			Drops from purple caches
		from blue	direct	total	Simple Relics	Urns	Rare Relics	Pets	Gear
Dragon	185	6	2	8	7 (29)	0	0	1	0
Yeti	61	3	2	5	4 (15)	0	0	1	0
Basilisk	141	4	2	6	2 (7)	2	0	2	0
Serp. Man	78	3	6	9	7 (25)	0	0	1	0
Thrice Dr.	236	1	12	13	8 (31)	4	0	0	1
Ice Worm	191	1	9	10	8 (33)	0	0	1	1
Nergal	91	0	4	4	2 (7)	1	0	1	0
Leviathus	161	1	5	6	5 (20)	1	0	0	0
Execut.	122	0	6	6	4 (15)	0	0	2	0
Lurker	151	4	5	9	6 (29)	1	0	1	1
B. Queen	220	3	5	8	4 (15)	3	1	0	0
Inf. Lord	154	2	4	6	5 (19)	0	0	0	1
Second Cycle
Dragon	69	0	1	1	0 (0)	0	0	1	0
Dust F.	91	1	5	6	4 (16)	1	0	1	0

I got a second legendary Black Dragon minipet during the second appearance of the Black Dragon boss (December 2014). Sadly, as I already had one from last year and it’s BoP, I couldn’t do anything other than vendor it :S

Targets of Interest achievements

Here are the coordinates of the mobs you have to kill for the ‘Targets of Interest’ achievements. I’ll add other playfields as I get around to doing them.

Acheronian Ruins

• Tham’Kur (170, 170)
• Tapah (413, 182)
• Bat Demon Kothar-Wa (468, 250)
• Al’Gol the Corpsefeaster (375, 430)

White Sands Isle

• Flesh-Eating Plant (662, 430)
• The Silverback Behemoth (682, 320; actually he patrols around)
• The Ravenous One (631, 199)
• Gorilla Queen (218, 180)
• Tear-Kirahn (565, 346)
• Greater Black One (955, 671)

Tortage Underhalls

• Askia (279, 155)
• Ceremonial Master (164, 323)

Bubshur House

• Shepses (375, 305)
• Akhiban (335, 235)
• Menkafri (288, 188)
• Akhita (255, 260)
• Lurker in the Dark (196, 295)

Khopshef Province

• Mantis Champion (195, 297)
• Hep Kab Chief (302, 655)
• Captain Sylfest (207, 766)
• Sektep (301, 1322)
• Bubshur Undead Guard Chief (441, 1292)
• Abasi (681, 1392)
• River Raider Chief (1132, 1380)
• Jahi (1400, 1460)

Wild Lands of Zelata

• Mercenary Pathfinder (1122, 1367)
• Nemedian Quartermaster (1116, 1018)
• Nemedian Tactician (1001, 832)
• Nemedian High-Priest (1041, 685)
• Mercenary Commander (patrols all over the Nemedian camps in the east of the playfield)
• Nemedian Forager (1007, 400)
• Nemedian Executioner (887, 274)
• Nemedian Mage (845, 315) and (842, 339)
• Nemedian Bannerman (791, 263)

Conall’s Valley

• Yeti (848, 1044)
• Battlemaster Torgvall (1300, 875)
• Commander Magni (1368, 800)
• Commander Vakarr (1584, 1036)
• Lodur Frostbeard (1622, 1133)
• Jorgrimm (1752, 1071)

Field of the Dead

• Ymirish Houndmaster (85, 551)
• Ymirish Wolfrunner (182, 341)
• Vanir Shaman (344, 388)
• Thorain Redfang (367, 373)
• Audun Nightstalker (437, 416)
• Hakon Wolftamer (287, 679)
• Werewolf Chief (343, 818)
• Bloodclaw (397, 823)
• Ymirish Bearlock (628, 979)
• Lieutenant Rhor (645, 966)
• Lieutentant Haken (540, 992)
• Specter Warchief (886, 975)
• Vanir Warmaster (1000, 780)
• Ymirish Frostlord (981, 740)
• Gurnakhi Champion (1090, 821)
• Specter Warlord (1009, 1080)
• Brand Hellhammer (1081, 398)
• Ymirish Field Commander (1109, 419)
• Vanir Headman (1007, 378)
• Ymirish Seidir (1013, 420)
• Specter of Chieftain Flann (876, 1028)
• Specter of Chieftain Giron (515, 189)
• Specter of Chieftain Talorc (587, 573)
• Specter of Chieftain Enfreth (470, 300)
• Specter of Chieftain Bricriu (582, 400)
• Specter of Chieftain Iogenan (575, 160)
• Specter of Chieftain Munaith (750, 250)
• Specter of Chieftain Cemoyd (548, 404)
• Specter of Chieftain Nechtan (660, 279)
• Specter of Chieftain Fidaich (441, 234)
• Specter of Chieftain Olgudach (631, 249)
• Specter of Chieftain Cinaith (504, 388)
• Specter of Chieftain Lutrin (562, 183)
• Specter of Chieftain Gailtram (478, 169)
• Brigand Philipus (1183, 267)
• Outlaw Tobias (1302, 282)
• Outlaw Henricus (1221, 251)

Eiglophian Mountains

• Cannibal Chief (360, 423)
• Cannibal Chief (1069, 295)
• Cannibal Chief (506, 761)
• Diabolist Aino (904, 767)
• Nunatak (910, 661)
• Necromancer Kullervo (1020, 926)
• Vainamoinen the Dreamwalker (934, 908)
• Titan (711, 1073)
• Pongidae (842, 1231; actually he patrols over a wide area)
• Na’Tsu’Ko (1073, 1230)
• Kamoinen (1133, 1265)
• Torumjumala (1219, 1290)

