The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Asheron's Call] Nov. 2, 1999 -- Jan. 31, 2017
citizen059
hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
The official servers may have closed down, but you can still experience the game via server emulation.
More information available here: https://gdleac.com/
Original post in spoiler below.
Asheron's Call is closing down for good on January 31st, 2017. All new account creation is halted as of 12/20/16. I'll still leave this post as it is for historical purposes.
GOOD NEWS FOR TYCHO
The payments have finally stopped.
Official Update from the AC Forums:
Why should I play Asheron's Call?
Given the age of the game and the dwindling population, that's a legit question and a hard one to answer. The only thing I can tell you is that AC did a lot of things differently from other MMO's. If you need something different from modern "theme park" games or just want to see how things were done back in the day, it's a good game to try.
Here are just a few examples:
Assuming I want to try this, how would I go about it?
Purchase the game directly from the website for $9.99 - https://asheronscall.com/en
So what do you mean by no character classes?
It's really just that simple, no character classes. You can, when creating a character, choose from some preconfigured templates if you like. Or, you can delve into the custom creation screens and make your own unique build.
All characters have six "base" characteristics:
Strength - Determines how much you can carry, as well as influencing melee skills
Coordination - Primary stat for archers, but also influences your ability to dodge attacks. Also critical for alchemists and other craftsmen.
Endurance - Determines how much health & stamina you have
Quickness - Determines run speed as well as influencing ability to dodge attacks
Focus - Your mental clarity; a major stat for mages as well as those who wish to use magic items
Self - Strength of spirit; primarily determines the size of your mana pool
All stats start at a minimum of 10 and can go to a max (on creation) of 100. You get 270 attribute points to assign to a new character, meaning you can focus three of them or spread them around. A mage might put focus/self at 100/100 to maximize spellcasting abilities and spread the rest around as needed, while a melee fighter might give Str/Coord that 100/100 instead.
After assigning base stats, you then choose the starting skills that will define your character. Choose an offensive skill (melee weapons, ranged weapons, or some form of magic). There are also trade skills (alchemy, fletching, cooking) as well as tinkering skills that can be used to imbue your items with more powerful attributes. There are also support skills like lockpicking, or mana conversion (critical for any spellcaster as it reduces the mana cost of spells), and defensive skills (melee, missile, magic defense to either evade attacks or resist spells).
Want to be a thundering, raging axe warrior? You can.
Want to be a master of the arcane arts? You can.
Want to be the greatest arrow-slinging chef that ever baked a pie? You can.
Even if you create a total wimp of a character, it's okay. Thanks to the Temples of Enlightenment & Forgetfulness, you can change your stats & skills around later in the game if you really need to.
But what is there to do?
Quests, and lots of them. From simple to epic in scale, it's really hard to say there's "nothing to do" in AC.
If you're not into questing, you can roam the lands, hunting the wilderness to earn your keep. Or you can plop yourself into one of the many dungeons packed with dangerous creatures and slaughter them to level your way to the top.
Man, I'm not used to this old stuff. This game is tough to play.
Well, there are many useful third party applications that run in AC to make things easier for you. Some of them are downright awesome and others are...well, they're bot programs to be blunt. But there's a lot that's been done and outside of unattended macro'ing, Turbine allows it.
Ask in the thread what other people recommend using to find the latest info, as well as to find out where we're at and when we're around.
At the very least, with AC going F2P I will have an active account until the day they shut it down for good. I'm sure others will as well.
GOOD NEWS FOR TYCHO
The payments have finally stopped.
Official Update from the AC Forums:
As of August 2014, Asheron’s Call and Asheron's Call 2 will no longer charge a subscription fee for players. The last payments will be processed on June 31st, making July the final “paid” month. Note that this means some players will technically receive some portion of July free as a result, as we have decided to absorb the cost and not run partial payments to cover it. Other important information for the transition:
~ After the transition, new accounts can be created with a one-time $10 purchase through our normal sign-up page
~ We will no longer be performing MSN Zone migrations after May 31st (click here for more information regarding MSN Zone Migrations)
~ Any inactive subscriptions that players wish to access after the transition will require a one-time activation fee of $10 via the myaccount website
~ Note that after the transition, help requests will only be available regarding harassment issues or account assistance with the $10 one-time activation purchase.
