MMORPG
Character
Monuments

Introduction
So you have reached level 40 (using my Lev 1-20 ,and Lev 20-40 leveling guides no doubt). It is clear that you are among the AoC elite, that you are one of the strongest players ever to step foot (virtually) in any MMO. And then you see the End Game Raiders laughing at you as you come off the boat still wearing that level 5 skirt that dropped off a jungle gorilla. Its time for a reality check and time to grow a bit.

This article is about making it through level 40 through 60. A confusing age for any barbarian or mage. It is a guide that you will be able to use and follow no matter what class, what culture or what server type you belong to. I will be focusing on the ability to solo, since these levels are mainly designed with this. I will give special instructions for those on the PvP server, since life can be somewhat rougher. I am not declaring myself some sort of expert, but I hope that you will gain from my experiences and insight.

To see other articles I wrote about Age of Conan, try these
Reviews
Age of Conan Review: "A great game with a fatal Flaw"
Age of Conan Vs Warhammmer Online
Leveling guides
Age of Conan Leveling guide: Level 1-20 "Tortage, its not just for breakfast anymore"
Age of Conan Leveling guide: Level 20-40 "Life as a Hyborian Tween"
Age of Conan Leveling guide: Level 40-60 "Mommy, are we there yet?...No!"
Age of Conan Leveling guide: Level 60-80 "And your journey to the Dark Side will be complete! "
Aoc Guides
Age of Conan Crafting guide: "Harvesting for the decapitated"
Age of Conan PvP Guide: "Mama Said Knock You Out!"

So, with that introduction, lets begin.

Gameplay basics post 40
It is right about level 40 when you notice that leveling starts to slow down a lot. No more 3-4 dings a night, I'm afraid. The grinding starts to take hold and compared to the first 40 levels you start feeling like your running in mud (Good Cimmerian Mud ...rich and fertile....er, dude...that aint Mud!).

However this is also the time where you are allowed to purchase a steed. All the horses are the same. There are no faster or slower models. Just different colors. Funcom recently decreased the cost of a horse from 2gold to 75 silver. However you still need 1gold to learn how to ride a horse. 1.75G s not that hard to get, but if your like most players, you only have about 40silver when you hit lev 40. To make money, Take a look at some hints from my AoC Gathering Guide or one of the professional AoC Gold guides.

Note about horses, While riding through enemies if your hit from behind you may get 'thrown' off ..which basically means a big ol knockback while your enemies pound on your face (Improving the looks of several Barbarians). If your going to try to run through enemies, use sprint, the horses normally enhanced speed is not enough.

Key strategy: Even with a horse, the fastest way to travel through a zone is by dying and spawning at a resurrection point. The death penalty is negligible. So for every zone you go into, make sure you find all resurrection points. Most points will be found near major quest hubs and dungeons.


Level 40-45
It is time for you to head to the Old Tarantia Noble's District. To get there you enter Old Tarantia and head to the Northwest corner of the zone, directly north from the traders you will find an impressive 10,00 feet tall bridge. This is a common place to find players, who no longer like AoC, throwing themselves off of. Cross the bridge while waving to the descending playerbase and zone into the Noble's district.

The Noble's District is not 'Noble' from the standpoint of being dignified, or from the standpoint of being gallant nor from the standpoint of being aristocratic. No 'Noble' in this case stands for the abbreviation (National Organization of Black Law Enforcement [NOBLE]) This place is in a friggin state of martial law. However, it is chock full of level 40-42 enemies to work through. Also quests abound a plenty.


Key Quests: The Arena quest line is a very fun and very popular quest line to do. Its basically Hyborian MMA without all the SPIKE TV, Bikini wearing, card girls between rounds (A glaring oversight by Funcom!). However, although you can start this quest line, I recommend that you hold off doing this until Level 55ish (See below).

Villa Quests:
Villas abound in the Nobles District. However, each villa has been taken over by the scoundrels and demons of Hyboria (Talk about taking a hit on home price...we prefer to call them "Fixer uppers"). However what makes these quests so important is that they are repeatable! The quest timer is 6 hours long at which point you can redo the quests. This makes them PERFECT to use them to top off a level here and there. By my estimate, if you ran all Villa quests consecutively, you would gain about all of the xp needed to level.