Cannibal Cave

• Chief Uruk’Ar (227, 190)

Ymir’s Pass

• Gelba (457, 710)
• Captain Hramgar (155, 770)
• Chief Groel (144, 1012)
• Yzdar (794, 1275)
• Champion of Ymir (996, 1259)
• Zantillo (1127, 866)
• Captain Rocca (1390, 877)
• Jevina Nightsoul (1349, 306)
• Zaroth the Black (1188, 211)
• Cowled One (1204, 450)
• Skuld the Ghost King (771, 295; patrolling)
• Urdalus the Ghost King (665, 365; patrolling)
• Parabella (439, 545)
• Tharr the Battlelord (385, 427; patrolling)
• Nardum the Quarry Overseer (227, 384; patrolling)
• Kyrostias the Tormentor (858, 569)

Atzel’s Approach

• Ice Demon (149, 825)
• Atzel Fortress Gate Captain (691, 772)
• Black Dragon Magnus (620, 642)
• Lieutenant Eyvie (171, 673)
• Chill Crawler Brood Mother (77, 387); this is a group boss, try to kill the minions extremely quickly, otherwise the boss becomes invulnerable to damage for a while
• Troglodyte Chief (65, 127)
• Nether Lord (917, 432)
• Beastmaster (837, 151)
• Crazed Troglodyte Chief (876, 18)

Thunder River

• Blood Fang (481, 1587)
• Tarakwi (1085, 1000)
• Risen Avenger (1282, 1757)
• Occultist Kodril-Kau (1445, 1172)
• Ikkerons (1239, 802)
• The Darkwalker (1122, 786)

Coast of Ardashir

• Roshanak the Merciless (738, 603)
• Jochi the Kozak (926, 416)

Kheshatta

• Chosen of Set (1124, 830)
• Apostle of Set (1122, 790)
• Blessed of Set (1148, 700)
• Crimson Boss (710, 1012)
• Death Master Harbinger (956, 359)
• Black Ring Prodigy (727, 461; patrolling)
• Rogue Guard Captain (675, 375)
• Gullah Blade Master (509, 176) and probably elsewhere; the mob is really called Gallah Blademaster
• Black Ring Warmage (293, 693) and elsewhere
• Bat Demon Lord (273, 756)
• Seremis the Outlaw (527, 1047)
• Hong Gildong (698, 610) and other locations

Tarantia Common District

• Risen Warrior (238, 1051; only appears at night — after 19:00 in-game time)
• Amun-Nepthek (94, 937)
• Lazar (269, 1007)

Tarantia Noble District

• Ares the Pyromancer (811, 1088)
• Elihud the Mender (898, 1045)

Villa Amiel

• Chef Vibius (283, 177)

Villa Camillus

• Lord Camillus (338, 176; upper floor)

Villa Lentulus

• Gurges the Nimble (221, 308; top floor)

Villa Paetus

• Lord Paetus (283, 286; upper floor)

Villa Verde

• Kephalos the Cruel (253, 251; upper floor)

Gateway to Khitai

• Gluttonous Archfiend (588, 355) and elsewhere; patrolling
• Huge Grim Fiend (689, 287); patrolling
• Kuchu Khan (1168, 304)
• Yurki (1351, 730)
• Huang-di (750, 820)
• Kasar (710, 752)
• Cong the King (1228, 384)
• Zang Xin Elder (1116, 171; patrolling)
• Zang Xin Lieutenant (1254, 374)

Northern Grasslands

• Senior Warmonk (159, 457)
• So’tu the Smasher (96, 756)
• Zang Xin Defiler (148, 630)
• Cro’tan the Knowing (181, 767)
• Mu the Ferocious (370, 112)
• Zan the Bonechewer (535, 145)
• Fu the Screamer (656, 286) and (735, 58)
• Lemurian Queen (1350, 324)
• Lotus-touched Craterspawn (1185, 179)
• Malevolent Craterspawn (698, 174)
• Bloody Thief (960, 377)

Chosain Province

• Darkspawn Corruptor (335, 1135)
• Ling-Kung (110, 800)
• Man the Merciless (390, 530 in a cave; and also 488, 567, which is in a cave upstairs)
• Bing-Zhong (810, 132)
• Baio the Guardian (1261, 1025)
• Soul Harvester (1382, 1345)

Kara Korum

• Hu’nan the Soultouched (823, 1121)
• Merek the Tainted (980, 900)
• Uncontrolled Kang-Zai (234, 383)
• Overgrown Craterspawn (644, 466) and (897, 327)
• Lun the Insane (928, 397)
• Shi’za the Malicious (1257, 808)
• Kha-tan the Crazed (1647, 1217)
• Mei-ta the Mad (1444, 574)
• Malevolent Apparition (1753, 347)

Paikang

• Gibbering Hermit (416, 305)
• Dark Legion Commander (568, 184) and (817, 318); two patrolling ones
• Hellish Fiend (742, 371; actually he patrols around)
• King Pong (830, 525) — jump to his island from the Shadows of Jade camp, around (796, 510); I jumped with a tiger, got killed while landing, and used a self-rez potion; but apparently you can also survive the jump. You can apparently also pull him with a ranger (with the +range modifier).
• Dominant Baboon (860, 476)
• Master Dong (1207, 1390); he has a 95% damage deflection and +200% bonus damage buff; you need items from the Brittle Blade quest chain to remove those buffs, or you should fight him with a group

Dragon’s Spine

• Abomination (2×) (550, 862)
• Hapikern the Physician (1172, 399); rare spawn, also for the Bane of Serpent Men

Great Khan’s War Bringer

The Great Khan’s War Bringer is a legendary mount which can drop from the Hoard of the War Bringer, a lottery box that was recently introduced into the item shop. It’s also tradable between players. I bought a couple of boxes and got lucky, so here are a few screenshots:

(Click to enlarge.)

