**This guide is for all information regarding Khitai, it's zones, it's factions, items, quests and how to earn or complete them all.**
By Section:
I. Beginning your journey in Khitai; understanding the items and tokens involved
II. The Factions; selecting them and understanding how they work
III. Working with your factions to earn Marks of Acclaim
IV. Working your with factions to earn rank and reputation
V. Simple and Rare Trophies; Earning them and understanding them
VI. Faction armor, dungeon armor, dropped armor, epic armor; Understanding the armor types
VII. Chosain, Kara Korum, Paikang - The other Khitai zones and their factions
VIII. The Khitai Storyline Quest Chain
IX. Understanding your new armor's bonuses and terminology
X. *For the geared, bold and experienced player
I. Beginning your journey in Khitai
First thing you will want to do is visit Conan in his castle to receive the quest "Making Contact." This quest is important for beginning your journey. Once you have this quest, head to Northern Grasslands.
Once you have entered the grasslands, speak to the NPC named Astreas. He will give you various quests to select your factions. You will want to pick them all up, and then speak to the other NPCs in this area and pick up all their quests. It is reccommended that you complete the other quests (not the dungeon quests for Kang Pagona) available in this area before you do Astreas' faction choosing quests so you get a better feel for the zone and earn imperial insignias.
You will want to familiarize yourself with the five most common quest rewards and MOB drops before proceeding:
1. Marks of Acclaim: Only given as quest rewards of faction specific quests, Marks of Acclaim (MoA for short) are vital to khitai journies. They are exchanged, in bulk, to various faction merchants for armors, items, weapons or accessories of that faction. These are tallied in your Tokens tab of your item inventory.
2. Imperial Insignias: Can be dropped by monsters or earned as quest rewards. Imperial Insignias are exhanged to Faction Herald NPCs of each faction, which are denoted by a blue question mark symbol above their head, in exhange for faction points with that particular faction. One insignia earns 200 faction points. These are tallied in stacks of 100 (you can have many stacks) inside your quest item inventory.
3. Esteem Tokens: Not a vital item, these can be earned as quest rewards or as monster drops. You can exchange these at Mystic Supplies NPC vendors for Marks of Acclaim (35 Esteem tokens for 1 MoA) or buy Khitai specific haircuts or body markings with them. They are tallied in your Token tab of your inventory.
4. Life Essence: Can be dropped by monsters or received as quest rewards, Life Essence (LE for short) are used to summon forth the stone Golem of the Northern Grasslands quarry area. When a golem raid is forming, you will need to give the raid leader 13 LE per summoning of the golem as it takes 24 people giving 13 LE to summon the golem. Each golem kill is awards you with 25 MoA, and automatically gives you a quest turn in to be redeemed at any faction leader in the Grasslands for faction rep points. These are tallied in your main item inventory and can stack up to 50.
5. Half-digested bags/Traveler's bag and other 'bag' items: These go directly to your main item inventory. Double click them to open them and see what is inside. Usually, it is some money, resource materials (such as Harmala or Fine Quartz Dust), sometimes it can be a training manual which awards you with 2,000 or 10,000 mastery points, and extremely rarely, it can award you with an epic (purple) weapon.
II. The factions
What makes Khitai interesting is that the various factions have opposing, or warring opposites. So choosing a faction puts you at war with another. Each faction offers different accessories, weapons or armors that can be worn, used or even rode. To make sure you choose the right factions for your class or based upon which armor set you would like, or which weapon or mount you want to go for, please use this very helpful website and check each faction's listings to see what they offer for you. For now, let us focus on only the Northern Grasslands factions.
http://aoc-is.better-than.tv/armory.phpSimply click the faction, then open the + symbol next to "Faction armor (-insert class name-)", do the same for faction weapons and accessories to see what weapons, cloaks, rings, necklaces, pets or mounts are also available. Once have done this, make note of each of the factions that offer something you would like, or offer anything that you might want to go for in the future. These will be the factions you side with. However, do note that you cannot ally with two warring factions; so be aware of which factions are at war with one another:
Last Legion (usually for soldiers) is at war with Scarlet Circle (Mage and Assassin oriented).
