AoC Guide: Conquerer Leveling and Feat Guides

This was written from Early access session experience.
Starting out:
You can choose to be Cimmerian or Aquilonian. There are no starting racial differences or starting trait advantages between the two, so pick the one you think you can make look the best and enter into the world of AoC.
Levels 1-5:
These are fairly straight forward. After the intro cut-scene turn 180 degrees and swim out into the water and down for a chest. Just some quick loot to sell later on. Talk to the girl in chains to get your quest to enter the city. Walk around the island and kill pirates, smugglers, apes, and pics. By the time you get to Tortage you should be 5 or close to it.
Levels 5-10:
This is where things can diverge if you so choose. You'll get a quest from the guard outside of the city gate to talk to Tina at the inn which is right inside the city gate to your right. Talk to Tina and you can choose to start your destiny quest. I'm not going to give any spoilers here other then to say this is a solo quest you do and can take you to lvl 10 easily, 15 if you decide to kill everything you can.If you choose not to start your destiny quest at this time, just go around and get as many quests around town as possible and go to town (pardon the pun). Don't get overwhelmed by how many quests you get (BTW your quest log holds up to 32 quests if I counted right). Your map and mini map will point you to where the quests are, its very user friendly and is very hard to get lost. The quest log not quite so user friendly.You can choose to do your destiny quest at any time, just beware that the mobs level up as you do for your quest. So don't think you can level to 15 then blow through it.
Levels 15-20:
At level 15 you can restart up your destiny quest. Once again no spoilers as it is very linear and self explanatory. By this time you should be ready to port to your home city. Being Cimmerian I port to Connarch Village, Aquilonians I believe port to Old Tarantia (don't quote me as I'm too rough and gruff to roll a sissy la-la man).You'll get to talk to a Drifter for your destiny quest who tells you to come back at lvl 30. Once again, no spoilers, you'll just have to experience these for yourself.In the meantime, rinse and repeat the going around town and gathering as many quests as possible. You should be familiar with how the quest system works so check your map often and try and be as efficient as possible. There are a few quests around town that just have you basically be a barbaric Fed-Ex guy. So knock those out (avoid the drunken hobo!) After you're done with the stuff in town you'll be introduced to the real wilds of the game. Knock out the quests and work your way down to the Cimmerian Settlement where you'll get a bunch more quests. By the time you're done with these you should be close to 30, if not 30.
Levels 30-35:
You get Heavy Armor now so soloing gets easier if that is your style. Start doing the Gravesinger quests (starts with Korm Wolfeye at his camp)for some very nice blue heavy armor.By this time you should have a good idea of what is going on and where you need to go. I took a break from this area and went to Old Taratina and started working on quests over here. Doing grey quests (basically super easy quests) are a great way of getting some real quick and easy experience so don't pass them over!I'll leave the rest up to you as you venture forth into the wilds.
Skills:
I spent over 7 silver testing these this morning, so these are the conclusions based on the respecs. If I've mis-read the skill sets and what they do please feel free to chime in and let me know if something is amiss.Well you'll notice as you level up you get skill points for various things such as Hiding, Climbing, Bandaging, etc...etc... and you'll end up getting quite a few of them as you level up. Before I start I'll let you know as best as I can tell they are broke, busted, not working and any other adjective you can use to describe a borked system. With that said I'll introduce you to them briefly and let you know which ones work. (I thought I took a SS but apparently didn't so please forgive me as I forgot the names of a few of them)
Bandaging:
Increases the amount of health you heal as you rest. Doesn't seem to work as best as I can tell. With max bandaging it was the same or a tad faster then zero points in it. At higher levels you get an additional component of this I believe called Fast Recovery which gives you a chance to double the amount of Health gained while resting. This does seem to work as every so often I notice a jump of health returned.
Err..forgot the name of this one
Works the same as Bandaging but restores your Stamina as you rest. It does allow Stamina to be regenerated while resting. The additional ability gained at a higher level allows you to double the amount of the Stamina regenerated while resting. Same as above, as it seems to work every so often as I'll notice a jump of Stamina while resting.
Endurance: Reduces the cost of stamina usage as your sprint. Doesn't work. With max points invested it uses the same rate as it does with zero points invested.
Fast Running: Allows you to run faster out of combat. Doesn't work either. Speed is the same regardless as max points or zero points invested. I've heard that it works only while sprinting, but this didn't change anything either.
Climbing: It allows you to climb areas. IT WORKS! Throughout the game there are climb points that allow you access to different areas and the ability to climb these are based on how many points needed. i.e. some areas will require 150 points, 200, even seen a couple 600 point climbs. Not really sure how much we need these but atm, after my respecs this is where I'm putting points. I've found a couple areas out of the way with nice views and even quest areas that were out of the way from the over-camped areas.
Perception: This is hit or miss. Sometimes I had great luck with it othertimes I couldn't find someone 11 levels lower then me who stealthed right next to me. Caveat Empor with this one. Your mileage will vary.
Hiding: Allows you to hide and decreases your chance to be detected the more points invested. Doesn't seem to work. A few points into it is necessary for basic hiding, but I get busted with it all the time by NPC's from various distances. With max hiding I would get pulled out of hiding by mobs 20 yards away quite frequently. Besides as a Conqueror moving while hiding is a great way to drain stamina extremely fast, so I don't recommend it for sneaking past NPC's as if you get jumped with no stamina it gets quite brutal trying to fight with no stamina.