(Click to enlarge.)

In terms of speed (including turning speed), this mount is equivalent to tigers, wolves, Hyrkanian horses, etc., and is thus better than most other swift and armored horses. Its energy regeneration is actually a little better than that of tigers, wolves etc. (7 sec to regenerate, instead of 9 sec). See this post for more about mount speeds and other attributes.

The buff while mounted is −50 chance of being staggered.

According to the tooltip, the Hoard of the War Bringer can also drop a mount called Swift Ymirish Colossal Cold One (a mammoth), but I haven’t seen one of these yet; meanwhile, plenty of Great Khan’s War Bringer are available on the trader, so I’m starting to suspect that something is wrong with the hoard’s loot table and the second mount perhaps doesn’t drop at all.

Shrine achievements

To get the Shrines achievements, you need to do the correct emote in front of each of the shrines in various Khitai playfields. There’s around 120 emotes in the game and it isn’t necessarily particularly obvious which emote is correct for which shrine, so I made a script that test them all. The annoying thing about this is that whenever you do any kind of emote in front of a shrine, you get a message that “The gods enjoyed your performance” (which is particularly funny if the emote you did was e.g. /fart :P) and you also get a 1-minute debuff which you can’t remove and during which all your emotes are ignored. So you can only try about 1 emote per minute. When you find the correct emote for that shrine, you get a message that “The gods are pleased with your prayer” and you get a 15-minute buff called Major Gift of X, where X is the deity to which the shrine is dedicated.

For some shrines, you can also get the achievement update by making a donation instead of doing the emote. Some shrines are present in multiple locations and AFAIK any of them will count towards the achievement.

Note that if there are several shrines associated with the same deity, they will all require the same emote and often also look exactly the same, even if they are in different playfields.

Name	Location	Emote
Gateway to Khitai
Cang‑Jei	400, 508	/laughheartily or pay 1c
Cheng‑Ho	1254, 714	/give or pay 1c
Chi’fu‑Shen	971, 666	/crossarms or pay 1c
Niu‑Xinchang	1430, 628	/kneel or pay 1c
Yun	500, 585	/slitthroat or pay 5s
Northern Grasslands
Cang‑Jei	807, 694	/laughheartily
Cheng‑Ho	1493, 624	/give
Cheng‑Ho	1300, 177	/give
Ch’Eng‑Huang	936, 686	/trance
Ch’i‑Ti	475, 1120	/hugefish
Chi’fu‑Shen	1407, 904	/crossarms or pay 1g
Ciangda	291, 332	/squat
Han‑Congmin	375, 1182	/pointdown
Niu‑Xinchang	296, 909	/kneel
Xunsu	921, 1474	/bow_khitai_greet
Yun	997, 918	/slitthroat or pay 1c
Chosain Province
Cang‑Jei	1114, 711	/laughheartily
Cheng‑Ho	265, 1456	/give
Ch’Eng‑Huang	850, 107	/harmony
Chi’fu‑Shen	702, 98	/crossarms
Ch’i-Ti	914, 840	/hugefish
	This one is tricky to reach; immediately after you cross the first bridge towards upper Shaulun, turn right and reach the climbing point at (929, 857), climb up and then use the next climbing point at (918, 853).
Ciangda	975, 815	/squat
Han‑Congmin	248, 1131	/pointdown or pay 1g
Han‑Congmin	1110, 782	/pointdown
Hu‑Hu	701, 434	/lounge
Hu‑Hu	1234, 532	/lounge
Niu‑Xinchang	285, 1468	/kneel
Niu‑Xinchang	1009, 803 (upstairs)	/kneel
Xunsu	268, 1464	/bow_khitai_greet
Xunsu	899, 751	/bow_khitai_greet
Yag‑Kosha	919, 814	/pointup
Kara Korum
Cang‑Jei	554, 364	/laughheartily
Cheng-ho	1395, 986	/give
Cheng-ho	924, 389	/give
Ch’Eng‑Huang	515, 121	/trance
Ch’Eng‑Huang	1375, 1049	/trance
Chi’fu‑Shen	1777, 453	/crossarms
Ch’i‑Ti	1394, 974	/hugefish
Ciangda	599, 721	/squat
Ciangda	1922, 255	/squat
Han‑Congmin	483, 135	/pointdown
Han‑Congmin	1389, 966	/pointdown
Niu‑Xinchang	593, 1333	/kneel
Niu‑Xinchang	1775, 361	/kneel
Xunsu	419, 748	/bow_khitai_greet
Yag‑Kosha	1052, 1330	/pointup
Yun	541, 120	/slitthroat
Yun	1388, 521	/slitthroat
Paikang
Cang‑Jei	454, 364	/laughheartily
Cheng‑Ho	1395, 994	/give
Ch’Eng‑Huang	885, 855	/trance
Ch’i‑Ti	718, 1268	/hugefish
Ciangda	1058, 1376	/squat
Chi’fu‑Shen	320, 1217	/crossarms
Han‑Congmin	1174, 916	/pointdown
Hu‑Hu	913, 633	/lounge
Niu‑Xinchang	259, 876	/kneel
Xunsu	1216, 1384	/bow_khitai_greet
Yag‑Kosha	548, 652 (altar, no statue)	/pointup
Yag‑Kosha	558, 637	/pointup
Yag‑Kosha	564, 644	/pointup
Yun	320, 442	/slitthroat
Yun	298, 549	/slitthroat

Many thanks to people who helped me collect information about the shrines!