Shadows of Jade (Rogue oriented) is at war with Brittle Blade (Assassin and HoX heavy).
Hyrkanians (Ranger, Shaman, Barb heavy) are at war with Wolves of The Steppes (Soldier and rogue oriented).
Yellow Priests of Yun (Healer and mage heavy) are at war with Children of Yag-Kosha (healer heavy).
Once you have chosen the four Northern Grasslands factions you will side with, go ahead and complete the quests that Astreas offered you to choose your factions by speaking to the faction leaders, and speaking again to the leader yo wish to side with, then returning to Astreas for the quest turn-in.
It is wise to pick four factions even if only two offer things you will want or can use, so that you have other faction quests to do and earn MoA through doing.
III. Working with your factions; Mark of Acclaim earning
Now that you have chosen your factions, it is time to begin the real meat and potatoes portion of Khitai questing: earning reputation (rank) with your factions, and accumulating Marks of Acclaim to exchange for the items or armors you are after.
There are two types of faction quests you must make note of; repeatables and storyline chains. Repeatables are quests you can continually repeat but have a cooldown timer. As per the recent patch, these repeatable quests now have a cooldown timer of 20 hours to remove all grind aspects of khitai questing.
You will want to do all of the quests that the faction leaders for your chosen factions first offer you so that you can be sure which are repeatable and which are storyline. By doing all of these quests they offer at first, you will be sure to complete their one time only quests which trigger storyline oriented quests per faction; these storyline quests give more rep than the others, better rewards, and trigger other storyline quests as you gain rank with each faction.
Again, since the entire methodology of grinding through faction rep and earning MoA has been changed, you will now want to do all of the quests you find available to you to completely maximize the amount of MoA you earn per 20 hour cooldown shift. This means that no longer should you exclude quests that are difficult or lengthy that offer the same reward as a shorter and easier quest to maximize the amount of MoA you earn per cooldown, but rather, should do all quests because they are all on a 20 hour cooldown with a substantially increased reward than before.
You should, in essence, start your cycle of quest running at a time that will almost always be conveinent for you to play. This way you are never out of your loop and can make doing these quests more of a daily chore as opposed to a total grind fest.
IV. Working with your factions; Earning rank
Well then, now it's time to explain a good route at earning faction rep/rank.
Since the update, you now receive vastly increased faction reputation per quest completed. This allows for you to earn rank quicker. However, with 20 hour cooldowns on these quests, you will want to resort to earning Imperial Insignias inbetween 'chore' or quest availability times.
The best way to earn faction points is by turning in Imperial Insignias. However, it can be very slow going to earn them as drops. You will want to suppliment dungeon runs (when you are geared enough), with faction specific quests from the faction you are trying to rank up, and with a repeatable quest explained next.
A good, albeit tedious way of earning bulk amounts of insignias is by heading to Paikang. Once inside Paikang, make a right to the leanto shelter. On the pole is a poster. Click the poster. If you did not get the quest "Wood by the riverside", delete the quest and try again. Once you have this quest, sprint directly down to the river (past the altar, down past the white fence, over the bridge, to the steam.) Pick up fourteen wooden boxes, and sprint back up to where you got the quest to turn it in. You will be awarded with 6 Imperial Insignias. This quest is instantly repeatable, so repeat this quest as many times as you like to earn mass amounts of Insignias.
You also earn Insignias (usually 10 or 20 per boss kill) by doing the various Khitai 6-man dungeons. But remember that you need some quality gear and a reliable group to complete these dungeons, and that each dungeon has a 1 hour lockout after completion.
Suppliment these Insignia earning methods by doing the specific faction's quests to earn points for that faction, and earning rank with that faction starts to become simpler. Simpler, but not easy -- it is a milestone to mark rank 4 with a faction, so don't get down yourself if you find this is taking a long time.
