I really don't feel like spending on a membership again until I have some froob time to get my bearings back and ensure that I am in fact, interested in doing AO again. I'd like to roll a crat. What are the endgame consequences of missing out on pre-TL4 paid content? Anything I'll be locked out of?

Edit

I think you guys might be missing the point of my question a little bit, that's okay.

I'm asking if there are any NODROP items obtained in level locked zones within expansion content. If there aren't, that means froobs can freely catch their toons up to proper endgame gear if they decide to upgrade later, with no need to reroll, even for the most serious twinkers.

Haven’t played in a while and I mean a long while lol but I’m coming back hearing about these buffbots and stuff like that which I’m assuming makes leveling easier. Anyway, I did some research and I’ve read that the bureaucrat is a pretty decent solo class to level, but I just wanted to get you veterans opinions on this. I’ve always played a caster type class, that can mesmerize, charm, etc., and this dual welding pistol sounds pretty cool. Please let me know how hot it is to level or how easy it is as a solo player.

I have played this game back in 2016 2017 give or take but have not played since. I had fun while playing it but I’ve been mostly a solo player and it was kind of hard to level if you didn’t have certain buffs, etc. I would like to know how it is leveling now, and is it hard to find people to play with at lower levels please let me know.

I don't do PVP or engage in any cheats, but I've seen lots of people complaining about it. From what I gather, "stacking" is the big offense, and has something to do with increasing stats to impossible limits. So I've been wondering: can't you tell if someone has cheated by inspecting equipment to see what the stat requirements are, or just having them jump, to see if their strength makes them jump a mile high?

I'm just asking out of curiosity. One might call it morbid curiosity. It just strikes my logical/investigative mind that there should be ways to figure it out.

I miss the olden days sure, but I really like thee new features of the game like buff bots and implantbob and scottyboi for fast travel... what do you think? Do you like it or think it was better in the olden days?

Hi.

What are the best settings for the new engine?

It still feels “slow” and a bad fps - almost like it’s not using hardware acceleration.

The mouse cursor isnt very smooth especially in populated areas…

Is there a guide to make sure its all running right?

Thanks

My eBay alert just informed me of another “Prophet Without Honor” hardcover for sale. Seems to be in good condition and for a decent price incase anyone here wanted to add it to their collection.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/800352631974

[Edit] Sold already! Hope someone here got it!

who is this person and why do i see so many posts saying the game is 100% dead in 99% of zones?

------------------------

Release 0.8.5 - Jul 2026

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- For both: PHP 8.5 fixes

- For AO: Twink, Skills, Oe, Gmi, Aggdef, Cluster, Wb, Defreeze, Recruit & (Send)Com improved

Usual place to DL → http://bebot.link/

No seriously, I’ve been looking to spicy things up a little bit since I’ve played MA. Any ideas?

Every shade in my org seems to have a different idea of what is best for end game shade weapons. I am using dual Hacked Medi blades because I like the looks, the heal proc, and the minimum damage, another shade is using hacked medi-blade and deceit of xan, and another one is using dual Slayerdroid Notum-Imbued Claws.

Here's their stats:

*Improved Hacked Medi-Blade https://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=274978

*Deceit of Xan https://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=280719

*Slayerdroid Notum-Imbued Claw https://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=305026 .

Which option do you think is best for a 220/30/80 shade?

Oh I should add Google AI said Deceit of Xan was the best for endgame shades, I am just not sure I trust google AI :P

If anyone out there is running AO with the old engine on a 3440×1440 with larger hotbars and GUI menus that don't overlap let me know!

I have tried new engine with AOIA+ running with the enhanced resolutions and windows running with 150% scaler. That worked "ok" but it was unstable and would crash 2-10x a day and it had its issues.

I tried this yesterday -

https://forums.funcom.com/t/dgvoodoo2-guide-2025-optional-aopp-optimzations-the-full-optimzation-modd-guide-how-run-the-old-engine-the-best-it-can-be/220065/5

That didn't seem to do much and caused a lot of issues and the UI was so tiny and the buttons were about an inch or so big.

I am using the dovvetech ndGUI with dark theme as I've heard that was the better UI for larger screens. Any tips would help greatly thanks!

Again for stability I'd like this to be on the old engine.