Slutty guardqueror armor

Having recently completed the T5 armor set on my guardian, I have to admit it looks a lot less horrible than the infamous abomination we got from T4, but it still merits an obligatory whine post.

I never particularly liked conqueror raid armor in the old T1/T2/T3 days. The skirt is just plain silly, the belt is a like that of a former wrestling champion that is using an overly broad belt to compensate for you can only imagine what, and the most charitable thing you can say about the helmet is that it looks like an old-fashioned chamberpot. So imagine my disappointment when it turned out that Funcom not only doesn’t have the resources to design 12 new sets of armor for T5, it doesn’t even have time to recolor each of the twelve T3 sets, so several classes now have to make do with armor that should really belong to some other class, and among other things guardians now get what is basically a slightly recolored conqueror set. The only piece of guardian armor they kept was the helmet, which is basically the T3 guardian helmet, complete with the silly horns and the can opener in the middle, just slightly recolored and with the horns pointing upwards instead of forward (now that’s progression!).

The only good thing about this set is the chest, which gives you plenty of opportunity to show off your boobs. I always felt a bit sorry when conqs started replacing their old T2/T3 chests with Khitai faction chests and T4 chests, so it’s nice to see that this model is now making a comeback.

 

Tireless Defender? More like tiresome defender 😛

Another annoying thing: in a desperate effort to avoid clipping with hair, the helmet makes your hair disappear completely, even if it’s long enough that it should be visible below the helmet. But then the lower-tier guardian helmets had the same problem.

The T5 conqueror set (Proven Champion) AFAIK looks the same, except in a different color and with a helmet based on the old conqueror helmet instead of the guardian one.

Set bonuses

I like the concept of set bonuses, but for many classes (including guardians) the bonuses you actually get from T5 armor are pretty underwhelming. The guardian T5 set bonuses work as follows: when you perform a certain combo, you get a 20-second buff (called Boon of X, for various values of X). Which buff you get (i.e. which of your stats it will improve) depends on your maneuver or tactic. The buff increases in power depending on how many pieces of the T5 set you have equipped (the first level of bonuses unlocks at 3 pieces, they get improved when you reach 5 pieces, and the strongest buffs unlock at 8 pieces). The buffs don’t disappear if you change weapons, switch stances etc., so in principle you could have two buffs active at the same time.

The following table shows the details. The ‘What it gives’ column shows 3 numbers — the first is when you’re wearing 3–4 parts of the set, the second is for 5–7 parts, the third is when you’re wearing all 8 parts of the set.

Combo	Tactic or Maneuver	Resulting Buff	What it gives
Guard V*	Maneuver: Mental Barrier	Boon of Protection	+100/200/300 protection for 20 sec
	Maneuver: Elusive Daring	Boon of the Spearman	+4%/8%/12% weapon damage (melee) for 20 sec
	Maneuver: Wall of Steel	Boon of Vitality	+2.5%/5%/7.5% received healing modifier for 20 sec
Counterstrike IV*	Tactic: Provoke	Boon of Dissipation	+200/400/600 critigation amount for 20 sec
	Tactic: Defense	Boon of Defense	+1.5%/3%/5% bonus armor for 20 sec
	Tactic: Attack	Boon of Guile	+36/73/109 critical rating for 20 sec

*Or the corresponding version of Deliberate Reprisal.

If you wear all 8 pieces of the set, you furthermore get a passive +350 critigation amount bonus (you don’t need to do any combos etc. to get this buff).

Comparison of Mounts

Nowadays there’s a shitload of various kinds of mounts available in Age of Conan, and I was getting a bit confused about their speed and various other properties, so I decided to conduct a few measurements.

To measure the speed, I chose a section of road in the northern half of the Wild Lands of Zelata, starting at (526, 1028) and moving east from there. I used several different end points depending on how long a course I wanted: ending at (671, 1053) gives you approx. 150 meters; ending at (721, 1058) gives you 200 m; ending at (982, 1174) gives you 500 m; and ending at (992, 1314) near the Wild Plains rez pad gives you 650 m. I used the longer courses for testing the faster mounts, and the shorter ones for slower mounts. In particular, the 150 m course is useful for testing sprinting with those mounts that would run out of energy before completing the 200 m course.

(Click to enlarge.)

Of course the time measurements (using F9) are only accurate up to 1 sec, so the resulting calculations of speed are only approximate. Each speed is based on the average time of 2 or 4 runs. All the speed tests were done with a level 80 guardian with 800 skill points in the Running skill and without any other speed buffs (e.g. from armor).

Note that each mount has 3 possible speeds: walk, run, and sprint. Sprint is when you hold the shift key; otherwise, you’re walking or running, and you can use backspace to switch between walking and running mode. (If you press shift, the sprint speed is the same regardless of whether you started in walk mode or run mode.) Walking while mounted is very much not recommended, as it is even slower than walking on foot!