Villa Camillus
Quest NPC: Rabim, Located in the market District
Comments: If you were to choose one, This is the best villa to do. It has the most mobs inside, yet the mobs are not as tough, have less HP and don't knockback/interrupt. Depending on your level this will give about 4.5 bulbs a run.

Villa Verde
Quest NPC: Lady Verde's Bodyguard located outside Villa Verde
Comments: This is the quickest villa to do, and likely the most popular. You can easily complete this quest within 5 minutes of entering because you do not have to fight your way to boss. The quest is quickly located immediately outside the instance. If you need a quick 2 bulbs to polish off a level, this is the one. If you decimate the entire instance, it will give 4 about 4 bulbs

Villa Amiel
Quest NPC: Marco located inside the Armsmans Tavern
Comments: I believe this is the worst of the villas. There are not a lot of mobs inside and they are a little tougher and love to knockback. The quest NPC is a long run and you have to zone into and out of the Armsmans tavern instance. Destroying all who dwell inside (including some of the flora) will get you about 4.5 bulbs.

Villa Lentulus
Quest NPC: Sarrisa located inside the Armsmans Tavern
Comments: This isn't too bad a villa. There are plenty of NPCs but several do knock back. To get to the boss there is a hidden vine you have to climb. It is located on the second level, on the opposite side of the courtyard you enter from. You may not be able to click on it to climb. Go near the vines on the left side and press 'U' to start climbing ..this will take you to Nimbus. If you climb the vines on the right and then dance across the rooftops you will find the teleporting miniboss. Returning to turn in the quest also requires a long run and into the armsmans tavern instance. Completing it and killing everyone (with a smile) grants you about 4 bulbs.

Villa Paetus
Quest NPC: Gavion located inside the Armsmans Tavern
Comments: This villa has a series of 5 quests, the last of which is repeatable and deals with killing 20 guards (easily and quickly done). This is by far the most challenging villa, lots of close quarters and trains of adds.When getting the repeatable quest, use the second answer "And what would you have done?" when responding the second time. Killing everyone and everything gives you about 4.5 bulbs.


Just questing in the Noble's district above will get you easily to Level 45. I recommend you run each villa quest once to learn the layouts. However do not start repeating these quests ..you will be doing the villas so often from now on, best to keep things fresh while you can. At level; 45, say goodbye to the noble's district ..for now <Insert ominous evil laughter here>.

Level 45- 50
At this point you need to go to The Field of the Dead. This is located in the tropical paradise we call Cimmeria. Head to Connals Valley and bring a book...its a long hike. Head all the way down, turn right and head to the end. There you will zone into Field of the dead. Plenty of quest NPC here as well as the all important potion and food vendors. Also next door is the Lachish Plains resource zone. This is very handy because you can use it also to go to your Guild City (You are a member of a guild, aren't you?..your guild does have a city, doesn't it?). The guild city allows you quick and easy access to the Traders for you to sell items. I recommend you use the wayfarer here and bind so that you can move easily between the two. There are lev 40-45 quests will this village area ...remember green and gray quests are good and easy XP...Do THEM. Grab all the quests and start Questing! The theme of the Field of the dead isn't as much Killing the dead (Does that make sense?) as it is about Killing the wolves, werewolves, and several barbarians with copius amounts of back hair. It is now obvious that the FunCom designer is a cat person.

By finishing all quests and a small amount of grinding on a few mobs you will easily attain lev 50.



Key Quests: Take note of all the WANTED Signs. Some quests are repeatable and generally involved killing a bunch (15-20) of the various tribes.

Key Quest: Radi is a talking head on a Pike found in the southwest undead portion of the zone ...nothing to see here, just your average skewered head spewing insults at you. Go speak with him as he begins a quest that takes you to The Spirit of Leannan (Found just a bit away from the Stream bridge). There you begin a long series of quests that take you through every boss of the undead area and then marching your across the zone. Lots of XP and the end result is several blue weapons and armor

Lev 50-55
Lev 50 Destiny Quest
You ding level 50...and miraculously the NPCs actually start talking to you again. The silent treatment that you've endured from the populace is over. Its time to head back to your trainers in your original city hubs. Khemi for stygians, Old Tarantia for Aquillonians, and Connals Village for the sheep farmers of Cimmeria.
I will outline these quests in a future article.

The lev 50 destiny quest is extremely short (compared to the novel you endured in Tortage), straightforward, and you ought to be decently into lev 51 upon its completion.

