AION: Catch All

fangblackbone wrote:

Sidetrack Rant
I love how all the Aion forums rip on WoW or anyone that is concerned about the grind. They like to chest thump about how they are more skilled because of the grinds they've accomplished in FFXI and Lineage 2. They also like to point out how WoW apparently hands out levels for free and gifts anyone with a heart beat access to level cap.

I've quickly come to realize that every new game that comes out, the early in playerbase LOVES to rip on WoW. Personally though, I'm waiting for a group of people to start playing a new MMO and hate it more than the playerbase of Darkfail^H^Hll. It's seriously taking the art of being a smug, elitist prick to a new level.

Hey guys I was wondering if maybe since the game isn't officially launched over here and were only playing on every other weekend until then maybe we could hi-jack the board games room in the GWJ Vent server. It's a pain trying to keep up with alts and names etc so this way if you want to talk with some fellow players while in game it doesnt matter what server your playing on you can still chat. Let me know if you guys want to start doing this and everytime my husband and I are playing we will hop on vent too.

This game looks interesting, but I'm still on the fence. Sometimes I just want to be able to solo and not rely on other people, and if this game can't offer that at the higher levels then it's a no go for me.

About being ganked in open PVP areas.. this is the kind of thing that turns me away from PVP oriented MMOs. Asian MMOs tend to be really bad about allowing griefers to get away with things, so I hope they can keep that under control in Aion.

Oh if I can only figure out how to buy/gather arrows...

New classes this time around: cleric, gladiator, and ranger

Thumbs up with all 3. I like the chanter but I think the cleric is cooler with a lot more nukes and variety of abilities. The gladiator, seems to do the melee dps thing well. I was a little meh on the assassin last test, but the gladiator and ranger (even sans arrows and hence ranged attacks) are much more interesting to me. I really enjoyed the spiritmaster last test but it seemed a little like easy mode. The ranger seems to be a good hybrid of ranged damage (nowhere near that of the mages) while not being a complete flop in melee. (in fact they are quite deadly up close)

So if I had to rank my current favorites it would go something like this:

1. I have no idea. Its a battle between all the second choices.
2. cleric, ranger, spiritmaster
3. gladiator, chanter
4. assassin
5. I haven't tried the templar or sorcerer and strangely, I could play either as a main.

I want to play it, but I know my PC can't run it and I won't be getting money any time soon. Same dilemma as last year with WAR's release.

='(

The game both looks much better and runs much better than WAR on my meager e2160 with 2gb of ram and an 8800gt with 512gb ram.

The texture artists for Aion are phenomenal. It may also be a feature of the Crytek engine but they seem reasonably high res textures without a performance hit.

I dabbled with crafting a bit and it seems a pretty competent implementation. The work order system is a great way to skill up on the cheap without having to run all over gathering mats. You get quest recipes as rewards every ten skill ups but you won't make anything you can use save for a quest turn in with work orders. Also, if I'm not mistaken, each character can train every craft. (weapon, armor, alchemy, aether gathering?, accessory, tailoring, and more?)

As far as performance went, I got better FPS in aion than I do even in WoW. The engine was optimized very well. I played a gladiator to 10 over the weekend and dabbled in alot of the other classes as well. As far as what to choose at launch, i still have no idea. I always seem to choose the worst class in pvp in any games launch, I'm trying to avoid that this time around :/

I'm curious if this will be like L2 in which all ranged classes dominate.

The impressions of higher levels and pvp I get from reading the boards regarding the Chinese and Korean betas is this:

Rangers are gimp, but most of that is bandwagon whining. The truth seems to be that bow damage doesn't scale well in end game and that many skills have too long cool downs and inconsistent damage. The mage classes apparently have obscene ranged damage compared to rangers.

Gladiators do great damage. But their special weapon type and special skills, polearm, do noticeably less damage that run of the mill dual wielding swords. Also, in pvp they have no defense against being kited.

Clerics and Templars are apparently very hard to kill but are very slow killers as well. Templars have no defense against being kited.

Chanters are support and thus marginally useful at higher levels and pvp or are one trick ponies with a key aura or buff.