Another measurement that I found interesting was the turning speed of the mount. In my opinion, one of the big advantages of e.g. a tiger compared to a swift horse are that a tiger can turn more quickly; with a horse you either have to slow down or make a much bigger circle before you manage to turn around. I measured turning speed by standing in one place and holding the A key until I made 10 full turns, then dividing the time it took to do this by 10.

Before proceeding, it’s worth taking a look at the update notes for update 3.3.8, which included the sprinting revamp (introduction of the Energy resource) and a minor revamp of mounts. As the update notes say, the mounts are now divided into 5 categories and all mounts from a particular category are supposed to have largely the same stats and abilities. This categorization is still useful, although there were some exceptions to it even at the time of 3.3.8 and there are a few more exceptions to it now; more on that later.

Category	Buff	Total sprint time	Time to regen.	Speed [km/h]			Turn time [s]
				Sprint	Run	Walk
Exotic Mounts	−35 stagger	32	9	62	39	6.5	4.2
Level 80 Mounts	−20/35/40 stagger	32	9	54	42	6.5	6.3
				54	39	6.5
Level 40 Mounts	−20 stagger	17	9	42	31	6.5	6.3
Basic Mounts	nothing	12	24	37	29	6.5	6.3
				34	25	6.5
Siege Mounts	+1900 HP, −40 stagger chance	22	9	29	22	5.4	12.6
no mount	nothing	16	16	25	20	8.0	1.8

In the lists below, an asterisk * marks mounts that I haven’t tested myself.

(By the way, for another great overview of AoC mounts, see this post on Henryx’s blog: link.)

Exotic mounts

This category consists of tigers, wolves, Yothian war-mares, and Hyrkanian horses. They require the Exotic Animal Handling skill. As far as I know, all the mounts in this category have the same speeds and the same buff (−35 chance of being staggered).

But in addition to that, some of these mounts have special abilities: the faction tiger can hide; wolves have the Terrifying Howl ability (which puts a 50% hinder movement debuff for 10 sec on nearby enemies; 60 sec cooldown).

Tigers

• Vaaghasan Slaughter Steed: this is the tiger from the Tamarin’s Tigers faction. To get it, you need to be rank 4 with them, complete a quest chain and buy a saddle, which costs 800 marks of acclaim and 10 gold. As far as I know, this is the only mount that can hide. It’s available in three colors (light, dark and black) but they all have the same name.
• White Vaaghasan Slaughter Steed*: this tiger was available with some subscription offers.
• Purebred White Vaaghasan Slaughter Steed*: from the item shop (900 Funcom points).
• Imperial Bronzesteel Slaughter Steed*: sold by gilding vendors (13 gilding tokens); formerly also available in the item shop [1, 2].
• Imperial Shadowsteel Slaughter Steed*: sold by vendors in PvP armories (120 campaign badges + 5 gold).
• Imperial Greensteel Slaughter Steed: sold by the Hand of Glory faction vendor in Ardashir (requires no faction rank; costs 500 marks of acclaim + 200 rare trophies + 5 gold).
• Imperial Bluesteel Slaughter Steed*: drops from the Zodiac in the Jade Cidatel (T4 raid).
• Imperial Redsteel Slaughter Steed*: was available in the past in the item shop [1, 2].

AFAIK the only difference between these various tigers (apart from the hide ability on the original faction tiger) is in the color and shape of their armor and other paraphernalia.

Wolves

• Ridden Death: this is the wolf from the Wolves of the Steppes faction. To get it, you need to be rank 4 with them, complete a quest chain and buy a saddle, which costs 800 marks of acclaim and 10 gold.
• Xanthic Ridden Death*: from the item shop (1260 Funcom points).
• Bluefury War Wolf: drops from the Imp in the Jade Citadel (T4 raid).
• Greenfury War Wolf: sold by the Hand of Glory faction vendor in Ardashir (requires no faction rank; costs 500 marks of acclaim + 200 rare trophies + 5 gold).
• Shadowfury War Wolf*: sold by vendors in PvP armories (120 campaign badges + 5 gold).
• Bronzefury War Wolf*, Redfury War Wolf*: these two were available in the past in the item shop [1, 2].

AFAIK the only difference between these various wolves is in the color and shape of their armor and other paraphernalia. All the wolves I’ve tested (Ridden Death, Bluefury, Greenfury) have the Terrifying Howl ability.

Yothian War-Mares

These mounts are only available in the item shop, where they cost 972 Funcom points each. Three variants are available (Green Yothian War-Mare*, Purple Yothian War-Mare, Red Yothian War-Mare*).

Perhaps you remember the Curses of Travius Blacktongue quests in the Armsman’s Tavern in Tarantia Noble District. One of the insults you use during the conversation with Travius includes the following line: “Your riding skills resemble the most debased acts of love between beast and man.” Well, this is what I’m always reminded of when I see someone riding a Yothian War-Mare: it looks as if the player was molesting an enormous snail. Additionally, having now tried riding one myself, it makes your entire screen wobble left and right so badly that I almost got seasick after just a few minutes of riding. So I very much don’t recommend these mounts.

On the positive side, you might not expect an oversized snail (with hands) to be as quick as a tiger, but it is — I measured.

Hyrkanian horses

To buy these horses, you need to be rank 4 with the Hyrkanian faction; each horse costs 800 marks of acclaim and 10 gold. The Hyrkanian horses are the only horses that have the same speed or maneuverability as a tiger or wolf, so they are a great choice if you find the looks of the tiger or wolf to be too exotic. Other swift horse mounts (which we’ll see in the next category) are slower.

