Kuthchemes Temple Onslaught

“From horizon to horizon no sign of life: only the sheer breathtaking sweep of the naked desert, bisected by the wandering line of a long-dry river course; in the midst of that vastness the glimmering fangs of the ruins, the columns standing up like broken masts of sunken ships—all dominated by the towering ivory dome before which Shevatas stood trembling.” - “Black Colossus”, Robert E. Howard, 1933

A new face arrives in Old Tarantia, seeking the aid of King Conan and his allies.  Known as Vateesa the Oracle, she brings dire news: The ancient sorcerer, Thurga Khotan, has awoken and marches on the destroyed city of Kuthchemes.  His temple, known as the Ivory Dome, still stands; in it, ancient relics of immeasurable power...and the whispers of a slumbering dread god underneath.  We trust you understand the terrible fate that would befall the world if a mad sorcerer were to acquire these treasures....

A classic story brought new life, now’s your chance to experience a slice of Hyborian lore: introducing Kuthchemes Temple Onslaught, a brand-new scenario inspired by the original “Black Colossus” story by Robert E. Howard! 

Set at the Ivory Dome of Kuthchemes and the tomb of the sorcerer king, your band of heroes must stand against the seemingly endless hordes of Thugra Khotan.  Seek out Oracle Vateesa in Old Tarantia for a new quest, and open the Raid Finder (Magnifying Glass at top-left, or CTRL+R) to find Kuthchemes Temple Onslaught (hereby referred to simply as “Onslaught”).

From this interface, you may either queue up for a random group to enter Onslaught, or queue your group in so you can work together.  

Once you’re transported to the playfield, you’ll have a chance to explore and get a lay of the land before the scenario begins.  Once you and your team are ready, fight to the top of the steps of the Ivory Dome and interact with the red war banner you encounter.  Once you interact with the war banner, the Onslaught begins and does not end until you choose to leave or until your entire party is slain.

Difficulty Scaling

Each progressive wave of Onslaught is intended to be more and more difficult for you and your group to overcome.  Every several waves, the composition of Thurga Khotan’s armies changes to represent his various followers: Shemites, Stygians, Zugites, and Kushites.

Powerup Potions

Enemies in Onslaught occasionally drop glowing potions where they die.  These special powerup potions grant powerful temporary buffs to those who simply move across the powerup in the field.  Powerup Potions come in four varieties:

• Regeneration (heals you)

• Power (improves your offensive capabilities)

• Protection (improves your defenses)

• Cleaving (attacks hit more targets)

Special Events

In addition to endless hordes of enemies, you will encounter special events and challenges in and around the Ivory Dome:

• Thurga Khotan himself is a powerful sorcerer and may use his arsenal of magic against you.  Stay vigilant for falling meteors or clouds of poisonous gas at your party’s location, and get out of the way!

• Sometimes, a “Courier of Kuthchemes” may spawn and wander the area; if attacked, they will scuttle away.  Kill them for an extra stash of Mythical Relics.  

• There are areas throughout the map that feature hostile enemies around a point.  These encounters are 100% optional, but offer bonus rewards for their defeat.

• Special enemies, more powerful than standard fodder, supplement these armies and drop rewards when defeated.

• Champions are summoned when a new, special meter fills to maximum.  This bar is filled by performing fatalities and gaining chain kills.

• Additional Special Enemies are periodically summoned during any wave and present unique challenges for your group.  You’ll need to react to them in different ways if you intend to survive! 

Bloodshed Meter and Champions

A new, key feature exclusive to Kuthchemes Onslaught is the Bloodshed Meter.  As you score fatalities and chain kills, the ensuing bloodshed fills this meter - once completely full, a Champion boss is summoned.  The Champion summoned depends on the type of army you’re currently facing off against.  The type of army changes based on the number of waves completed during Onslaught.  

Defeating a Champion spawns a boss chest with handsome rewards that scale based on the difficulty (e.g. current wave) of your run.  

Boss chests contain Mythical Relics (The higher the difficulty, the more tokens you get) and chances at Kuthcheman Gems (higher difficulties equal greater chances at gems and at higher quality levels), and vanity armor:

Special Enemies

Hordes of minions, mini-bosses, and champions aren’t the only enemies you’ll weather during Onslaught.  As you continue your survival, you’ll encounter special foes designed to keep you on your toes.  Each special enemy has unique properties and acts as a force-multiplier for the hordes, so groups will need to quickly react to their appearance and dispatch members better suited to facing a single strong threat over a horde of weaker threats.  Most special enemies spawn with a "Chosen of Khotan" effect that heals the unit over 20 seconds.  This heal may be purged from the Chosen of Khotan by a rogue using Tainted Weapons.

Special Enemies are marked on the minimap with a Skull:

Ancient Kuthcheman Guardian

Bulwarks of Thugra Khotan’s armies, Ancient Kuthcheman Guardians are slow, lumbering monstrosities with high innate spell resistance and are immune to all crowd-control effects.  Once their health reaches 50% or less, their spell resistance falls and their movement speed increases.  

