A new SharkPony vid!?!? Haha I'm glad you are back man, this video is quite compelling to make me level a shade for the first time. I've also wanted to make videos again and try voice over but maybe another day lol.
Glad you're still playing the game! I used to watch you almost a decade ago. I've always only played as a froob but just bought myself my first subscription a few days ago. Maybe I'll see you in game some time!
I would love to play this game again. Played it almost every day 12 years ago. Not a single MMO came up to it. But I've forgotten everything and I fear that population is so low its not worth it anymore. I fear Im dependend on other players help to even remotely come back into the game and that hinders me in doing so.
Thanks for your take on this, I was pretty curious about your thoughts on what works in SL. My kid sister (who is definitely not a kid, as she's in her 40's haha) discovered you *can* backstab with a shade while soloing, it's just not worth the work.She would run back and forth *through* the mob while hitting the number she assigned to backstab. many mobs didn't turn fast enough to avoid it..but it took several tries...tries that could have been other attacks instead, so you waste some dps going for the backstab, which was huge damage, but could have been a fast-attack or other special or two while you try. now, a funny story about MA in Shadowlands: I had this idea that Bow skill was under-utilized. There was a patch which I was calling the "Bow love patch" that introduced several boons for bows, including a new bow that was RK team mission boss drop, that did some kind of mundane damage...*BUT*.."chemical fists", and had insane damage for what it was. I forget the name, but they were everywhere because they weren't used by anyone except a few MPs. MA had bow in a nice, usable color, and so I created an MA just for bow, and raised my skills accordingly. It seemed logical as also, this bow I mention had *no* special attacks, so super easy to max every level, with more points left over than if you went fists. I leveled up solely with bow on RK terminal missions, then went to Ely at the appropriate level for heckler teams...finally found a team that didn't have a kite NT or pocket tank, and joined up ready to devastate Hecklers. Now I had done what you do in AO. I twinked on the biggest freaking bow you could equip at that level, farmed the appropriate level bow with my GA4 fixer, and went all in for crit chance, including an old school crit scope. I dumped millions in this toon just to test it on hecklers because it seemed too good...on paper. We get down to the hecklers, tank rolls in, pulls a nice juicy one, hits Mongo, and we start blasting..and "Attacked by Heckler!" in my chat. I run around and the tank re-gathers aggro, i start blasting and attacked again! I die..like whack-dead die. I respawn and come back, same thing...wtf? I backscroll chat, and I'm crit-capping damage...10k hits all over. No wonder the tank couldn't hold aggro. It worked *too* good haha. I ended up resetting his skills and going fists, because at least I could survive that. Aggro from a heckler at that level is bad news, and it was pre-ofab so even that couldn't help me.
@@Jens_Martin I suggest you try it. Ely beach hecklers, chemical fists, crit buff, scope. Her a fixer run buff. You'll need it. You will easily take aggro from the enforcer and crit cap.
@@RedneckGamingChannel Still, 10k? Have they changed something about SL mobs AC's since I quit the game? I'm pretty sure you roll minimum attack damage on weapon on a crit no matter what you do. Even at 220/30 with a decked out character you wouldn't hit those numbers on a nomal white hit crit on a SL mob. 5-6k sure, but 10k? No way (unless Ely heckler chemical AC's are significantly lower than other types).
It's great to see a video of yours after so many years! I'd love to see a new series of you going through the levelling process. Also I hear there's a new starting area which would be interesting to see.
The problem with shade is getting to nippy john's, mine is stuck at 90ish with fear forged blades from step of madness but it's becoming less and less effective as i level, and honestly i didn't find better options, i made something like 500mil by selling perrenium weapons crafting parts but the only selling orders on GMI for nippy john's stilettos are like 3 billions, crazy...