Spiritmasters are great and have a much needed buff. Unfortunately, they have difficulties in pvp because their pets don't fly.

Assassins can gank well with stealth. But they too have no defense against being kited.

Sorcerers are uber in the amount of damage they can do. If their are jumped they go down quickly but that is par for the course.

fangblackbone wrote:

The impressions of higher levels and pvp I get from reading the boards regarding the Chinese and Korean betas is this:

Rangers are gimp, but most of that is bandwagon whining. The truth seems to be that bow damage doesn't scale well in end game and that many skills have too long cool downs and inconsistent damage. The mage classes apparently have obscene ranged damage compared to rangers.

Gladiators do great damage. But their special weapon type and special skills, polearm, do noticeably less damage that run of the mill dual wielding swords. Also, in pvp they have no defense against being kited.

Clerics and Templars are apparently very hard to kill but are very slow killers as well. Templars have no defense against being kited.

Chanters are support and thus marginally useful at higher levels and pvp or are one trick ponies with a key aura or buff.

Spiritmasters are great and have a much needed buff. Unfortunately, they have difficulties in pvp because their pets don't fly.

Assassins can gank well with stealth. But they too have no defense against being kited.

Sorcerers are uber in the amount of damage they can do. If their are jumped they go down quickly but that is par for the course.

To be honest, that sounds pretty nicely balanced. My girlfriend and I will most likely be playing a gladiator and cleric combo. I expect us to do well.

Also, try this on for size: http://www.aionsource.com/forum/gene...

very cool link mord. I'm hoping I'll come closer to a class selection once the abyss pvp beta weekend happens.

So I don't know if its still going on but I just signed in for an hour or so this morning. And the kicker is not that you don't have access to the 10+ areas, its just that your character won't level past 10. I don't know what happens if say you have a level 17 character. Maybe they just stop leveling too.

I went back to my old characters to compare them with the new ones I played over the weekend and I've got some fresher impressions. The chanter is awesome. With one nuke, some heals, some melee skills and a staff, she was killing about 80% as fast as my gladiator. She had some nice buffs too.

The gladiator was the king though as he was able to fight two monsters at a time without a sweat. Its just personal preference but I liked the gladiators abilities style better than both the assassin and melee ranger.

I finally got some arrows for my ranger. The ranger is versatile in their play style. They can go melee or they can pull with a couple bow shots and then melee. They can also pull with the bow and use the bow in melee range. But the most effective way I've found is kiting and it bores me to tears.

So the assassin goes up a notch over the ranger because I can't stand kiting. However, aside from a neat charge like skill, I prefer the gladiator and chanter over the scout classes.

I did play my spiritmaster and after about 2 minutes was blown away by the damage they do. The pet does about half the damage of a melee fighter alone. Without my pet, I probably kill around 50% quicker than the other classes. But if I'm not already casting the finishing spell as the snare wears off and the monster closes, I'm pretty much dead even with the pet helping. I only need the pet if I want to use less mana at the cost of a few more seconds per kill.

It is going to be really tough to pick a class come launch. Do I go with the pve kings the spiritmaster and gladiator? Do I trade some toughness and killing speed and go with the chanter for a nuke, buffs and heals?

Do I go with the sorcerer since the spiritmaster is more fun without the pet at the cost of efficiency? Do I stay with the spiritmaster to have the option to go with a pet?

The cleric has a lot more nukes and better heals than the chanter. Would I have more fun being able to kill at range more with the cleric or would I prefer the simplicity of the chanter?

And then there is the x-factor, the templar. I don't typically like sword and board classes because they don't have more than a few shield skills. The templar seems to have quite a few of them, however. And the jury is out on whether a templar with a two handed weapon is viable or whether they are able to dual wield.

fangblackbone wrote:

So I don't know if its still going on but I just signed in for an hour or so this morning. And the kicker is not that you don't have access to the 10+ areas, its just that your character won't level past 10. I don't know what happens if say you have a level 17 character. Maybe they just stop leveling too.