~ The AC forums will remain up and available
We also wanted to provide an update regarding “community” servers. Our current plan is to offer the first player run server packages and to open up our player run server sub-forums by the end of the year. Our first offering will be a basic AC1 server and client download. We expect the first offering to be light on documentation, as it is intended for enthusiasts with experience in setting up servers and dealing with networking. While set up instructions will be offered on these new sub-forums, this initial offering will be intended to be used in conjunction with the forums to allow the community to begin the process of running servers and creating documentation for that process.
Why should I play Asheron's Call?
Given the age of the game and the dwindling population, that's a legit question and a hard one to answer. The only thing I can tell you is that AC did a lot of things differently from other MMO's. If you need something different from modern "theme park" games or just want to see how things were done back in the day, it's a good game to try.
Here are just a few examples:
- Original Gameworld - Nowhere will you find an elf, an orc, or a dwarf. The creatures and characters scattered across Dereth are largely unique to the series.
- No Character Classes - You build the character YOU want to play from a list of available skills.
- PVP - Considered by many to be one of the best MMO's for PvP mechanics. Play as a PK either on the regular PVE servers or go full time on Darktide, where you can be attacked by anyone, anywhere, anytime.
- Content - Turbine's regular updates (If you're familiar with the Living Story of Guild Wars 2, you'll understand the idea) from launch in 1999 up until the end of content development earlier this year means there are a lot of things waiting to be done.
- Open World - 500 square miles of open terrain to explore with no zones and no instances; the only possible exception being dungeons, which are accessed via portals rather than running into them from the open ground. But again, these are not instanced - everyone shares the same dungeon.
- Rich Lore - A very deep, involving history waiting to be uncovered...explore places packed with history and discovered lost, ancient texts for yourself
- Randomly Generated Loot - You won't have a ton of people running around with the same epic sword that dropped off some boss somewhere; Quest loot is available but far and away the best loot to be had is randomly generated and dropped by everyday mobs, making everyone's equipment unique.
Assuming I want to try this, how would I go about it?
Purchase the game directly from the website for $9.99 - https://asheronscall.com/en
So what do you mean by no character classes?
It's really just that simple, no character classes. You can, when creating a character, choose from some preconfigured templates if you like. Or, you can delve into the custom creation screens and make your own unique build.
All characters have six "base" characteristics:
Strength - Determines how much you can carry, as well as influencing melee skills
Coordination - Primary stat for archers, but also influences your ability to dodge attacks. Also critical for alchemists and other craftsmen.
Endurance - Determines how much health & stamina you have
Quickness - Determines run speed as well as influencing ability to dodge attacks
Focus - Your mental clarity; a major stat for mages as well as those who wish to use magic items
Self - Strength of spirit; primarily determines the size of your mana pool
All stats start at a minimum of 10 and can go to a max (on creation) of 100. You get 270 attribute points to assign to a new character, meaning you can focus three of them or spread them around. A mage might put focus/self at 100/100 to maximize spellcasting abilities and spread the rest around as needed, while a melee fighter might give Str/Coord that 100/100 instead.
After assigning base stats, you then choose the starting skills that will define your character. Choose an offensive skill (melee weapons, ranged weapons, or some form of magic). There are also trade skills (alchemy, fletching, cooking) as well as tinkering skills that can be used to imbue your items with more powerful attributes. There are also support skills like lockpicking, or mana conversion (critical for any spellcaster as it reduces the mana cost of spells), and defensive skills (melee, missile, magic defense to either evade attacks or resist spells).
Want to be a thundering, raging axe warrior? You can.
Want to be a master of the arcane arts? You can.
Want to be the greatest arrow-slinging chef that ever baked a pie? You can.
Even if you create a total wimp of a character, it's okay. Thanks to the Temples of Enlightenment & Forgetfulness, you can change your stats & skills around later in the game if you really need to.
But what is there to do?
Quests, and lots of them. From simple to epic in scale, it's really hard to say there's "nothing to do" in AC.
If you're not into questing, you can roam the lands, hunting the wilderness to earn your keep. Or you can plop yourself into one of the many dungeons packed with dangerous creatures and slaughter them to level your way to the top.
Man, I'm not used to this old stuff. This game is tough to play.
