Age of Conan was fun. A nice little diversion. WoW killer? Nope, not for me at least.
Initially, I rolled a barbarian, because this was not Age of Emeril the Chef. After a few days of frustration, I decided to give a ranger a try, but that was even worse. For me at least, the game mechanics really did seem best suited for mele, even if it was a bit less than it could be. Yes, it is a rush to take down a crowd of 4 or 5 mobs with a dual wielding nutjob, but after a while it just gets boring. I guess I was hoping for something closer to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, with timing of attacks based on what you see happening on the screen (what a concept), hiding behind your shield to block an attack (with the shield blocking your view the way it should), and diving in at an exposed throat after something lunges at where you where half a second ago. Instead, in AoC, you react not to what you are seeing, but to some yellow brackets that for no reason shift around the mob, showing you where it is “shielding”. Now, it may not have a shield of any sort, and it may just be some dude in a dress standing there casting a spell, waving his hands back and forth over his head. Somehow me smacking him with a pair of swords in the head does almost no damage because his finger wiggling is stopping my blade.
Of course, when it is all working, it is good fun, especially when you get a fatality mid way through a big pull. A fatality is a nice little reward for killing something with a combo instead of a normal attack, but it only happens if you get a critical strike. The beauty of a fatality isn’t the massive stamina regeneration, but the splattering of blood on your screen followed by a sweet animation of you chopping their head off or plunging a sword in them before twisting it and putting your foot against their chest to pull it out.
Another bonus, in AoC, instead of a surly midget wanting you to go pick up the tools he dropped, it can be a smoking hot babe, sending you to find her sister….. 
As you can see, the quality of the graphics are just stunning. Little touches like fish jumping in a waterfall or shadows on the ground from birds flying overhead really make it something worth checking out.
For me though, it wasn’t enough to keep me around. I will probably play a bit more before my subscription runs out to try out my new combo moves (I just hit 40, hence the big war mammoth), but I cancelled my auto-payment for now. Too many bugs. Too few quests. Too little to care about. I have yet to see any meaningful impact from new gear, and the end-game is pretty empty from what I have seen. That doesn’t mean I won’t ever come back, but right now, I have better things to do than beta test their game for them, especially because they don’t seem to care. Maybe I can chat with them about that when I go to Norway to see the old country?