Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[Draegan]

we headed for Black Claw Something which is a totally elite area

For some reason elite mob xp was nerfbatted in 1.5

I remember playing that black claw outpost in closed beta and the mobs were giving 10k xp to each of us (group of 6).  I guess they nerfbatted it to prevent people from chain grinding on them or something.

Well the black claws were nerfed at least.  Also exp formulas are weird if you have higher level people in your group it soaks up more exp, if you are too low or too high compared to the mob level it also severely cramps your exp.

Duo'ing is the fastest route imo.  Once you hit 25, there is a Training Fortress instance that gives sick xp.  Full of elites that give you 10-14k per kill.  I did it last night and got a half level in an hour and a half at most.

When does pvp start again? I'm sorry for carping on this point, I really am, but my RL friends are pvp maniacs and every time they level up and haven't even seen pvp drives them away a little bit. We are Level 18 now and all we've gotten to do is duel. When do those rifts start?

You can start rifting in Morheim/Eltnen which are level 20+.  At 25 you can enter the Abyss.

[Checkers]

I think a lot of people will have a hard time going back to WoW's terribly dull combat after playing Aion.

Why do you care what "a lot of other people" will or will not do in the future?

And, this is probably not the thread for such a discussion, but WoW's Cataclysm expansion vs. Aion...  well, I know I want to see the changes to Azeroth, even if I only log in briefly and fly around for a bit.

Relax.  It was just a comment.

[Koyasha]

It makes me wonder if crafting is worth the time at lower levels due how heavy a time/money sink it is.

It's not.  Not until at least 25, and 30-35 more likely.  Below that, gear is replaced too often, even if it's blue gear.  And considering the difficulty of getting an actual blue item out of crafting, there's basically nothing you can make that's worth the time before 30-35.

Exception: Alchemy and maybe cooking.  Alchemy in particular is worthwhile to either do yourself or have a friend who will do it for you.  Being able to never stop killing because you never need to rest more than makes up for the time used leveling the skill.  It's important to keep your gathering skill high enough to continue gathering the higher level materials though.  Make sure to have 100 skill by the time you go to Morheim.  It gets really slow gaining skill for a while, but it seems to pick up some again after 100.

When does pvp start again? I'm sorry for carping on this point, I really am, but my RL friends are pvp maniacs and every time they level up and haven't even seen pvp drives them away a little bit. We are Level 18 now and all we've gotten to do is duel. When do those rifts start?

The first 20 levels tend to be done in "safe" zones where no pvp can happen.  Once you travel to Morheim/Eltnen, you can encounter enemy faction that has rifted over, or find rifts of your own side to go through.  Rifts are pretty limited.  From what I'm told, every 2 hours rifts reset, and anywhere up to 6 or so rifts have a chance of spawning each cycle.  Rifts have a limited number of uses too, and the easier they are to get to, the less uses they have, so they tend to get used up reasonably fast.  Once you hit 25 and can go to the Abyss, that's where you'll do most of your fighting in pvp.  Both sides have equal and free access to it.  It's also the only zone where you can fly anywhere in the zone, rather than only at a couple limited locations.

On the topic of "grinding" (I hate that term, really) and quests, I have to say I agree that "quest-grinding" has become worse than just killing mobs ever was.  Quests are awesome when they're meaningful, but when you have to put in so many quests that there's no real significance to any of them individually, they become worse than killing for exp, because now, not only do you still have to kill for exp (quests are, after all, just directed killing, for the most part, with part of the total exp moved from the monsters to the quest reward) but you also have no choice as to what to kill for exp.  A large number of people seem to "need" this lead-by-the-nose way of doing things, but it just irritates me.  Now, quests that are interesting and have a story that makes you feel like they matter somehow (even if you know they don't) are great.  In my opinion, if they eliminated all quests other than campaign quests from Aion and increased mob exp by an appropriate amount to compensate, and moved a few of the more "meaningful" non-campaign quests into campaign quests, the game would be better.  Note: Better does not equal more successful.  It means it'd be a better game, but less people would probably play it.

[01101010]

I got a 23 templar played up so I'll give my thoughts on AION so far. I think the subs on the game will drop off after the first month or two just because of the grind nature of the game as you hit the 20's. Personally I don't mind the xp grinding all that much but the time involved with crafting is very tedious at best. It makes me wonder if crafting is worth the time at lower levels due how heavy a time/money sink it is.

If the time required to progress in aspects in AION were lowered by say 10-20% I think it would fair considerably better since the goal is to keep people playing till they can enjoy that end-game pvp. Instead I can only see people getting burnt out before they reach it.

yeah, the grind - well I think this was predicted while the game was still in concept and spoken about at length... I do agree with you, a ton of individuals are in for a shock in the mid 20s if they are coming around from the juggernaut. That will at least help the queues somewhat. Once you hit the Abyss, its like a recharge to the system. new environment, new goals, new mobs, and ganking/watching-your-ass moments. It almost feels like STV did back in the day. Still a grind, but when you find mobs you can tear through, the xp flows pretty quick. But there is always that moment of   when you realize you need millions of xp to level and mobs only give out 10-15k a piece. I find it best to pick a spot and rotate thru the mobs ah la FFXI sans group-requirement.