Well, there are many useful third party applications that run in AC to make things easier for you. Some of them are downright awesome and others are...well, they're bot programs to be blunt. But there's a lot that's been done and outside of unattended macro'ing, Turbine allows it.
Ask in the thread what other people recommend using to find the latest info, as well as to find out where we're at and when we're around.
At the very least, with AC going F2P I will have an active account until the day they shut it down for good. I'm sure others will as well.
citizen059 on
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Posts
-I only really know him, Asheron, and Martine from those-
I know the others are the depicted statues heroes in the towns like Cragstone and so on, but I cant remember their names
If by "dragon dude" you mean the black winged character at the end of the video, that would be Bael'Zharon.
Also Known As: Ilservian Palacost, Hopeslayer, Dark Walker
Best Known For: Sword of Lost Hope, Kemoroi
Summary: The Hopeslayer
Bearer of many names: "Hopeslayer", "Hopegiver" (to Player Killers), "Herald of the Nameless" or "Dark Walker" (by the Virindi).
The fiend Bael'zharon was originally a Dericost man named of Ilservian Palacost. From the town of Daralat, he lived during the times of the Black Rains. The Yalaini inhabitants blamed the Rains on the Dericost, saying that they were caused by the sins of the Dericost lords. As a result, the Dericost people were persecuted and starved.
As his family starved and his son Avorean neared death, Ilservian went to the leaders of Daralat and begged for help but instead he was turned out of town. Five of his friends followed him into banishment: Isin Dule, Ler Rhan, Ferah, Omadin, and Elithra.
For a long time Ilservian sought an edge to the Black Rains but he found nothing. At last in despair he cried out to the darkness and it answered.
A short time later, people began to disappear from Daralat. First it was children, mostly orphans. But the disappearances grew. The viceroy sent to the Emperor Caerlin I for aid and Lord Atlan was dispatched at the head of an army. When Atlan arrived at Daralat he found all of the people gone. Only the bodies of the aged or infeebled were left. Atlan marched through Daralat and into the Valley of Tresimaen. In that vale his entire army was swallowed by shadow. Only his squire, Kelderam, survived though she was made quite mad by the ordeal.
After that the shadow menace spread with a fiendish creature at its head. The creature was Ilservian Palacost, now Bael'zharon the "Hopeslayer." With him were five powerful shadow generals... his old friends and no one could stand against them. Caerlan formed the Council of Five composed of the five wisest members of the realm, but as they sought an answer, the Yalaini fled.
Caerlan himself was touched by the Soulburn Plague while fighting (and killing) the Shadow General Omadin. One other Shadow General, Elithra, was slain though it took the entire Council of Five to do it. In the meantime the Yalaini retreated to Dereth. There, a young Yalaini named Asheron who studied the works of Facill, devised a plan to for the council to trap Bael'zharon. As the council began their preperations at the Jailne Lyceum, the Dericost armies mustered to face Bael'zharon. At the Ayn Tayan, the Hill of Pines (42.5S 52.6E) they held off Bael'zharon's army for three days. This battle saw the epic battle between Leikotha and Nerash where Nerash was slain.
As the shadow armies marched on Jailne, Isin Dule anticipated a trap. But Bael'zharon was too livid with rage and he charged in blindly and was so imprisoned. The prison itself broke into six crystals, five of which were recovered and hidden away by the Yalaini.
The seventh, the Great Work, landed in northern Osteth and burrowed into the ground where it was discovered millenia later by a sect of the Dericost called the Gelidites who sought to turn the world to ice. The Gelidites were defeated by Isparan adventurers at Frore (63.2N 5.5E) and the first piece of Bael'zharon's prison was unwittingly broken.
About this time, Bael'zharon's three surviving generals returned to Dereth and began working out a way to free him. A second crystal was discovered and destroyed at the Nexus (40.1S 79.2W). But the Dericost were ready and began to muster their own armies to stop the shadows. They discovered the locations of two more of the crystals at the Fenmalain (46.9S 55.2E) and Shendolain Vestibules (53.8S 59.6W). Meanwhile, the Shadow General Isin Dule, fearing that Bael'zharon was out of control in his madness, turned traitor and set up a defense of the fifth crystal at the Caulnalain Vestibule (68.5N 5.5E). Though all three defenses held against the Shadows, none could stand against the ambitious greed of Isparan adventerers and all three crystals were destroyed.