The following 8 horses are available; each is painted with a different pattern:

• Hyrkanian Bitter Wind-Biter*
• Hyrkanian Dread Ash-Tramper*
• Hyrkanian Fleet Scream-Catcher*
• Hyrkanian Grim Skull-Treader*
• Hyrkanian Pale Ghost-Chaser*
• Hyrkanian Resplendent Sun-Strider
• Hyrkanian Sable Shadow-Dasher*
• Hyrkanian Wicked Chaos-Clapper*

Other mounts

The Great Khan’s War Bringer (a legendary mount which can drop from the Hoard of the War Bringer, a lottery box that was introduced in the item shop in February 2015; the horse is also tradable between players) also belongs to this category. It looks like an armored horse, but has the same speed (including turning speed) as tigers, wolves etc. Unlike all the other mounts in this category, this one requires just 7 seconds to fully regenerate its energy (others require 9 seconds). Its mounted buff is −50 chance of being staggered.

The Hoard of the War Keeper can also drop another mount, Swift Ymirish Colossal Cold One, which we’ll see in the next category. (In the early days the hoard was bugged and this mount couldn’t drop, but it was fixed in a subsequent hotfix.)

Level 80 mounts

This category includes various non-exotic armored and swift mounts. In our table above, there are 2 rows for this category, because some of the mounts in it have a slightly higher run speed than the others. These will be noted below, but most of the mounts in this group belong to the slower subgroup (39 km/h run speed instead of 42 km/h). (In fact, by now a pattern is starting to emerge: it seems that all the horses are in the slower subgroup and all the non-horses are in the faster subgroup.)

Armored horses

There are 32 armored horses, all named systematically X-barded Y Horse, where X is the color of the armor (Azure, Dark, Pale, Umber) and Y gives the color of the horse itself (Buckskin, Dapple Gray, Fading Black, Mahogany Bay, Rabicano, Skewbald Pinto, Tobiano, White). The horse vendors in hub cities (Conarch Village, Old Tarantia, Khemi) sell only the Azure variants; the horse vendor in your guild city sells all variants. Each horse costs 50 gold. The buff while mounted is −20 chance of being staggered.

Swift horses

There are 8 swift horses, named Swift Y Horse, where Y is one of the horse colors, same as above. They are sold by horse vendors in hub cities (Conarch Village, Old Tarantia, Khemi), where they cost 150 gold each; in the item shop (1125 Funcom points each); and by veteran vendors (85 veteran tokens each). The buff while mounted is −20 chance of being staggered.

Miscellaneous

We’ll start with a few mounts that have recently been added to the reliquary vendors. The first two of these have the peculiar feature that their run speed is about 10% faster than that of the other mounts in this category. Perhaps this applies to the Swift Killer Rhino as well, but I haven’t tested it yet (so TBH I can’t even be completely sure that it belongs to this category at all).

• Fleet Black Riding Camel: sold in the reliquaries (1 rare relic + 120 simple relics III + 15 gold). Buff: −20 chance of being staggered.
• Swift Hyperborean Siege Mammoth: sold in the reliquaries (50 simple relics I + 40 gold). Buff: −40 chance of being staggered (unlike the normal siege mounts, you get no HP buff from this one).
• Swift Killer Rhino*: sold in the reliquaries (50 simple relics II + 40 gold).

Anyway, if you ever wanted a mammoth or rhino that handles exactly like a traditional swift horse, now’s your chance to get it! 🙂

The Wolf Pict Envoys in the PvP armories also sell two swift siege mounts: Swift Vendhyan Thundering Colossus* (a kind of mammoth) and Swift Wolf Pict Rampaging Behemoth* (a kind of rhino); each costs 300 victory tokens (from open-world PvP objectives). Judging by the tooltips, their mount buff gives you −80 chance of being staggered. I don’t know how fast they are, but I imagine they most likely belong to this category, same as the other swift siege mounts mentioned above.

Another siege mount in this category is the legendary Swift Ymirish Colossal Cold One, which drops from the Hoard of the War Bringer (see above). It looks like a white mammoth with some red markings; mounting it morphs you (the player character) into an Ymirish frost giant; and it has the usual siege mount buff (1900 HP, −40 chance of being staggered). In terms of speed, this mount belongs to the faster subgroup of this category.

Next, we have a few more horse mounts. The ones that I haven’t tested yet (marked with an asterisk) are included in this list tentatively; I can’t be completely sure that they belong to this category, though I think it’s unlikely that they belong anywhere else.

• Swift Stygian Festival Stallion: has a chance of dropping from the Crate of Random Oddities, which you could get by handing in the Sacrificial Marks from the Khemi Halloween quest (Halloween 2014). Buff: −35 chance of being staggered. Unlike all the other mounts in this category, this one requires just 7 seconds to fully regenerate its energy (others require 9 seconds).
• Tarpani Stallion: quest reward from a quest that becomes available in your guild city at renown level 20. In the process of doing the quest, you’ll have to pay 200 gold. Buff: −35 chance of being staggered, +590 protection.
• Purebred Tarpani Stallion*: from the item shop (1890 Funcom points).
• Stygian Halfbreed*: quest reward from a quest that becomes available in your guild city at renown level 15. In the process of doing the quest, you’ll have to pay 200 gold.
• Swift Shemite Horse*: sold by the horse vendor in your guild city (from renown level 10); costs 150 gold.
• Purebred Shemite Horse*: from the item shop (1575 Funcom points).