Honestly Kyr'Ozch Rapiers are solid options! Sidg is another good and cheap option, you can use Ofab Vipers which are very good, the Shade turnspirit weapon(Trick Poker for Clan, I dunno for Omni) is dope, you can try using a Puncknife and going the MA-piercing route which puts out some bigboi damage, Die Kleine Nadel isn't horrible, Chicanery if you wanna use Brawl, then later on you can get Bloodlust and Piercing Evil! Hope that helps haha.
@@SharpTony Thanks for your insight. I guess i could use a Kyr'Orzch rapier as off hand, it's cheap as long as i don't go for the typed versions. Sigd i guess it's the one sold in gardens ? I'll look into it. I used Ofab Vipers from the subway when i started but i think it's pvp locked stuff ? I suck at pvp it would take me ages to get one, haha. Turnspirit weapons would be good options but i'd rather stay neutral and keep access to both Omni and Clan areas (without getting shot by guards, haha), i find it more convenient for leveling. Die kleine Nadel is an ok pick, but it will be tough to find a 140ish one without getting crushed 😅. Chicanery seems a solid pick though, i didn't find any clue where to drop them ? At least there's nothing on the comment section of auno.org website. Same for bloodlust. Piercing evil looks affordable from what i see, i'll check GMI for the prices but it definitely looks nice for later on.
@@Shingo_AI_Art Chicanery is from RK Dynas, it would probably be easier to find one on gmi/Darknet. Bloodlust is a weird one, it's a quest reward at lower quality levels, which is pretty nice. Ofab Viper you'll need VP to purchase, but you can purchase VP packs if you need.
I'm a returning player from around 12 years ago. Got a couple of 220's but forgot a lot of the game since I left so started on a new character. Made an Atrox keeper (thinking about changing it to soli due to seeing a few soli keeper solo videos and is almost 160 which I will lvl to 220, then thinking my shade next which is also Atrox. Maybe change to Opi for better evades for soloing? Seeing a lot of Engi solo videos. I heard they were one of the best solo and team toons now... Whats your thoughts on Engi? Mine is currently lvl 146 I believe.
I can tell you from leveling entirely solo to 200+ on an engineer, that it can be done to a point, but eventually (about 205 or so in my experience) you will have to go do heckler teams or team missions. You can wall-hug your way to 200 easy. too easy. but then the wall hits where your bot just cant, and you'll be spawning your back-up bot/dog in a panic when they get laid out by green/yellow mobs in SL. I had a very similar experience with MP. Powered up fast, killing mobs then hit the wall where my pets seemed squishy, but where what actually happened is the pets become less and less effective solo as the content gets harder. The little caves and such everywhere in SL are great (watch out though and be sure of the alignment of the mobs, as you can screw your faction progress if youre omni/clan and accidentally start slaughtering your factions guys) and you have to be very mindful of backspawn. whatever you killed to get in, you'll have to kill on the way out, but lots of big areas and nice rooms/walls to hid in/behind for pet classes.
@@RedneckGamingChannelThanks, That what I have been doing on both my engi and MP (think my MP is around 100). Once I start to get board soling on my 160 keeper, I'll slowly lvl my Shade. I don't mind the pet class, but the pets can get on my nerves at times lol...
Not at all! MP is one of my favorite profs and my Engi was a favorite on the channel haha. But /pet attack is a boring way to level for me. I have a much more fun time leveling an MP, thanks to having up to 3 pets, nukes, and summoned weapons. And an MP is much more self sufficient.
@@SharpTony I get it, /pet attack is kinda meh, but once you get an Amep and a DB pistol on with that real short burst cd, and a pretty nice perk alpha, you hold your own with the dog and widowmaker. And when things get hot, cocoon and bounce up out of there. Engi is just my fav
Literally anything haha. If you're looking to save money, I'd highly suggest getting an older used desktop/laptop like a Dell Optiplex. If you plan on running more than one account, grab something newer with a dedicated graphics card. If you want, you cant post a few links here and I can help you make a decision! And of course, any modern PC is gonna run multiple accounts of AO just fine haha.