About this time, the Dericost realized that the last crystal was located on the Vesayen Isles near the old Adjanite cathedral of Ithaenic. Their established defense again held against the shadows but proved too weak before the Isparans. The last crystal, the "Shard of the Herald" was broken and Bael'zharon was released again into the world. With his freedom the seas turned to blood and darkness came.
After his release, Asheron held a meeting with the Dericost, the Virindi, and the traitor Isin Dule. It was determined that Bael'zharon could only be defeated if he could be weakened first. This would require three critical artifacts: the Skull of Avorean Palacost, his son; the Heart of Shadow, his link to the Kemoroi; and the Fragment of the Singularity, a power from beyond this world. Those three items combined formed the Dark Crucible. Bael'zharon was weakened and ultimately defeated by the same Isparans who freed him.
It is said that with his defeat, the man called Ilservian Palacost died but the fiend Bael'zharon was merely vanquished for a time. The body of the broken man of Daralat can still be found deep inside the Sanctum of the Hopeslayer where Black Ferah holds vigil.
It is cool though.
Yeah...for comparison, here's an old screenshot that has BZ in-game.
Not sure. Obviously you have Asheron in there, and Bael'Zharon as we covered.
The guy in the Virindi suit is Martine, the guy in the black suit of armor is Borlean (Elysa's son, I think). Elysa of course is the woman with the bow. Aerbax is the virindi/tentacle monster, he was the focus of a pretty big story arc.
The Sho woman is Ben Ten, who I'm not familiar with. Not sure who the guy in the green is, but he could be the assassin Oswald who was often described as a man in green.
The woman in the blue robe is Nuhmudira, and the woman with the glowing staff is Lady Aerfalle (of Aerlinthe Island quest fame, obviously before she became an undead).
Last I checked, Ben Ten is a young boy with the power to turn into different aliens with his wristwatch thinger.
That would be handy in AC.
I wish I could go back in time and (re)participate in some of the things that happened in AC.
The "Shard of the Herald" war on Thistlegain - As explained above it was the last shard that kept BZ in his prison. All servers except Thistlegain had destroyed it, and subsequently found out it was a bad thing to do(lore wise). You could only get to the room the shard was in if you were a PK(or attack it, I forget which) and a war broke out on the server(something the dev's wanted to happen on all servers). People spent weeks protecting the crystal from invaders destroying it. IIRC Turbine needed the crystal to be destroyed to further the storyline so they had admins help the people trying to kill it(this may just be a rumor I read/heard or speculation). I remember looking at screen shots of the war and being jealous I was not on that server.
Shattenkind's Early Darktide history is always fun to read. Especially his Description of first logging on and being killed by "Og", arguably the most famous player on Darktide ever. The description of the first year of DT is awesome, seeing some of those names takes me way back(fuck you Mikey! SHIIIIIT). It kind of turns into how Blood(KoC) took over the server.
I could write about this game for days. DAYS. I need a damn time machine.
It was referenced above, but here's a recap. Essentially in order to be released from his prison, players had to destroy the last crystal shard holding him captive. To do that, they had to become "player killers" (essentially turning on the PVP switch allowing them to fight each other). You had to go PK to enter the dungeon that held the shard, and you had the choice: defend the crystal to prevent his release, or destroy it to allow him into the world.
The shard was destroyed on all the servers except for one...the Thistledown server held out for the entire month, and, well...Turbine had to take matters into their own hands.
This article sums it up well.
Divergent storylines on different servers? I can't imagine the extra work that'd cause.
Not to mention the forum whining and crying.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
It wouldn't have been divergent forever. I'm sure at some point, the vigil would have ended and the big bad guy released. Besides, that's the kind of player driven content MMO's need these days. Most games just don't have it anymore. Aside from Leroy Jenkins bullshit, there's not a single memorable event about WoW that I can recall.
However, I can tell you about all kinds of stories from Eve Online and I barely even play that game.
So, Asheron’s Call has reached its 10th anniversary. It’s incredible to have fans that have been with us through so many years, so many updates, and so many changes of the guard. It’s been an amazing 10 years in Dereth.
