Age of Conan - Preview @ Ten Ton Hammer

Ten Ton Hammer goes hands on with Funcom's upcoming MMO, Age of Conan.

But combat in Age of Conan was nonethless, to me, a glorious change of pace. Players attack by using the keyboard keys above the default WASD movement keys, that is, [1], [2], [3], [Q], and [E].  [Q] swings the weapon left to right, [E] right to left, and the numeric keys in between swing from various points in an arc over the players head. During the course of the game, players unlock abilities and ability slots, which allow the player to do special attacks by pressing a series of highlighted keypresses.  Jørgen explained that it was important to keep the two combat mechanics mapped separately to accommodate hybrid magic and melee classes, so spells are cast using the function keys.

Another cool feature of combat in Age of Conan is that attacks move the character; the character naturally moves forward as he or she swings. If you're properly oriented toward your enemy, clicking and holding the right mouse button to adjust the camera angle, this immersion-enhancing feature keeps your character constantly in line with your enemy's hitbox, allowing you to intuitively strafe and step backward to dodge incoming blows.