Curse

Funcom has sent us an exclusive update about the new Tier 3 content in Age of Conan. They've released screenshots of the new dungeon, the first screenshots of Thoth-Amon (the arch-nemesis of Conan), and screenshots of some of the new tier 3 armor sets.

Here are a few screenshots from the Tier 3 update:

Here's a look at the background story for the Tier 3, Update 6, publish:
  Thoth-Amon has returned and is performing nefarious deeds in his stronghold. He has long been a thorn in King Conan’s side and players are charged by Conan to battle through vicious demonic minions before confronting Thoth-Amon himself.

In Update 6 Funcom has introduced a whole new raid tier. This includes a massive new dungeon known as Thoth-Amon’s Stronghold, the home to Conan’s arch-nemesis himself, as well as new enemies and new rewards such as new armor. And did we mention that you will actually be able to fight alongside Conan himself in Thoth-Amon’s Stronghold?

Horrifying enemies

Every person in the stronghold is a powerful and brutal adversary making the quest to conquer the stronghold a challenging but victorious one.

Thoth-Amon’s Stronghold has over a half a dozen great new encounters that will introduce players to tier three raiding complete with new armor and other new rewards. Thoth-Amon’s Stronghold will also include several new quests that were designed to immerse players into the history and lore within Age of Conan. Each quest will reveal more and more details about the background of each encounter and character within the stronghold.

“The goal of Tier 3 was to shatter player expectations by making the fights different and more dynamic than what Age of Conan has had before.  Each encounter has a hook, a puzzle like mechanic that payers need to decipher before the encounter is completed, even then each fight should be a challenge,” says Peter Rocchio, Game-play Designer and Co-Creator of Thoth Amon’s Stronghold. “Another way we mixed things up was by forcing players to use tools that may have been previously neglected, such as mana draining, and taking advantage of protection on previously ignored gear.  We also introduced more positional mechanics which will hopefully force players to have greater situational awareness and make more individual choices within the context of an encounter.”

“Hathor-Ka is a powerful sorceress that worked for and then attempted to betray Thoth-Amon. She has three brothers half returned to life to guard her chamber within the stronghold.”

 “Arbanus, a severly wounded warlord plucked from a battlefield by Thoth-Amon and granted skin of stone.”

“The most powerful of all Stygian sorcerers, Thoth-Amon is a corrupt and terrifying Sorceror of the Black Ring. It is said that even the lord of Stygia fears to cross him. Although Thoth-Amon claims to worship Set, the vile serpent god, in fact he has no interest in anything except his own power. Thoth-Amon is a cruel, capricious man who will stop at nothing to gain sorcerous power. He first encountered Conan during `The Devil Within,` where Conan was protecting Kalanthes, priest of Ibis. The priest was Thoth-Amon`s mortal enemy, but with Conan`s help, Kalanthes was able to thwart Thoth-Amon`s plan.”

Shiny new loot

With the next addition to our raiding content also brings with it the new tier three armor sets. These magnificent pieces of armor are available for all classes in Age of Conan.

Now with new challenging encounters and new additions to our tier armor sets we also have one more treat for you. The highly requested Raid Loot Token System also makes its way into Age of Conan and Thoth-Amon’s Stronghold. The token system will be added to Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 raids with our latest update, giving an increased potential to attain the needed armor pieces that you seek with each run you take.

Under this Token System, a player will first obtain a 'relic' drop from slaying a raid boss. You can then use these relics, which appear in your token window, to purchase items from an in-game vendor that are priced in some amount of tokens plus gold. The token vendors are located in Old Tarantia near the Temple of Mitra, and in Kheshatta near the NPC Nefersuktum. There is a Royal Collector vendor in King Conan's Castle that will sell special armor to soldiers in exchange for tokens. 

Additionally, a number of rewards have also been introduced through our new token system. We will still have regular drops but now, corpses will now contain both tokens and special rewards that are only available as drops. This will make more gear available through tier three than ever available through tier two raiding. In return, it will also offer a lot more choices to the player giving them a safety net that is free from randomness of loot trolls! In the end, it will retain the “what’s on the corpse?” factor, which we feel adds a lot of anticipation and excitement to encounter completion.

Just to note, there is a slight difference in how tokens are obtained in T1, T2 compared to T3. In T1 and T2 the tokens will drop as do other items. This means they may be rolled upon, master-looted, and so forth. In T3, we introduced the concept of a "participation token" which is automatically granted to all members in the raid for killing a boss. This is to represent the difficulty jump between T3 and the other raid dungeons. In T3, in addition to this participation token players may roll on and/or masterloot containers of many tokens called "urns."  These urns come in several varieties, including archetype specific. When used in your inventory, the urn will add relics to your character. 

Fight alongside Conan 

Last, but definitely not least, one should mention that in players will for the first time ever have the chance to fight alongside Conan himself in Thoth-Amon’s Stronghold. We won’t spoil the surprise too much; suffice to say that your journey in the Stronghold will be very, very dramatic. Funcom looks forward to be bringing players new experience in future free updates, as well as the upcoming expansion pack Rise of the Godslayer.

For more information on this update and to checkout everything that is Age of Conan visit: www.ageofconan.com