So as a virtually brand new player to AO, would you still recommend the game these days? I'm mainly a solo-er in mmorpgs which is how I found this video. I'm also very familiar with retro mmos like EQ and UO (and even messed around with AO briefly, many years ago) so the age doesn't bother me. I was wondering more in terms of the game's longevity at this point and the playerbase. In other words, is there still a place for a new player? If I play, it will most likely be straight to a sub account because I'd probably have my heart set on Keeper (for the sci-fi paladin aesthetic and the solo-potential).
Hey man! I would still recommend it to a new player for sure! Especially since you have experience with EQ and UO, you'll fit right in with AO. Fortunately, AO has a lot of the modern conveniences(like maps) that EQ didn't have for the longest time haha. A Keeper would be a great way to go! You'd have a lot of fun and it would ease you into learning to game without dying too often.
@@SharpTony Hey, thanks for the reply! Glad to hear that. I was actually pretty interested in the Adventurer too (think it's the class I went with back in the day because I figured it was like the AO equivalent of the ranger on EQ) but I'm not a huge fan of having to be shapeshifted all the time. Always hoped they'd add some kind of optional aesthetic mod or something that could hide the form but still give you the benefits. I guess that would have pissed some people off though, lol. Ah well, seems like the Keeper is the safer/better bet anyway. Think I might get this installed tonight. I'm also going to try using my Tridef program with it to give the game stereoscopic 3D (I do that with basically all my games these days and it's so cool to see them with added 3D depth using a VR headset). If you haven't tried it, you definitely should at some point! I even got it to work on a sprite-based game like UO! Everything just pops out at you! Anyway, thanks again! Maybe I'll see you in-game sometime.
I just came back to the game again. Played RK19 last time I've played. I'm too cheap right now to pay 17$ for my account again. So I am doing what every reasonable AO player does.... I'm multiboxing 2 froobs. Soldier and Doctor. I just love those big dick damage Full Autos. Just not THAT solo friendly on froob since you are lacking some of the sicker weapons like the Pere. That's why I decided to /follow a healer with me at all times :D
Worse is shade. Kill me for maining one. To qualify I don't and never did play defensive shade. My shade is a pure DD demon. And it's so bad enfos struggle for agro. I'd also say shade is terrible for leveling because it'll always be weaker than other classes due to the hard limits for thinking. It's a nightmare to get to the point shades dominate. And this is from someone that mains one and is damned proud of my glass cannon monster. I'd not advise a shade to any new Comer or anyone who isn't extremely knowledgeable and rich enough to afford it. And even than many will drop it before 220.
There is no words to describe how much i miss playing this game in the early 2000’s 😢 the feeling is almost unbearable 🤣
I think about it all the time. 2001 - 2006 was magical.
A new SharkPony vid!?!? Haha I'm glad you are back man, this video is quite compelling to make me level a shade for the first time. I've also wanted to make videos again and try voice over but maybe another day lol.
Glad you're still playing the game! I used to watch you almost a decade ago. I've always only played as a froob but just bought myself my first subscription a few days ago. Maybe I'll see you in game some time!
That's awesome man! Congrats on your sub! Did you make a new paid toon?
@@SharpTony Yup. Just started a Keeper, levelling tier 2 research in TOTW now. #AuraOfRevival 🔥🔥🔥🔥 😆
@@JColdery Oh heck yeah! Dude you're gonna love that Keeper all the way to 220, Keeper is just too much fun.
This settles it. I'm making an account
dooo iiit
What did you roll :)
@@Disko671 we'll see tomorrow
it can be tough to start but once you get it figured out and settled its a beautiful time
did u make it? :D @@LewieJay
I would love to play this game again. Played it almost every day 12 years ago. Not a single MMO came up to it. But I've forgotten everything and I fear that population is so low its not worth it anymore. I fear Im dependend on other players help to even remotely come back into the game and that hinders me in doing so.
Thanks for your take on this, I was pretty curious about your thoughts on what works in SL.