I went back to my old characters to compare them with the new ones I played over the weekend and I've got some fresher impressions. The chanter is awesome. With one nuke, some heals, some melee skills and a staff, she was killing about 80% as fast as my gladiator. She had some nice buffs too.

The gladiator was the king though as he was able to fight two monsters at a time without a sweat. Its just personal preference but I liked the gladiators abilities style better than both the assassin and melee ranger.

I finally got some arrows for my ranger. The ranger is versatile in their play style. They can go melee or they can pull with a couple bow shots and then melee. They can also pull with the bow and use the bow in melee range. But the most effective way I've found is kiting and it bores me to tears.

So the assassin goes up a notch over the ranger because I can't stand kiting. However, aside from a neat charge like skill, I prefer the gladiator and chanter over the scout classes.

I did play my spiritmaster and after about 2 minutes was blown away by the damage they do. The pet does about half the damage of a melee fighter alone. Without my pet, I probably kill around 50% quicker than the other classes. But if I'm not already casting the finishing spell as the snare wears off and the monster closes, I'm pretty much dead even with the pet helping. I only need the pet if I want to use less mana at the cost of a few more seconds per kill.

It is going to be really tough to pick a class come launch. Do I go with the pve kings the spiritmaster and gladiator? Do I trade some toughness and killing speed and go with the chanter for a nuke, buffs and heals?

Do I go with the sorcerer since the spiritmaster is more fun without the pet at the cost of efficiency? Do I stay with the spiritmaster to have the option to go with a pet?

The cleric has a lot more nukes and better heals than the chanter. Would I have more fun being able to kill at range more with the cleric or would I prefer the simplicity of the chanter?

And then there is the x-factor, the templar. I don't typically like sword and board classes because they don't have more than a few shield skills. The templar seems to have quite a few of them, however. And the jury is out on whether a templar with a two handed weapon is viable or whether they are able to dual wield.

Haha ok that was a mouth full and yes to all of the above. All of the classes in this game have thier each unique plus and minus. You know this is shaping up to be an incredible game when your first hard decision to make is what class to play, and im in the same boat because everytime I play I pick a new main

Yah, that was quite a mouthful. I tend to get a little zealous when giving class impressions in MMO's. Its my favorite aspect.

Here is the next round of play info:

From www.aiononline.com

The next Aion closed beta event is coming your way on July 2-6, 2009. Enjoy a long weekend of fun in Atreia as testing concentrates on first 20 levels of the Elyos and Asmodians (yep, that's right, Elyos AND Asmodians). Choose your side and tell us all about your escapades in Elysea and Asmodae in this exciting event.

I preordered mine from amazon, then cancelled, then bought a early access key elsewhere, and now amazon have just sent me the early access code from my old pre-order.

edit: spare code gone to jonnypolite

I'm loving my Chanter. I leveled up a mage to try out the sorc and the jury is out on whether I like it better than the spiritmaster. It doesn't help that the first subclass spell is a fire pet while the sorc only gets sleep. That battle is going to require many more levels. I would say it will probably be at least until level 20 before the mage subclasses diverge enough to pick a favorite.

But at the end of it all, I am almost certain to roll a Chanter at launch.

Yea i'm loving the mage so far as well. I don't favor pet classes so I know I will be going sorc. I decided to play my chars on the eylos side so I don't spoil anything about the better side before launch.

I actually think I like the Elyos side better. At first I thought that Elyos would be the overcrowded side but then I fired up my Asmodaen characters this test and found that side is just as overcrowded.

I know its an evil four letter word but last night at 6pm pst there was a queue. It was only about 5 minutes despite saying it would take 9 minutes. And once I was in, performance was acceptable.

My gladiator kicks even more ass now that I found out they can wear plate. She looks really awesome too for level 10 gear. I fired up my scouts just to renew my disdain for them. The assassin wasn't that bad but the gladiator (fighter) was so much more fun, versatile and sturdy. The ranger was even worse than I remembered and I found myself running for my life more than my mages if their targets resisted some spells.

