Culture Armor, just what is it exactly? Better yet: How is it going to work? Well, Funcom has some answers to your questions. First of all, culture armor and weapons are designed to be end-game crafting creations, thus giving more weight to the crafting aspect within Age of Conan. Eleven cultures are being represented in the armor sets and yes, certain classes won’t be able to wear culture armors that don’t fit their origins. For instance, Priests of Mitra probably aren’t going to be running around in Stygian gear.- White Hand / Hyberborian
- Nemdian
- Pictish
- Bossonian
- Stygian
- Argossean
- Kushite
- Shemite
- Zingaran
- Vanaheim
- Archeronian
Atlantean armors are not currently available to crafters, as this culture is intended for later use with more powerful armors.
Culture weapons are as much about the gods of a given area as they are about the cultures represented in that location. The breakdown is a little less orderly, Funcom intentionally wants to let players discover the details on their own. In comparison, city armors and city weapons are (generally speaking) in the style of Poitain, Cimmeria and Aquilonia. Although this isn’t always the case — Stygian cloth, for example is also represented there. The idea is that city items are what guild blacksmiths might produce to help gear up members, or sell for a regular profit. When gemmed, city items are slightly better than same-level blues. Their production is straightforward, and this is the benefit of requiring guild feats.
Crafting culture items is a much more involved process in terms of acquiring esoteric mats that could come from other recipes or certain locations, and making culture gear should be seen as a much more personal achievement that enables players to really explore character identity (of both the crafter, and the wearer) as well as they look really great.