My kid sister (who is definitely not a kid, as she's in her 40's haha) discovered you *can* backstab with a shade while soloing, it's just not worth the work.She would run back and forth *through* the mob while hitting the number she assigned to backstab. many mobs didn't turn fast enough to avoid it..but it took several tries...tries that could have been other attacks instead, so you waste some dps going for the backstab, which was huge damage, but could have been a fast-attack or other special or two while you try.
now, a funny story about MA in Shadowlands:
I had this idea that Bow skill was under-utilized. There was a patch which I was calling the "Bow love patch" that introduced several boons for bows, including a new bow that was RK team mission boss drop, that did some kind of mundane damage...*BUT*.."chemical fists", and had insane damage for what it was. I forget the name, but they were everywhere because they weren't used by anyone except a few MPs.
MA had bow in a nice, usable color, and so I created an MA just for bow, and raised my skills accordingly. It seemed logical as also, this bow I mention had *no* special attacks, so super easy to max every level, with more points left over than if you went fists. I leveled up solely with bow on RK terminal missions, then went to Ely at the appropriate level for heckler teams...finally found a team that didn't have a kite NT or pocket tank, and joined up ready to devastate Hecklers.
Now I had done what you do in AO. I twinked on the biggest freaking bow you could equip at that level, farmed the appropriate level bow with my GA4 fixer, and went all in for crit chance, including an old school crit scope. I dumped millions in this toon just to test it on hecklers because it seemed too good...on paper.
We get down to the hecklers, tank rolls in, pulls a nice juicy one, hits Mongo, and we start blasting..and "Attacked by Heckler!" in my chat. I run around and the tank re-gathers aggro, i start blasting and attacked again! I die..like whack-dead die. I respawn and come back, same thing...wtf? I backscroll chat, and I'm crit-capping damage...10k hits all over. No wonder the tank couldn't hold aggro. It worked *too* good haha. I ended up resetting his skills and going fists, because at least I could survive that. Aggro from a heckler at that level is bad news, and it was pre-ofab so even that couldn't help me.
I'll take things that never happened for $100!
@@Jens_Martin I suggest you try it. Ely beach hecklers, chemical fists, crit buff, scope. Her a fixer run buff. You'll need it. You will easily take aggro from the enforcer and crit cap.
@@RedneckGamingChannel Still, 10k? Have they changed something about SL mobs AC's since I quit the game? I'm pretty sure you roll minimum attack damage on weapon on a crit no matter what you do. Even at 220/30 with a decked out character you wouldn't hit those numbers on a nomal white hit crit on a SL mob. 5-6k sure, but 10k? No way (unless Ely heckler chemical AC's are significantly lower than other types).
@@Jens_Martin chemical is their weaknes, yes. Most SL mobs have a resistance hole. With hecklers it chemical
It's great to see a video of yours after so many years! I'd love to see a new series of you going through the levelling process. Also I hear there's a new starting area which would be interesting to see.
Sharp, I want to get back into AO - if it is still playable
It's still playable, it's just very different.
Good video! I may return to AO sometime. I mostly play EverQuest 1, been playing it for 21 years. Have a good day!
Glad to see you back
Dagm man, good to see you back.
The problem with shade is getting to nippy john's, mine is stuck at 90ish with fear forged blades from step of madness but it's becoming less and less effective as i level, and honestly i didn't find better options, i made something like 500mil by selling perrenium weapons crafting parts but the only selling orders on GMI for nippy john's stilettos are like 3 billions, crazy...
Honestly Kyr'Ozch Rapiers are solid options! Sidg is another good and cheap option, you can use Ofab Vipers which are very good, the Shade turnspirit weapon(Trick Poker for Clan, I dunno for Omni) is dope, you can try using a Puncknife and going the MA-piercing route which puts out some bigboi damage, Die Kleine Nadel isn't horrible, Chicanery if you wanna use Brawl, then later on you can get Bloodlust and Piercing Evil! Hope that helps haha.