So I know its very early impressions but it seems to me if you have any interest in playing a ranger or ranged dps, play one of the mages first. The ranger seems like sort of like WoW's warlock where it requires patience and playing experience to not be completely frustrated.

edit: the cleric is growing on me again too!

I'm still loving the Asmodean side I think I just like the way the world looks overall and I love the black wings! I'm playing Elyos until the game launches though so I can enjoy the game and not spoil the other side of the game for me. I played my gladiator last night for a while and wow he is a ton of fun once you get to level 10 and start doing some damage. I think it will be the class I play up in beta ust so I can see how a tank fairs in some open pvp. The next round of testing is going to let us go to 25 so we can have some fun in the Abyss and pvp wahoo.

I got my spiritmaster to 13 and wow they get some awesome spells. I have originally shelved the spiritmaster for launch but my chanter found the drop only wind pet so I had to level the SM up to use it. I guess the wind pet is supposed to get cc abilities for pvp but it seems pretty lackluster so far. I will say that SM's get a powerful dot at 13 and I love it. Its basically summoning 2 orbs that periodically nuke the target for 113 damage three times. So it is roughly like casting 3 nukes for a little bit more than twice the mana of one nuke. I don't even have to use my pet. I just cast the dot and snare and get a few weapon hits in and the monster is dead. You also get a pet taunt/damage skill at 13 but I haven't had any need to use it.

I did make a templar and while its not quite as good at tearing things up quickly, I saw on aion armory that it had some neat abilities a few levels down the road.

Pre-ordered this to try the beta out of curiosity but now I think I may keep the pre-order Leveld a Guardian up to 17 over the weekend, it was a lot of fun although I would really like to try the PvP in the Abyss before I make a decision.

I didn't get around to playing this weeekend with the holidays and other game events.

For reference, here the current schedule of remaining beta events.

Upcoming Closed Beta Events:

Closed Beta Event #4 - July 17-July 20 Focus: Elyos and Asmodian levels 1-25
Closed Beta Event #5 - July 31-August 3 Focus: TBD
Closed Beta Event #6 - August 14-August 17 Focus: TBD

DevilStick wrote:

I didn't get around to playing this weeekend with the holidays and other game events.

For reference, here the current schedule of remaining beta events.

Upcoming Closed Beta Events:

Closed Beta Event #4 - July 17-July 20 Focus: Elyos and Asmodian levels 1-25
Closed Beta Event #5 - July 31-August 3 Focus: TBD
Closed Beta Event #6 - August 14-August 17 Focus: TBD

As you can see the next weekend of testing will open up to level 25 meaning PVP will be abound

Steam has a pre-order dealie on this baby..

NCSoft is making their beautiful new MMO, Aion™ available for pre-purchase today on Steam.

Steam purchasers have the privilege of choosing Aion Standard Edition or Aion Collector's Edition.

The full version launches on September 22 (and 25th in Europe) each version comes with additional pre-purchase incentives such as:
- 7 additional days of game time - allowing 37 total days of play time when the full game releases
- Special in-game bonus items including:
- Attribute boosting hat
- Experience boosting talisman
- Exclusive special effects ring (water)

Steam players who purchase the Aion Collector's Edition also receive these additional in-game items:
- Black Cloud Wings which give 40 seconds of additional flight time
- Black Cloud Earring which gives an HP and an MP boost
- Special character title, "Pioneer of Aion", with stat boost
- Color dye to tint one in-game item
- Two character emotes - Disco Emote and Samba Emote

Also, pre-purchasing on Steam gets you an invite to the pre-release closed-beta events. The next beta event is July 17th - see below for specific time.

Focus: Elyos and Asmodian levels 1-25, including access to the Abyss.
Starting time: 17th of July (noon PDT, 8 PM BST, 9 PM CEST)
Ending time: 20th of July (noon PDT, 8 PM BST, 9 PM CEST)

For anyone confused about these time standards, PST is the time on the US west coast, BST is what to look at if you're in London and CEST is for those of you in Central Europe.

For more info regarding beta events please go to NCSoft's Aion web site http://www.aiononline.com.

Maybe... i'll need some more impressions before I spend some monies.