V. Simple and Rare Trophies
Simple and Rare trophies are required to purchase 'Dungeon armor', which are advanced versions of faction armor. This is explained in more detail in section VI of this guide. For now, familiarize yourself with the trophy types and how they are accumulated:
Simple Trophy I - Earned by doing Northern Grasslands 6-man dungeons
Simple Trophy II - Earned by doing Chosain Province 6-man dungeons
Simple Trophy III - Earned by doing Kara Korum 6-man dungeons
Rare Trophy - Earned by doing any Khitai dungeon in 'Godslayer' mode.
VI. Faction armor, Dungeon Armor, Epic armor and dungeon dropped armor.
As explained earlier, each faction has their own armors to offer you or your class. But there are varying types of these faction specific armors that I will now explain:
FACTION ARMOR
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Speak to '(armor type) Faction armor' vendors of your faction to purchase faction armor.
Faction armor is earned through exhanging marks of acclaim. They are of "blue" quality (except for the boots and bracers, which are epic or "purple" and explained later). They are good, reliable armors that may not be as good as some of the old world dungeons drops but can be offer more specific bonuses than crafted armor or old world dungeon dropped armor. For example; Brittle Blade assassin armor offers more combat rating than any other armor, but it's overall armor rating or dex rating will be lower than some dungeon drops or crafted armors.
The trade off of armor for specific buffs and ratings is usually well worth it, and these faction armors will properly prepare you, gear wise, for earning more advanced armor of your faction or suit you up in a manner capable of doing Khitai dungeons or surviving in raid zones.
DUNGEON ARMOR
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Speak to '(armor type) Dungeon armor' vendors of your faction to purchase dungeon armor.
Dungeon armor is earned through exchanging Simple Trophy I, II and III to dungeon armor vendors of your faction. They are of "blue quality" (except for the chest and helm, which are epic or "purple" and explained later). They are quality pieces of armor from your faction, a tier above the plain MoA earned 'Faction armor.' Their armor and other bonuses are higher than the faction armor equivelants of the same faction.
DUNGEON DROPPED ARMOR
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Each faction also has dropped 'Blue quality' armor sets that drop from bosses in all the khitai dungeons. The drops are random per encounter and per dungeon, and the odds are highly against you suiting up in your specific faction's dropped armor set.
The dropped pieces are a tier above purchased dungeon armor, and are topped only by the epic armor pieces of the faction which are explained next.
EPIC FACTION ARMOR
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Each faction offers epic, or "purple", quality versions of their armor sets. These are the absolute best quality of armor the faction will offer, and in many cases, even superior in buffs and bonuses than raid armor.
All factions offer the Chest, Boots, Bracers and Helmet epic quality armors as purchasable items. The gloves, shoulder pieces, legs and belt are all dropped in hard mode or "god slayer" versions of Khitai dungeons.
Chest and Helmet: These are earned through exchanging 198 Rare Trophy to the Dungeon Armor vendor of your faction and paying 25 gold or more per piece.
Boots and Bracers: These are earned through obtaining rank 4 with the faction and exchanging 980 Marks of Acclaim to the Faction Armor vendor for your faction and paying a substantial amound of gold. (25 gold per piece)
Leggings: All faction's epic quality Leg armor drops in the Enigmata of Yag dungeon when done in Godslayer, or "hard" mode.
Gloves, shoulders and belt: The dungeon in which these drop varies per faction. Use the site listed above (http://www.aoc-is.better-than.tv/armory.php) to find the correct zone for your faction's epic glove, shoulder or belt piece. Remember, these dungeons must be done in hard mode to have a chance at your faction's piece dropping.
VII. The other Khitai zones and factions
Beyond Northern Grasslands lies several other zones and four other factions. I will explain them more here now.
CHOSAIN PROVINCE
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Upon entering Chosain province pick up the quest available right there. It is to choose sides between this zone's warring factions, The Scholars of Cheng-Ho (Cloth and Healer) and Tamarin's Tigers (Medium and Heavy armor).
Do the same as above, and pick your faction based on what you will want out of them. Also in Chosain are various other factions from Northern Grasslands, where you will be sent for other quests upon reaching the correct rank with them first.