@@SharpTony Thanks for your insight. I guess i could use a Kyr'Orzch rapier as off hand, it's cheap as long as i don't go for the typed versions. Sigd i guess it's the one sold in gardens ? I'll look into it. I used Ofab Vipers from the subway when i started but i think it's pvp locked stuff ? I suck at pvp it would take me ages to get one, haha. Turnspirit weapons would be good options but i'd rather stay neutral and keep access to both Omni and Clan areas (without getting shot by guards, haha), i find it more convenient for leveling. Die kleine Nadel is an ok pick, but it will be tough to find a 140ish one without getting crushed 😅. Chicanery seems a solid pick though, i didn't find any clue where to drop them ? At least there's nothing on the comment section of auno.org website. Same for bloodlust. Piercing evil looks affordable from what i see, i'll check GMI for the prices but it definitely looks nice for later on.
@@Shingo_AI_Art Chicanery is from RK Dynas, it would probably be easier to find one on gmi/Darknet. Bloodlust is a weird one, it's a quest reward at lower quality levels, which is pretty nice. Ofab Viper you'll need VP to purchase, but you can purchase VP packs if you need.
You back playing AO again?
How’s the hacking? I’m tempted to come back too.
We miss u m8... you gonna play dune??
I wonder if NT's are still good
I have mine, my first 220/30/70. Gosh, it is a killer. Pvp, pvm.. everything. Play a NT if youre paid otherise not worth it
I'm a returning player from around 12 years ago. Got a couple of 220's but forgot a lot of the game since I left so started on a new character. Made an Atrox keeper (thinking about changing it to soli due to seeing a few soli keeper solo videos and is almost 160 which I will lvl to 220, then thinking my shade next which is also Atrox. Maybe change to Opi for better evades for soloing? Seeing a lot of Engi solo videos. I heard they were one of the best solo and team toons now... Whats your thoughts on Engi? Mine is currently lvl 146 I believe.
I can tell you from leveling entirely solo to 200+ on an engineer, that it can be done to a point, but eventually (about 205 or so in my experience) you will have to go do heckler teams or team missions. You can wall-hug your way to 200 easy. too easy. but then the wall hits where your bot just cant, and you'll be spawning your back-up bot/dog in a panic when they get laid out by green/yellow mobs in SL.
I had a very similar experience with MP. Powered up fast, killing mobs then hit the wall where my pets seemed squishy, but where what actually happened is the pets become less and less effective solo as the content gets harder.
The little caves and such everywhere in SL are great (watch out though and be sure of the alignment of the mobs, as you can screw your faction progress if youre omni/clan and accidentally start slaughtering your factions guys) and you have to be very mindful of backspawn. whatever you killed to get in, you'll have to kill on the way out, but lots of big areas and nice rooms/walls to hid in/behind for pet classes.
@@RedneckGamingChannelThanks, That what I have been doing on both my engi and MP (think my MP is around 100). Once I start to get board soling on my 160 keeper, I'll slowly lvl my Shade. I don't mind the pet class, but the pets can get on my nerves at times lol...
Guessing your opposed to pet classes, but engies are pretty dope
Not at all! MP is one of my favorite profs and my Engi was a favorite on the channel haha. But /pet attack is a boring way to level for me. I have a much more fun time leveling an MP, thanks to having up to 3 pets, nukes, and summoned weapons. And an MP is much more self sufficient.
@@SharpTony I get it, /pet attack is kinda meh, but once you get an Amep and a DB pistol on with that real short burst cd, and a pretty nice perk alpha, you hold your own with the dog and widowmaker. And when things get hot, cocoon and bounce up out of there. Engi is just my fav
@@hlriiiviiiv Yeee Endgame is a different story, but leveling an Engi tends to bit a bit tedious until higher levels.
Welcome back even though it’s been over a month now lol
Oh shit, he's still alive! Hope you doing well brother :)
Hey brother! I am immortal! And life is pretty dang good, I hope you're doing well also!