The AC team learned a lot in the year since our 100th update in August 2008, and after it was implemented we sat down and took a hard look at what worked and what didn’t. The initial patch was not what we wanted it to be when it launched. Fixing the subsystems took a number of updates, and we learned a lot of new things about our capabilities and the speed at which we can develop content. Although we finally feel that the systems introduced with that patch are close to our initial vision, we still want to continue making some adjustments to the systems and expand on the content areas from that patch.
In spite of the issues , the 100th update brought knowledge and many needed changes that were crucial to our ongoing plans. It was the first time since Throne of Destiny, our 2005 expansion, that the team split its focus and began to develop two areas of the game simultaneously. The 100th update delivered a new loot tier, and a mechanism through which questing could receive loot pulls. It also introduced a lot of new tech, including a whole new faction system to allow creatures to fight with one another and ally with players. This tech has already been used in a gambling-oriented monster arena and in faction areas.
For the 10th anniversary, we wanted to deliver new ways to play the game while staying true to Asheron’s Call. We added Two-handed Combat to the game to give you a new archetype for playing the game, and also added new capabilities to old skills that gave you further options to develop new types of characters. On top of that we added an entirely new item slot with a rich system of upgrading these new items to add depth to an already great loot system. We added a new interface where players could record information and track real-time quest timers, with the ability to sort and search through that information.
We also moved the game world forward, adding an entire new class of creature to the game with Gear Knights. These creatures/constructs provide a new threat -- and potentially a new source of allies -- to the players. With them came two new hunting areas to give more options to both high level characters and lower level characters.
With the 10th anniversary mostly behind us, and adjustments and fixes already well underway, I wanted to look ahead and share some items on our development wish list. I wanted to give you some insight about the areas of the game we are looking to improve; not as an announcement of features, but rather as a preview of the things we will be examining. Some of these things might be set aside as our priorities and understanding change. Some will be embraced and implemented!
Our first goal is to hit the ground running and deliver our next big update in the late spring or early summer of 2010. Although this new update is still a work in progress, I wanted to talk a bit about some of the things we are examining in the coming months to see if it’s possible to deliver them in that update.
I see an important wedding being announced in game to the people of Dereth. To celebrate this wedding, we will present a special update with some new features and special content. With a wedding comes an opportunity to dress sharp, and we are looking into systems to help characters look their best for the content and live events that will take place around this wedding.
With the wedding approaching, the nobles hope to sponsor artisans to style hair and treat the skin of the people of Dereth. We hope to add new hair styles and facial features to character options. This is, of course, far less compelling without Barbers to allow existing characters to change their hair, facial features, and perhaps even skin color. (Yes, if possible we will allow changes to the eyes, nose, and mouth. Barbers with access to the magic of Dereth can perform some wondrous things.)
With the wedding approaching, the nobles hope to sponsor artisans to enhance clothes and armors that appeal to the senses, yet still allow wedding guests to be on guard for dangers that might occur. We will look at the possibility of adding tailors to help players look their best. What we hope to do is create tailors that allow players to take one piece of loot gear that has great stats, but perhaps lacks in visual appeal, and exchange its stats and spells with those of another piece of loot gear that has inferior stats but has an appealing visual style and color. By allowing this for regular loot items we hope to allow players much more control over how their characters look. (This tailoring would not be possible with quest items or some specialty items like society armor.)
If we can implement the tech for these new looks, we also hope to implement an option to hide a character’s helm so you can show off your new look without getting your brains caved in should trouble arise.
We will look at the possibility of fixing up some of the animations that cause egregious gaps. We want to change a few animations where characters raise their arms above their head, like the jump animation and the logout animation, into something that does not cause the arms to obviously leave the body. We also want to fix the archery animation so the arm does not obviously detach from the torso. We want to see if this can be done in an acceptable timeframe without changing the duration of those animations.
The happy couple will celebrate by welcoming many of the estranged races of the land to join their kingdom as full citizens. Although many creatures will ignore their invitation, some stragglers, progressives, and visionaries from other races of Dereth might trickle into the kingdom. We hope to be able to offer one or more additional race as player characters to represent these exceptional beings who come to the kingdom and accept the citizenship from the King and Queen.
We want to add anti-aliasing (and the option to turn it off), which is a graphical option on a lot of video cards that smoothes out edges to reduce jagged lines.
We hope that these features will add a lot of options and customization to how characters look and help improve the overall look of Asheron’s Call.