KARA KORUM
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Kara Korum is home to the hidden faction 'Jiang-Shi', as well as various other factions from Northern Grasslands, which will send you here when you reach the correct rank.
The Jiang-Shi offers NO armor, but have other accessories of use.
Their quest line is full of twists and turns, and has a handful of repeatables that are well worth doing for MoA earning. The quest line itself rewards you with hundreds of MoA in total, and is worth doing for the fun and MoA. To trigger this questline, you must click a golden, spider looking symbol on the stone wall (it is blended in quite well so look hard) directly to the left of the entrance to the Shadows of Jade building directly across from the final bridge leading into Kara Korum's main village. This will trigger a quest sequence to find several other of these symbols in this village on the walls of the buildings, and will end with you speaking to a Jiang-Shi leader and beginning your work with that faction.
PAIKANG
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Paikang is home to the questline for the faction Insurrection. Insurrection offers no item rewards, but their quest line is vital to the Khitai storyline chain (explained next) and rewards you with hundreds of MoA throughout the quest line. This zone is also home to the Wood by the Riverside quest (explained in the faction rep section), and other grasslands factions which will send you here when you reach the right rank.
To begin this quest line for the Insurrection, speak to the NPC on the left side of the Paikang entrance and obtain the quest which asks you to kill the outlaw commander. it is reccommended that you do this quest line with a friend or several friends, as Paikang, and this quest line, can be very difficult to do solo.
VIII. The Khitai Storyline Quest
After initially speaking to Astreas when entering the grasslands, you will get a quest that asks you to speak obtain information from a faction commander. This quest can only be completed by reaching rank 1 with a faction that resides in Northern Grasslands and thenspeaking to the leader and asking for information.
This quest becomes a lengthy quest line which will lead you through each of the Khitai zones. The rewards are usually Imperial Insignias, but is the direct storyline to Khitai about assassins from the east coming after Conan. The chain ends with quests for tier 4 raiding and killing the God Emperor.
The chain isn't entirely neccessary and it gives no Marks of Acclaim, but the story is pretty cool and the Imperial Insignia and mastery rewards make doing this chain worth while. Each step, however, will require you to reach higher rank with a faction of the zone the particular step sends you to, so it may take a while to complete.
IX. Getting to know your new gear and the terminology of Khitai
Khitai gear brings a few new bonuses to the table that you should become familiar with.
-Critigation Amount: The amount of damage from critical hits that you will mitigate.
-Critigation Chance: The chance of you mitigating a critical hit.
-Heal rating: THIS DOES NOT IMPROVE YOUR BASE HEAL SPELLS. Heal rating improves the healing, buffing or other effects of various Alternate Advancement abilities that healers get in their Alternate Advancement tree, such as Sleuth of bears or Celestial Gaze.
X. For the geared, the bold, and the experienced
If you are well geared, have the correct AA feats (Resolve for tanks, tainted weapons and finely honed for rogues, Steadfast feaith for healers) and a reliable group, you can skip a vast majority of the real grind by jumping right into the Godslayer or "hard mode" versions of the dungeons.
Doing so rewards you with many Imperial Insignias, particularly the Enigmata of Yag dungeon loop, which can give you a total of almost 100 Imperial Insignia's per loop. Also, doing these godslayer mode dungeons reward you with Rare Trophies, which are required for the epic versions of faction specific helm and chest pieces, as well as weapons.
While this actually is an easier route to go for gearing up in Khitai gear, it is certainly not for the beginner or for the new 80. You need experience, gear and a good group to go this route. It basically skips all of the main grind of Khitai and ignores the faction or dungeon gear entirely. This is, as a result, a better method for long time players who are wearing suits of raid gear and have a better understanding of raiding and dungeoneering than the casual player, new player, or new 80.
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That should leave you well familiarized with how to go about doing what you need to do while adventuring in Khitai. You now have all the tools you will need to accomplish your goals and obtain any armor, weapon, mount or other item that any faction in the game has to offer you. Enjoy!
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Subject: Cally's guide to Khitai 
Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:19 pm