Another great video. I think it's time I resub and have some fun on my shade. If he's still a member of Leet I'll see ya soon!
What is a good pc for playing Only AO on?
I do not play any other games online nor will i .
Thank you.
Literally anything haha. If you're looking to save money, I'd highly suggest getting an older used desktop/laptop like a Dell Optiplex. If you plan on running more than one account, grab something newer with a dedicated graphics card. If you want, you cant post a few links here and I can help you make a decision! And of course, any modern PC is gonna run multiple accounts of AO just fine haha.
So as a virtually brand new player to AO, would you still recommend the game these days? I'm mainly a solo-er in mmorpgs which is how I found this video. I'm also very familiar with retro mmos like EQ and UO (and even messed around with AO briefly, many years ago) so the age doesn't bother me. I was wondering more in terms of the game's longevity at this point and the playerbase.
In other words, is there still a place for a new player? If I play, it will most likely be straight to a sub account because I'd probably have my heart set on Keeper (for the sci-fi paladin aesthetic and the solo-potential).
Hey man! I would still recommend it to a new player for sure! Especially since you have experience with EQ and UO, you'll fit right in with AO. Fortunately, AO has a lot of the modern conveniences(like maps) that EQ didn't have for the longest time haha. A Keeper would be a great way to go! You'd have a lot of fun and it would ease you into learning to game without dying too often.
@@SharpTony Hey, thanks for the reply! Glad to hear that. I was actually pretty interested in the Adventurer too (think it's the class I went with back in the day because I figured it was like the AO equivalent of the ranger on EQ) but I'm not a huge fan of having to be shapeshifted all the time. Always hoped they'd add some kind of optional aesthetic mod or something that could hide the form but still give you the benefits. I guess that would have pissed some people off though, lol.
Ah well, seems like the Keeper is the safer/better bet anyway. Think I might get this installed tonight. I'm also going to try using my Tridef program with it to give the game stereoscopic 3D (I do that with basically all my games these days and it's so cool to see them with added 3D depth using a VR headset). If you haven't tried it, you definitely should at some point! I even got it to work on a sprite-based game like UO! Everything just pops out at you!
Anyway, thanks again! Maybe I'll see you in-game sometime.
Can you make some Fixer pvp videos please?
Freakin love shade.. and keeper.. MA is very underated imo
My first toon i reached 220 with was engi.i tried all and died so much i was sure engi was on this list xD
looks like I gotta try martial artist!
Yes please! Dude I'd love to see what you could solo with a 220 MA. I wonder if Lord of the Void would be possible.
@@SharpTony yeah no doubt. And I think they have some unstunnable perk line that lets them do certain dreadlochs or something?
@@davidgalehouse8684 Yessir they do! They can also solo Mitaar from what I hear, but a lot of profs can do that now haha.
I just came back to the game again. Played RK19 last time I've played. I'm too cheap right now to pay 17$ for my account again. So I am doing what every reasonable AO player does.... I'm multiboxing 2 froobs. Soldier and Doctor. I just love those big dick damage Full Autos. Just not THAT solo friendly on froob since you are lacking some of the sicker weapons like the Pere. That's why I decided to /follow a healer with me at all times :D
I know this is an old video but I am still in my old corp's discord. I'm gonna reinstall.. I missed it. Thank you.
Welcome back!
I would take adv over any of those :)
Worse is shade. Kill me for maining one. To qualify I don't and never did play defensive shade. My shade is a pure DD demon. And it's so bad enfos struggle for agro.
I'd also say shade is terrible for leveling because it'll always be weaker than other classes due to the hard limits for thinking. It's a nightmare to get to the point shades dominate. And this is from someone that mains one and is damned proud of my glass cannon monster.
I'd not advise a shade to any new Comer or anyone who isn't extremely knowledgeable and rich enough to afford it. And even than many will drop it before 220.
MA Engi