In closing, I’d like to thank our players for their support and love of the game, and for those players curious enough about this game to be joining us or returning to us with the 10th anniversary. In the coming months we really want to elicit even more player feedback and make those suggestions into game reality.
To everyone who has played Asheron’s Call with us for 10 glorious years, we thank you for all of your support. See you in Dereth!
Severlin~
Every time I reminisce with friends, I always say how if Turbine could just turn the clock back to early 2000 and give me back my early-level Darktide, that I would play it even now in the midst of modern day's flourishing gaming technology.
I've lately toyed with the idea of creating small fan-created, non-profit audio dramas surrounding the main plot devices. It'd certainly bring an old spice to the voiceover and audio production community I am currently apart of that knows little about great storytelling as of late.
Does anyone know if they ever released a fankit? A few years ago, someone asked for the Asheron's Call font, and a dev responded that a fan kit would be coming soon, but I never found it.
I would buy it so fast.
I think one big problem would be that they would've missed the *absolutely incredible* content that came as a result of Bael being released. That was probably the greatest event Asheron's Call ever had, with the Admins controlling Bael as he went on rampages through cities and stuff. They already were short staffed (and usually content like this would have to be made months in advance, because it takes a damn long time to make), so if they decided to diverge I can only imagine it would've left Thistledown without much to do for the next three months.
I was a part of this, it was SO EPIC.
I'm glad my avatar's name will be on that wall until the servers come down, although I don't have access to my account anymore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WQCpzY8Yis&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97oea9eR_TM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHx2Lk8b0b8&feature=related
http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=554-april-release-notes&catid=81-2010&Itemid=68
The Shadows are here! Shadows are now a playable race! You can choose from two different races of Shadow. Find out more about how this all came to be by reading a special backstory written by former AC Dev Orion, and can check out the lore and the Teaser Video here!
Holy fucking... WHAT?
Goddamnit, AC can't get cool updates now!
Edit: There's also some sorta new magic revamp called Aetheria?
Removing racial weapons...
Edit2: HOLY FUCK THE ATHERIA IS LOTRO'S LEGENDARY WEAPON SYSTEM RETROFITTED TO AC!?!
Best patch ever.
I'm tempted to hop in and screw around a bit. Wonder if they ever did any server mergers.
Can you elaborate on the weapon system bit? I didn't play LotRO long enough to really learn much about it other than it wasn't my thing.
Ok, um, basically legendary weapons, there's 1 weapon and 1 "other" (shield, bow, etc) for every class in the game. Legendary weapons level up with you, and upon hitting max level you can break them down for parts and put them into better legendary weapons. It's a neat, neat trick to be honest.
I don't know much about it to be honest -- LOTRO is my emergency MMO, the one I have a lifetime sub for that I enjoy, but don't play much of. It's the MMO I'll be playing when I'm reduced to eating Ramen and gaming over Dialup.
Man, this AC patch has me seriously considering coming back for a bit. Are the Shadows all that different to play as? Are they going to backport undead and lugians and drudges and stuff from AC2, too?
I hope this isn't a last ditch effort to get AC1 more subs -- that's what AC2: Legions was, in the end...
Port AC1 to the iPad.
Thanks,
-KiTA
Where'd Decal end up at? The official site is dead.
Edit: Reading the old thread, with all of TDL's posts, is hard.
The Shadows with a Cloud under them are also playable, no major differences I don't think. I kinda wish I had chosen differently, I might redo it. Apparently the shadows with a cloud have troubles removing leg/foot armor right now.
2 Handed is um, gross. No shield, so you're inherently squishy as hell. But every time you attack you swing twice, and most 2 handed weapons cleave, hitting 1 extra target in front of you. Spears do more damage, but only hit one target. They have every elemental attack -- piece, slash, bludgeon, and all 4 elements.
New trinket slot, wherein you equip random shit -- like a pocketwatch, or a "mystery box". So far it's just an extra jewelry slot. This was apparently added quite some time ago.
The new evolving gear slot is Level 75+.
Ultimately it's the same game. Great fun. The community is still the best I've seen in any MMO.
150 people on the server at peak hours. I highly suspect that this was inflated due to the patch.
I get a serious vibe that the server is in the twilight days, just like AC2: Legions. I hope I'm wrong. The world will be a very sad and lonely place when AC1 is eventually closed down.