Taunt:Adds threat to your attacks. Can't tell if this works or not. When grouped with lower levels they couldn't pull aggro off me and when grouped with higher levels it was hit or miss.I do believe that is all of our skills we have at lvl 40.
Feats: And should I go Dual Wield or 2 Hand?Well women always like big burly men that use both hand to hold...nevermind. Anyways, which route to go is entirely up to you. I love the fact this class can spec either way, its great versatility so I recommend trying both out. Here is a Feat Calculator to use to see which route looks appealing to you and your playstyle.Conquerors as stated above can choose to Dual Wield (no daggers) or a single gigantic 2 Hand weapon (no polearms). We also share the generic Soldier feat tree which grants us more specialization for tanking, DPS, increased resistances. I have never been a fan of multi-specced classes, so my generic recommendation is choose a tree and stick with it. However, your playstyle will vary greatly from mine, but if you don't like your particular choice you can visit Feat Trainers and respec for a fee. The Dual Wield tree (Carnage) is based around fast hitting, blender chopping, DoT attacks. This tree's main weakness is that it lacks knockdowns and stuns. Please feel free to add if there additional strengths or weakness' to this tree and forgive my inexperience in regards to this tree.The 2 Hand tree (Brute) is based around slow, hard hitting, devastating attacks. This tree gets a stun and increases the damage of your knockdown attacks and counter attacks. Again, please feel free to add to this as your experience dictates.The General tree augments existing abilities and adds to the overall specialization of your playstyle. Straight forward and basic.
Playstyle: Or how do we do solo as well as in groups?
Solo: I spend a lot of time both solo and grouped. Being on a PvP server its nice to have a group of friends around, but I do find myself going solo alot as I work on crafting, catching up on quests that others have done, etc..etc..I generally don't have any problems taking on multiple mobs. At level 31 I was able to solo the Elite Ymir Frostgiants with about 10-20% health left at the end. Packs of mobs a couple levels lower went down fairly easy as well. I spent a couple hours grinding over the weekend and was able to chain pull lvl 30 Varnir Elite Captains getting 350 xp a kill. I was able to solo the Spider Cave right before the Plains of the Dead when the mobs were 3 levels or so below me as well as kill the Lurker inside.Potions, Food, and Sprint are your friends. All of my armor and weapons are quest rewards or drops so this isn't being twinked out or using the best of the best. I generally swing by the potion and food merchant and buy 20 stamina and 20 health pots and it keeps me self sustaining for a few hours. I give the class a huge thumbs up for solo playability.
Group: Groups are where we really shine. We have a variety of buffs, commands, auras, and procs that make us a very desired and wanted class in groups and instances. We get a mysterious ability called Furious Inspiration that as far as I can tell procs when our group mates get hit. It stacks up to 10 times and when it is fully applied will proc in-combat resses on fallen members, increase the damage of all in our group, and just make us really popular, sorta like the prom king (or queen if your a girl).
We get stances, Normal, Frenzy, and Defensive.
Frenzy: Our offensive stance. Adds 150% damage but we take 300% more. You do not, I repeat, do not want to be in this stance while tanking. Defensive: Our tanking stance. Lowers incoming damage but slowly drains stamina while in it and decreases out offensive power. I was originally disappointed with Defensive stance in Beta and considered the only viable stance to be that of Frenzy, but find myself staying in Defensive more and more often, especially solo now. (You were right Renuo I'm eating my words in release) I don't really notice the stamina drain from the stance and my damage input/output in Defensive is worth it atm over the input/output from Frenzy stance right now. Maybe when I take the Frenzy feats it will be more worthwhile but in solo and pvp Defensive is very viable, plus there are defensive feats which may offset the lower dps of being in Defensive Stance.Soldier Skills:We get Charge at level 20. Charge is an ability that uses out Stamina but propels us forward to a target and increases the damage of our next attack. Charge is wonky right now I feel. Sometimes I'll get teleported 40 or 50 yards away, or charge through players, get stuck in trees or rocks, or just get a message saying you can't charge your current target. It may be that I grew used to Charge from World of Warcraft, but currently if there is anything in your way, or if there is an elevation change between you and your target you're going to more then likely not charge. Not too sure why you'll get teleported. I've heard tell that it is because you queue an attack before you charge. That may very well be the case, but I've stopped queuing attacks and still get it on occasion. Overall Impressions:Well being out for only 3 days it may be premeptive to be releasing a review/impression thread, but with retail starting tomorrow I thought it would be worthwhile and beneficial for those coming in. I do apologize for any errors that may be present, if you do notice something that is incorrect please feel free to either PM me or post a reply and I'll do my best to look into it and change any incorrections.My thoughts on the class are very positive and I'm enjoying the variety the class offers. It can do all things well from DPS, support, and tanking. Being on a PvP server I've already had quite a few battles. Getting jumped solo by a ranger or caster has been pretty rough and more often then not has resulted in a run back from the spawn point, but getting jumped by melee has been a different story. Head to head I've been pretty impressed with our damage and ability to survive. Charged being borked leaves a foul taste in my mouth regarding pvp but I'm sure that will be fixed or I'll just adjust to using it in its current state. Solo and group play I'm more then satisfied with my choice of the Conqueror and I look forward to the last half of the levels.