We also have two mounts that were introduced with the achievement system:

• Hyrkanian Riding Camel: you get this mount by reaching 1000 achievement points. Mounted buff: −20 chance of being staggered. Unlike the other mounts in this category, its total sprint time is just 17 sec (same as for level 40 mounts). Apart from that, it has the same speeds (and turning time) as the swifter subgroup of this category (i.e. like the Fleet Black Riding Camel and the Swift Hyperborean Siege Mammoth).

• Swift Cimmerian War Mammoth: you get this mount by reaching 7500 achievement points. Mounted buff: +1900 HP, −40 chance of being staggered. In terms of speed, turning time, and stamina, it behaves exactly like the Swift Hyperborean War Mammoth mentioned above.

One thing that I haven’t investigated in my tests is which mounts can do decent siege damage; I imagine that mammoths, rhinos and armored horses can do siege damage, but I’m not sure about e.g. the Tarpani Stallion and the like.

Level 40 mounts

This category seems to consist of nothing but plain ordinary horses. They are named simply Y Horse, where Y is one of the eight horse colors (see above). You can buy them from the horse vendors in hub cities (75 silver each); from the item shop (495 Funcom points each, except the White Horse, which costs 1125 Funcom points!); and from the veteran vendors (3 veteran tokens each). The mounted buff is: −20 chance of being staggered.

Siege mounts

These are noticeably slower than other mounts, and are particularly slow at turning. Their mounted buff is: +1900 health, −40 chance of being staggered.

• Blue Snow Mammoth, Purple Snow Mammoth*, Red Snow Mammoth*: sold by horse vendors in the hub cities (Conarch Village, Old Tarantia, Khemi). The blue one has also been included in some subscription offers.
• War Mammoth: was included with some pre-order and subscription offers.
• Killer Rhino: was included with some pre-order and subscription offers.
• Purebred Killer Rhino: available from the Hand of Glory faction vendor in Ardashir (requires rank 4; costs 10 gold); also from the item shop (990 Funcom points).
• Purebred War Mammoth*: from the item shop (990 Funcom points).
• Tuskripper War Mammoth*: from the item shop (990 Funcom points).

Basic mounts

This category includes the (non-swift) camels and the recently introduced Reaver’s Steed. Their main feature is supposed to be that they are available from very low levels (Reaver’s Steed at level 1, camels at level 20). Reaver’s Steed is a little faster than the camels, which is why there are 2 rows for this category in the table above. The buff you get while riding them doesn’t give you any stat bonuses.

• Reaver’s Steed: from the item shop, where it appears as Reavers [sic] Stallion (costs 1080 Funcom points).
• Brown Riding Camel, Dark Riding Camel*, Pale Riding Camel*: from the item shop (1575 Funcom points each, except the Pale one, which costs 1890 Funcom points). The Brown one is also included in some subscription offers.

The Twelfth Portent

This month’s world boss was called Risen Inferno Lord; after I heard of this pompous name, I was a bit underwhelmed by the boss’s appearance — it’s the fat floating devil guy that we already saw years ago in the Oasis of Zaara halloween quest. The boss spawns in Kheshatta in several locations: near the Caravan Raiders’ Hideout (1130, 435), in the East Ruins near the snake boss (1120, 855), in the bat camps (265, 680) and in the oasis near the Ghanatan camps (700, 175). I was surprised by how many people were confused by the terms ‘bat camps’ and ‘oasis’, and were instead using the terms from the in-game map (‘Black Ring Explorers’ and ‘Ghanatan Camps’). I guess this means they weren’t around in the days of epic Kheshatta farming :S It was even more depressing to see questions in global along the lines of ‘bat camps? where are there bats in Kheshatta?’, which suggests that some people haven’t even played through the entire playfield properly 😦

This boss is preceded by a single green mob called Flame Oracle. This oracle is labelled as a raid trashmob and gets oneshotted by an impressively big hit as soon as the boss appears (“Flame Oracle’s Risen Inferno Lord hits Flame Oracle for 5078321 fire damage.”).

(Click to enlarge.)

All damage done by this boss is fire damage. His primary single-target attack on the aggro holder is called Inferno Bolt. There is also a 360 degree self-centered AoE attack called Spiraling Inferno, during which the boss flies up into the air, spins around his own axis and does a knockback and a hit of fire damage on the players around him. Blazing Inferno targets a random player (the spell is cast 3 times in a row on that player); this player gets a 10-second debuff of the same name (and a burning particle on himself). This player, and other players near him, takes hits of fire damage every 3 seconds until the debuff expires; there seem to be more hits of damage if there are more people standing nearby, but I didn’t find out the exact mechanics of it. The boss also has an attack called Incendiary, which targets a random player and puts a 6-second debuff of the same name on him; when this debuff expires, that player and anyone else within a 5 meter radius takes a hit of fire damage. There’s also a single-target fire attack called Flame Strike, which seems to be ranged and is used as an anti-kiting mechanism.

In terms of loot, there’s nothing new this month either. The boss drops Stygian regional items, e.g. social armor (Pharaoh Honor Helm, the Harlot set, Khemi Guard set and Vizier’s set) and consumables (Eighth Plague of Stygia, Stygian Special Mushroom). There is of course also a new mini-pet, Inferno Lord.