Money Talks
Lev 50 is the time you can start making real coin from resource Gathering. As such I highly suggest that you take a day off and make a gold or two (or 5). Head to the nearby Lachish Plains resource zone and zone in to it or your guild city. Read up on getting your gold using the AoC Gathering Guide. Armor and items are extremely cheap and common at this level. If you make just 1 gold (after your horse of course) you should be able to outfit yourself with mostly Blues. Invest in a good weapon you melee punks... Blood makes the grass grow!

Leveling up
Questing
It is now time for you to head into the Eiglophian Mountains at the northeast corner of the Field of the dead. The lev 50-55 quests are located mainly at the base of the mountains. Plenty of quests here. Do them all and you will easily hit Lev 55.


Lev 55-60
The end game (er ..the end game for these levels)! The goal is in sight. You ding 55 and ready for a new zone and a new challenge....nope. Your keeping your butt right in Eiglophian Mountains. Its time for you to head up to the mountaintop and the hunting lodge. There you will find a small quest center surrounded by Worms. yes, those fierce mountain snow worms (As a blossoming Biologist let me tell ya...Invertebrates don't do well in cold weather...somebody inform Funcom). Ok finish all these quests and you will find yourself hanging about 57-58. Make sure you find the Mammoths, its just a cool sight to see and besides its always fun to kill a gigantic creature by repeatedly stabbing its toe.

However You've run out of quests and your not 60 yet. Funcom said they plan to put some new ones in...here is hoping.


My suggestion is now its time to head back to Old Tarantia and hit the Arena Quests. Yea! remember them? Well at 55 -57 you can easily solo the whole lot of the single player Bosses in the arena. With a partner or two you can do the group bosses. Just send up a Message in the OOC or guild channel. The arena quests alone at lev 57 can give you a full level and likely provide you with your first Purple epic (The sun shines through the clouds...a chorus of angels sing as you grip your first Purp....you have arrived!).

Several quest NPCs try to send you off to Thunder River and others send you to Atzels Approach...dont bother until your at least 58 . Mobs are lev 59-61 at the front part. However in Atzels they BAF a LOT and you'll often see the wayward adventurer leading an enraged band of 4 - 5 Pickets (Ride that train!). In Thunder Canyon they are lev 60 Boars (Enraged Bacon) found in packs of 1 or 2. However there are not as many mobs as in Atzels, if there is another player grinding them..there wont be many left for you. If you want to grind it out, I suggest trying these Thunder canyon critters (Pissed off porkies). Follow the road west from the zone in spot through the hills killing all the pigs (hated hams) you find on either side, then turn around and work your way back.Once every so often head back to the Noble's district and hit the Villas. Grind your way to 60!

If you have a guild and friends willing to help. Now is also the perfect time to head into Toirdealbach's Tomb. There are 3 main quests for Toirdealbach's located in the Field of the dead (Diarmad and The Spirit of Leannan X2). If you have the group (which looking at my guild basically means, you have a Priest of Mitra and 5 ToS) I highly recommend you move in and slaughter this instance. A lot of XP here will get you close to Lev 60.

Summary
--Questing is a VERY quick way to get from 40-60. However certain areas lead to good grinding.
--Quests are good XP even if they are green and Gray!
--Use the Villa Quests in Old Tarantia to grind up, or top off a level.
--Make money gathering resources to buy your steed.
--Save the Arena quests till lev 55ish then get a group and hit Toirdealbach's

For more in depth guides for leveling you quickly to 80, PvP and crafting.
Take a look at this Advanced Strategy Guide

Good Luck and I hope this helps. Look for my 60-80 guide soon!
Want to contact me? Email me at Admin@TheBurialGrounds.Com

Level Quickly! Class specific PvP Tactics! The AoC Class and Strategy guide!	Make your Age of Conan life easier by using the AoC Gold Guide
Know thy Enemy! Get the advantage with The Age Of Conan: The Ultimate PvP Guide.	Ashlings World! One of the best 1-80 AoC Leveling guides

Other Age of Conan Related Articles I wrote

Age of Conan Review: "A great game with a fatal Flaw"
Age of Conan Vs Warhammmer Online
Age of Conan Lev 1-20 Tortage Walkthrough
Age of Conan Walkthrough: Level 20-40 "Life as a Hyborian Tween"
Age of Conan Crafting guide: "Harvesting for the decapitated"
Age of Conan PvP Guide: "Mama Said Knock You Out!"

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