Choose My Adventure: Dark Age of Camelot, week one

DAOC was my first mmo. I was surprised to read that it's still operating.

Go Troll Thane or Dwarf Skald. Not that I'm biased.

Good lord that WAS a close vote. I voted and didn't look back until I read this.

My choices for this article's polls are below:

RvR because you can get a mix of PvE and PvP. People are always mentioning the PvP memories they had in this game so it's worth a shot. Plus, I'd rather not see you get hindered too much by PvP ganking.

Midgard because vikings sound cool and different.

Exotic or Beastly race because humans are in most games, and elves are not far behind. Minotaur is tempting as I've never heard of an MMO offering that as a choice for your race.

Hybrid because they tend to be more fun in an MMO. You get a mix of the playstyles and oftentimes, you get more unique spells and abilities from being so diverse.

Midgard forever!!

I voted hybrid, but that's partially because oh my gosh even all these years later, Hammer of Mjollnir remains one of my favorite abilities EVER. Being part a line of Thanes atop a keep doing a synchronous Hammer summoning as a wave of over a hundred Albs stormed the keep is forever, oh, FOREVER burned in my memory as one of my greatest gaming experiences ever. Giant blue hammers from the sky slamming down onto the heads of the incoming enemy.... *happy sigh*.

But the ability remains awesome outside of that situation, as well. :p

There are other good hybrids, too, like Skalds! But the Thane is where my DAoC heart remains.

That's one thing really missing from the contemporary MMO lineup: Flail-based weaponry.

It's not like we can't run the physics now, right?

You shouldnt play alone ;)

Bah, so DaoC won even after their members confesed riggin the vote, and using proxys/ multiple pc's from work to inflate the poll.

w/e better this way. Hope by the time the next vote is up AO engine is on track and we could get a nice review of whats coming.

good luck playing without a buffbot account..great game if u dont mind paying 30 a month and waiting forever for groups that are horrible and get rolled first time out and rage quit..make a vamp for not having to have a buffbot only class out there

oh btw no one plays on the ffa and the pve server would be pointless

I played DAOC for 9 years as a Hibernian, and I just wanted to give you some general advice for getting started.

The best class to learn how to play the game with is probably a heavy tank, Hero for Hibernia, Warrior for Midgard, Armsman for Albion. The reason for this is that the gameplay in this game is complicated...COMPLICATED... casters are probably the most powerful archetype in the game, but they're also squishy beyond reason, very hard to get a hang of for most new players.

Stealthers are, as in all MMO's, very strong, but VERY expensive to equip properly.

I notice that a large number of people up there are voting for a hybrid class. Don't do it, there is NO harder class to play in DAOC than a hybrid. In Hibernia, wardens and valewalkers are potentially the most incredible classes you can play, but it takes skill beyond thy ken to do it. vampiirs are good there too. Thanes and Valkyries in Midgard are the same deal, as are Paladins and Friars in Albion.

If you get sent to Midgard, I advise starting with a warrior or berserker for a tank, a spritmaster for a caster, and a healer for..a healer...yeah...it's a class called Healer, if you're stuck with hybrid thane can be quite powerful if built right but valkyries are waaay overpowered at low level, so there's that.

If you get sent to Hibernia, the Hero is your archetypal heavy tank, and I love mine, but blademasters and champions are both quite fun if more difficult to play. For a starter mage I advise going eldritch, they're easymode caster, or enchanter, as there is no better pve caster class than a Mana enchanter. If you get stuck as a healer, sit in a corner and cry, because Hibs are mean to their healers, you will NEVER be good enough for them, so go druid and flip everyone off. Bards are rediculously hard to play. Another good class is an animist, but they can be tricky to play in rvr.

If you get sent to Albion, pick anything, it's all rediculously overpowered. Seriously, Paladins and Friars are at the top of the hybrid food chain, armsmen have more hitpoints and heavier armor than anything else in the game and hit like a freight train, mercenaries have been nerfed so many times it's not even funny and they're STILL nucking futs, minstrels are a class that gets stealth, speed, climb walls, crowd control, insta 10-second stun that's on a 1 minute cooldown timer, and can out-melee half the tanks in the game. Scouts and infiltrators...well actually Mythic did nerf them some, so they're not as rediculous anymore. Sorcerers cast faster and harder than anything else I've seen in the game, theurgists are...I...I don't even know where to begin with theurgists...except that they're also difficult to play well. Wizards are the hardest hitting caster class in the game, but their big damage spells are on a 20 second cooldown timer. Cabalists...are actually ok, they're not rediculous and they're not weak. Necromancers...f***ing necromancers man...heretics get a focus damage spell (meaning so long as you don't move or lose line of sight on your target it keep casting, with damage tics every second or so) whose damage ramps up the longer it's held on a target, and some of those are aoe. Reavers scare me...they actually scare me I flee in terror before reavers, you can't take em 1v1. Clerics!!!!! My god, clerics are rediculous! (That's their primary healing class.) I've been nuked by clerics harder than I get nuked for by most Midgard casters!

Right, so I didn't exactly sell my home realm well there. Basically, if you want to play with a bunch of 12 year olds and be in the easiest realm in the game, go to Albion. If you're NOT a shame to the world of gaming, go to Midgard or Hibernia.

Since the poll is going Midgard Non-Human Hybrid I'm recommending a Troll Thane. Ranged nukes, self strength/constitution and endurance cost reduction buffs, decent melee and option to go shield or 2handed. Except for lacking heals, it is a very well rounded view of a good portion of the game's mechanics including the style system and hard interrupts, which mean if you get hit while casting, you can't cast for ~4 seconds. Full stop.

Stay in the tutorial areas and starter town areas long enough to get the mechanics down then head to the battlegrounds. At this point in the game XP is so fast that you will not encounter the same people twice while leveling up and there are a few "hub" levels people will tend to turn their xp off at. 20-24 battleground (Thidranki), 35-39 battleground (Molvik) and 45-49 battleground (Cathal Valley). Each one is a fairly major step in character abilities so you might want to use the command /xp off at the highest level of each battleground until you got a feel for the class before moving on.

Once the current players have found out who you are playing, expect a confusing babble of advice and unasked for gifts of gear, money, free powerlevel offers etc.