Ancient Kuthcheman Witch

Cruel and uncompromising spellcasters, Ancient Kuthcheman Witches command unholy powers that grant them sight beyond sight and an arsenal of debilitating curses with crippling effects in an area around their targets.  Beware their spells:

• Curse of Lethargy: Reduces movement speed.

• Curse of Timidity: Reduces Ferocity.

• Curse of Exposure: Applies 1 stack of Spiritual Ruin, Physical Torment, or Elemental Wrack.

• Curse of Fumbling: Reduces Hit Rating..

• Curse of Frailty: Reduces healing received.

• Curse of Exhaustion: Drains Secondary Resource (Mana, Stamina, Energy).

Ancient Kuthcheman Witches may curse targets from extremely long ranges and without line of sight.

Mana Hungerer

An utter abomination driven by a primal, insatiable hunger for magick and sorcery, these beasts ignore standard threat rules and hunt the presence of Mage and Priest classes without prejudice.  Mana Hungerers possess heightened health, evade chance, and spell resistance, and speed.  Once a Mana Hungerer has locked on to its target, it will not deviate from its path unless it detects a more powerful source of sorcery, such as that from Spellweaving.  

Concubine of Khotan

These sorceresses are gifted with the power of storm magic, allowing them to conjure devastating lightning bolts and thunderclouds where they see fit. Once on the battlefield, Concubines of Khotan take up a position and begin their long-range assault:

• Echoing Lightning: Casts a damaging spell on a single target, causing instant damage and echoing a mere moment later, dealing damage a second time and spreading to nearby players who will spread the echo further. Spread out!

• Roiling Storm: Conjures a stormcloud over a target area. Once the cloud forms, a bolt of lightning strikes the area below; any players caught in the blast will be stunned for several seconds.

Herald of Khotan

Thurga-Khotan’s own chosen guard, Heralds of Khotan act as force-multipliers for assaults upon the Ivory Dome.  Clad in full plate armor and commanding waves of soldiers, Heralds embolden and empower nearby enemies with the Call of Khotan, an AoE buff that increases the damage, defenses, and size of all those affected.  Heralds of Khotan may also cast various single-target buffs on their minions, such as:

• Khotan’s Hammer: Increases damage done

• Khotan’s Shield: Increases armor

• Khotan’s Resistance: Increases spell resistance

• Khotan’s Alacrity: Increases movement speed

Excavator of Souls

Vile Necromancers of Thurga-Khotan’s armies, these Excavators of Souls take positions around the Ivory Dome and begin weaving their dark magic.  If they complete their spells, vile abominations of bone and rage emerges from the ground and begin their attack, exploding on death.  The number of creatures summoned by Excavators increases the longer they are left alive.  

WEAPONS

What kinds of rewards can you expect from playing through Onslaught?  Let’s take a look at the really important stuff: THE LOOT. 

As you battle your way through each wave of enemies, you’ll discover and collect Mythical Relics.  These new tokens are exclusive to Onslaught and may be spent from a new vendor found in Old Tarantia.

Rewards from this vendor include:

• A case of Onslaught Potions

• Epic- and Legendary-quality Onslaught Gem Pouches (more on Gems later!)

• Rare-quality Onslaught Gems

• New weapons for each class!

Here’s a few examples of the kinds of weapons you’ll find:

As you can see, each weapon is incredibly powerful in its own right, although not intended as upgrades in PvP.  Each Onslaught weapon features sockets for Onslaught and Kuthcheman gems. 

All the new Onslaught weapons also feature new artwork inspired by the Starmetal weapon line from Conan Exiles!  Following the success of the Armor of the Silent Legion vanity set repurposed from Conan Exiles, we’re excited to bring more high-fidelity assets from Conan Exiles into the world of Age of Conan. 

GEMS

Onslaught features two new gem types to collect, simply known as Onslaught and Kuthcheman gems. Onslaught gems are found from a new Mythical Relic vendor in Old Tarantia, right next to Oracle Vateesa. Kuthcheman gems are found only as loot drops from bosses you’ll encounter within the Onslaught game mode itself.  

Onslaught gems come in two base varieties: Fatal, and Ferocious. The former grants bonuses to your Fatality Rating, while the latter boosts Ferocity.  More powerful rarities of Onslaught gems confer additional blessings; Epic Onslaught gems have one special blessing, while Legendary Onslaught gems have two.  If you’re familiar with Age of Conan’s endgame content, you’ll find the blessings found on high-level Onslaught Gems to be similar to that of Chaos Gems  Here’s some examples:

Kuthcheman gems are, again, found exclusively as loot drops from Onslaught mode itself.  These gems come in multiple varieties and offer more straightforward bonuses to character stats, such as Intelligence, Hit Rating, and Constitution.  

Here’s a couple examples:

You’ll notice that in all the above examples, both Onslaught and Kuthcheman gems are Bind-on-Equip and thus tradable (until slotted, of course).  We look forward to seeing the impact these new gems have on the market ;)

Thanks for reading!  We’ve been hard at work on this new feature and we’re looking forward to watching you face the endless hordes of Thurga-Khotan.  How far will you make it?  See you in game!