I had pretty bad luck with the drops this month; I only got the first purple box after 125 blue boxes. By my calculations, if the drop rate of purple boxes is 5% (as seems likely to be the case), then the probability that you’ll have to wait that long (or longer) for your next purple box is about 0.16%, or 1 in 609 — very bad luck indeed. I had a bit more luck in the last few days and in the end I had 150 blue boxes and 4 purple ones. Unfortunately, I got nothing but relics from the purple ones. However, I haven’t opened any of the blue boxes yet, so there’s a small chance that some of them will drop a purple box and I might get the pet that way.

Recently I was transferring some of my characters to the testlive server multiple times so I could take screenshots of all the legendary cloaks, and it occurred to me that I could also use this to get more statistics about the world boss loot drops. I have about 150 unopened blue boxes on my guardian, so if I transfer her to testlive once a day, I can eventually open several thousand blue boxes and thus get a much bigger sample than I could if I just opened the boxes once on the live server. The table below shows the results after opening 697 blue boxes on the testlive server and 150 on the live server, for a total of 847 blue boxes.

While opening boxes on the testlive server, I also got the pet there so I can include some screenshots of it anyway:

(Click to enlarge.)

(Click to enlarge.)

I find this pet very annoying — they gave it the sound recordings from the Oracle of Derketo in the Pyramid of the Ancients. This includes lots of maniacal laughter (which he does while pointing at you! :P) and the following lines of text:

Inferno Lord: I will wait for you in hell, wanderer.
Inferno Lord: You believe that you can stop me? You believe you have the right? Come, mortal. There are other worlds than these.
Inferno Lord: Your soul will scream for an eternity!

For comparison, here’s the Soul Devourer, the pet from the Oasis of Zaara halloween quest, which has a couple of advantages over the world boss pet: the Soul Devourer is bigger and, most importantly, quiet. On the other hand, the world boss pet has a fiery particle effect and a spinning animation, both of which the Soul Devourer seems to lack.

(Click to enlarge.)

Count	Item
Social animations, particles etc.
12	Bottled Spirits
33	Cool Runnings
14	Cowardice Remedy
27	Eighth Plague of Stygia
14	Electric Boogie
19	Fermented Brain Juices
16	Ritual Knife
23	Sticky Fresh Blood
25	Stygian Special Mushroom
7	Void Essence
Food, potions, buffs
15	Potent Daggamalt (8), Dire Sweetpressed Haste (7)
47	Ta Neheh Leaf Elixir
22	Kingsmight Ale
32	Elixirs (11 Guile, 5 Invigorative Rejuvenation, 5 Physical Might, 11 Precision)
20	Philtres (8 Constitution, 12 Strength)
6	Minor Elixir of Resurgence (self-rez)
Vendors of crappy social consumables
8	Traveller’s Merchant Contract
Social armor sets
13	Harlot’s set
34	Khemi Guard set
29	Shattered Colossus set
23	Slayer’s set
9	Vizier’s set of State
0	other social armor sets
Other social armor
4	Pharaoh’s Honor Helm
9	Crown of Autumn
22	Tigerskin cloaks (7 Emberskin, 3 Ivory, 5 Shadowskin, 7 Snowskin)
Raid gear
90	T1 armor
70	T1 weapons (32 swords, 16 shields, 22 polearms)
37	T2 armor
15	T2 weapons (5 swords, 4 shields, 6 polearms)
AA urns
43	Flask of Completion (20000 Mastery XP)
34	Flask of Direction (50000 Mastery XP)
17	Coffer of Radiance (62500 Mastery XP)
Pets
29	animal pets (1 Barachan Gull, 6 Black Cobras, 3 Charcoal Firebird Chicks, 5 Fat Harries, 2 Field Mice, 1 Fire Salamander, 1 Frost Salamander, 4 Hippo Calves, 1 Topaz Komodo, 3 War Piglets, 2 Wolverine Kits)
18	dancing pets (1 Aquilonian male, 1 Aquilonian female, 1 Cimmerian male, 2 Cimmerian females, 4 Khitan males, 3 Khitan females, 2 Stygian male, 4 Stygian females)
Purple caches
11	Slayer’s Cache of the Inferno Lord (purple cache)

And an overview of purple caches from all bosses so far, on all of my characters:

Boss	Total no. of kills	# purple caches			Drops from purple caches
		from blue	direct	total	Simple Relics	Urns	Rare Relics	Pets	Gear
Dragon	185	6	2	8	7 (29)	0	0	1	0
Yeti	61	3	2	5	4 (15)	0	0	1	0
Basilisk	141	4	2	6	2 (7)	2	0	2	0
Serp. Man	78	3	6	9	7 (25)	0	0	1	0
Thrice Dr.	236	1	12	13	8 (31)	4	0	0	1
Ice Worm	191	1	9	10	8 (33)	0	0	1	1
Nergal	91	0	4	4	2 (7)	1	0	1	0
Leviathus	161	1	5	6	5 (20)	1	0	0	0
Execut.	122	0	6	6	4 (15)	0	0	2	0
Lurker	151	4	5	9	6 (29)	1	0	1	1
B. Queen	220	3	5	8	4 (15)	3	1	0	0
Inf. Lord	154	2	4	6	5 (19)	0	0	0	1

This month’s I got a Runic Band of Inherent Hatred (ring with 78 con, 30 crit rtg, 30 hate inc rtg, 133 protection) from one of the purple caches; this is the fourth piece of purple gear I got so far (from all the world bosses together).

(Click to enlarge.)