I have been doing collector and having fun, getting kicked over walls and kicking spirits to beat the last boss. Have you done collector? What did you think? What's your favorite dungeon?

I have two options currently:

DustBrigade Operative Chest Piece https://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=303104

Awakened Cuirass of Obstinacy https://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=302729

Which do you think is better? Is there any other better options? I am currently using the Cuirass which helps me heal and seems pretty good. The extra crit from Dust Brigade looks nice though.

Since Froobs can be beacon warped into SL normally without any AOSharp/plug-ins, we've spent the past 2 years making new Froob toons, levelling and gearing them (without any exploits), saving in Pande garden, and attempting Beast.

The fight for froobs is significantly different from paids because of the lack of TH/GTH. Not being able to drain Beast nano means every piece of Beast's toolset remains online. Therefore the typical tired limbs strategy (which sticks -2750 inits on Beast) simply doesn't work. Beast's NCU Wipe skill removes tired limbs (and 7 other debuffs), and Beast's 20s Reflect skill prevents tired limbs from sticking. Since Froobs don't have enough reflects (no reflect aura!) or HP (no large Enfo HP or perks), conventional tanking strategies don't work because Beast will 2 or 3 shot the main tank within 1-2s.

We opted for a duo soldier tank doing (for the first time) perfect TMS-juggling. The soldiers don't deal any damage and instead use nano taunts and taunt tools, keeping careful track of aggro generated by counting the number of casts. They then swap aggro every minute within a short 20s timeframe.

Since NCU wipe removes 2-4 most recently cast buffs, whenever a soldier casts TMS, the rest of the raid immediately spams protection-school buffs (absorbs, ICRT) on the soldier to prevent his TMS from being wiped. This must be done quickly, as Beast has been observed to randomly insta-cast NCU wipe 0.3s right after TMS was casted before.

Other dangers include Ring of Fire (10-15k AOE nuke). Most raiders are twinked to have more than 13k HP and 25% fire reflects to survive this.

The first add wave (of 4 adds) are dealt with by positioning 3 sacrificial soldiers in the extreme corners of the playfield. They pull aggro and TMS to buy the raid 80s to deal with the adds one-by-one.

The second add wave (of 8 adds) is the hardest part of the fight. The sacrificial soldiers temporarily deal with 3. The rest are crowd-controlled in some manner: blues are charmed by crats, hiisis are rooted by agents, pinks are calmed by crats/NTs, and spiders are killed or JLMNed by crats. The real kicker here is that if an add is CCed within a ~40m radius from Beast, then Beast's NCU wipes will free the adds from all debuffs. Surviving 2nd add wave requires very careful coordination and teamwork from the entire raid.

A very special thanks to all the raiders who made this possible!

Abloc
Dagger
David & Nic Galehouse
Faffy
Farell
Furu
Hipp
Mali
Orochi
Qwen
Stop
Tradias

Absent with apologies:
Brehlen
Gunz
Nic Galehouse

The 25th Anniversary event seems to have started automatically.
https://www.ao-universe.com/guides/classic-ao/holiday-encounters/birthday-event-world-bosses
Happy birthday AO!
(It's a bit early, the actual birthday is 27th of June).

please, someone fill me in

I have fond memories of DJ Chaim in-game and IRL at several Dragon*Cons in Atlanta

Did my reset, I was shocked at the points I wasted while levelling. I was told Dodge ranged and duck explosion are worthless except against shotguns. Is that true.

update - I just maxxed out dodge range and duck exp because I had a lot of extra IP anyway and with hecklers checking duck exp I felt it was a must have

Title says it all. Looking for good damage meter.

Last time I was active was a couple yrs ago and every 24 hrs the server would have issues around 1AM (US Central time), causing a few lag spikes that lasted about 30s each.

Was annoying since I was always online late at night but you could mostly prep for it in advance since the timing was so predictable.

Does that still happen? Thinking bout maybe reactivating an acct just for fun

(edited to fix formatting issue)

Over the last couple of weeks Ive gotten my awakened armor from beast, my DB3 bracer, Belt of great justice and drone from Subway. Doing collector for an ACDC... I just have been having a great time making my character stronger and doing all the dungeons. This game can be amazing at times.