It would be awesome to have some more folks give impressions I think me and Fang have beat the horse to death with how much we are enjoying the game. I would say it's worth a shot and i think Fileplanet members can get into the beta events w/o any pre-purchase right now so if any one else gets in and has some impressions it would be great to hear them.

Face it, most of you will all go back to WoW a couple months after release.

*sigh*

At the moment in europe there's too many players and not enough servers, so I'm in a 32m queue. I imagine this is stress testing owing to the number of free and pre-order keys flying about but I really hope they invest in servers for launch for the first impression.

One thing I'd like to see is a PDF manual. I'm sure I've picked up most of the game, but it would be nice to have some reference to get up to speed on things.

There are some paths that are not optimal for soloing, the assassin class is one of those paths. Most of the stuff I've been killing has been challenging and able to kill me, I've had to make sure I'm near full health, be careful about my pulls and use all my abilities. I'm okay with this as it's meant to be a game you play with others and there would be less downtime if you're grouped. I've got a quest to do most of the time appropriate for my level, but I don't have a big shopping list of tasks to do on each trip away from town.

interstate78 wrote:

Face it, most of you will all go back to WoW a couple months after release.

*sigh*

Well I think so will - however there I think the wind is changing...

I play WAR with a large group of WoW addicts - WAR may not be there cup of tea, but they are pretty burned on WoW and the direction Blizzard is taking it.

I guess time will tell...

AP Erebus wrote:

Steam has a pre-order dealie on this baby..

NCSoft is making their beautiful new MMO, Aion™ available for pre-purchase today on Steam.

Steam purchasers have the privilege of choosing Aion Standard Edition or Aion Collector's Edition.

The full version launches on September 22 (and 25th in Europe) each version comes with additional pre-purchase incentives such as:
- 7 additional days of game time - allowing 37 total days of play time when the full game releases
- Special in-game bonus items including:
- Attribute boosting hat
- Experience boosting talisman
- Exclusive special effects ring (water)

Steam players who purchase the Aion Collector's Edition also receive these additional in-game items:
- Black Cloud Wings which give 40 seconds of additional flight time
- Black Cloud Earring which gives an HP and an MP boost
- Special character title, "Pioneer of Aion", with stat boost
- Color dye to tint one in-game item
- Two character emotes - Disco Emote and Samba Emote

Also, pre-purchasing on Steam gets you an invite to the pre-release closed-beta events. The next beta event is July 17th - see below for specific time.

Focus: Elyos and Asmodian levels 1-25, including access to the Abyss.
Starting time: 17th of July (noon PDT, 8 PM BST, 9 PM CEST)
Ending time: 20th of July (noon PDT, 8 PM BST, 9 PM CEST)

For anyone confused about these time standards, PST is the time on the US west coast, BST is what to look at if you're in London and CEST is for those of you in Central Europe.

For more info regarding beta events please go to NCSoft's Aion web site http://www.aiononline.com.

Maybe... i'll need some more impressions before I spend some monies.

Damn, I got my through the NCsoft store - /damn

Ok, now for the million dollar quest. Will Aion have mods? Because of it's Asian roots I think I read that Aion will not have mods even in the Western localization. This would make sense since Asian's view mods as cheating. Personally I am all for it - kind of sick of all the mods that play the game for people. However, this might turn off a lot of players that WoW brought in to the MMO space. I cannot find anything official on this - just wondering if someone else had heard anything?

armedbushido wrote:

Ok, now for the million dollar quest. Will Aion have mods? Because of it's Asian roots I think I read that Aion will not have mods even in the Western localization. This would make sense since Asian's view mods as cheating. Personally I am all for it - kind of sick of all the mods that play the game for people. However, this might turn off a lot of players that WoW brought in to the MMO space. I cannot find anything official on this - just wondering if someone else had heard anything?

Spoilers wrote:

[color=white]Most people who use mods in WoW do not like using mods. They just feel they have to in order to remain competitive. WoW is built with the mindset that you will be using mods. If Aion is built without that, people will not feel like they have to use mods to remain competitive. IMAGE(http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-ssh.gif)[/color]