Having my 26 spiritmaster, I have a different take on things than all the other classes. I don't need weapon upgrades necessarily nor is gear all that important since stats don't transfer to the pet. Mana is a minor issue negated by the energy recharge and pots. My rotations can go 2 deep if my DP ability is up (which boosts the spirit's def/hp regen/dmg I have out for a long period of time unlike a one time dmg ability) or 5-7 deep if I feel like mana dumping. Threat is an issue with the spirits but its manageable. Good cheap class - albeit boring at times and somewhat slow with only DoTs (though I was ripping thru mobs @3:1 ratio over a same-level cleric in the same area on the same mobs). The only clownshoes part is putting up with Draegan and his Ace Ventura with a beard character.\

just to add to crafting: I am cooking and aside from 1-3 food dishes, the food you make at the low end of the level requirements are basically shit/pointless. There is one that boosts mana treatment recovery and one for natural healing boost and one for magical boost, but the effect sizes are minor and don't really matter all that much. The hp boost dish gives you 30min @+120hp which is stupid. I am about 130 in cooking skill and I have used mana treament food all of 5 times in 26 levels mainly because I forget about it due to it being on the verge of pointless. The recipes on the latter stages as expected are very good stat boosts, but lower end stuff is basically there just to level you up. Crit food is just a duration extension so that's not really of use. It does sell back to vendor to recoup the costs of ingredients though. The only redeeming quality is that I use what i gather (and what the guild forwards me) and level from that rather than work order quests AND the fact you can set up at the kitchen table, it craft all and it autopilots the 120 count of boiled one-eyed retarded bird eggs.

[Checkers]

Personally I don't mind the xp grinding all that much but the time involved with crafting is very tedious at best. It makes me wonder if crafting is worth the time at lower levels due how heavy a time/money sink it is.

I've spent hour after hour collecting materials and leveling weaponsmithing, and a huge chunk of money.  I have yet to get one useful weapon out of it.  I've crafted at least a dozen durable steel swords and not gotten a single critical.  With the money I've invested in craffting so far, I could have bought equivalent or better gear from the trade broker.

[Xanthippe]

Crafting is a huge money sink.  The best stuff in the game is crafted, yet it all depends upon making many white items in hopes of crafting a green item (which depends on the RNG, as far as I can tell).

Selling crafting materials, on the other hand, is very lucrative.

I'm focusing on selling mats now, and crafting later, although I did train alchemy and have been leveling that up.  While I'd love to level cooking as well, I really can't afford it.  The potions are useful.  I haven't made enough to sell, however, and I could probably buy potions much cheaper than leveling alchemy and making them.

[Checkers]

Is there any definitive guide as to how the critical system works for crafting?  I haven't found anything reliable.  I read somewhere that there's about a 25% chance to crit.

[Draegan]

If you have full DP you get increased critical chance.  Also if you use a different work bench each time it'll help since it resets something.


I just want to say that I made up everything in this post.  All you need is luck for criticals.

[Threash]

I just realized you don't actually get all of your exp back when you soul heal, more like half.

[Venkman]

Might scale with level. In the early teens you get it all back.

[Koyasha]

I checked that recently (been holding off on hitting 29 so I can do Nochsana once more) and as I killed myself a couple times I wrote down the numbers.  It looks like you lose exactly 1%, rounded down, of the total exp needed for your next level as unrecoverable exp loss.  In my case, at level 28 which needs 4,012,536 exp to get to 29, I lose 40,125 unrecoverable exp per death.

[Venkman]

Good to know. I haven't checked numbers only looking at the XP bar visual. Could be 1% the whole time.

[Draegan]

I know the first few levels (5?) you suffer zero loss, even zero debt.

[Threash]

Man they just had to go and make a whole campaign quest series out of killing the kitten monkeys, this is awful.

[Severian]

I remember in the Chinese beta, early on the Elyos side, I became Fluent in Kobold, I think it was called, and killing those female kobold cooks in the strip mine / Dukaki area suddenly lost its appeal because I could understand what they were saying.

[Threash]

Friday night during prime time: no queues.  Removing the perma afk shops did wonders.

[BitWarrior]

Still have some queues on Lumiel, which is the biggest server in the game so far based on the server statistics page using the number of guilds on each side (as that's all we've got to go off of) - about a 20 minute queue, down from what is normally a 1 hour 45 minute queue. Not sure if it being a Friday night typically causes more or less people to be on, but its a good sign nonetheless.

Additionally, when I logged on earlier today there appeared to be significantly less private shops huddled around the Teleporter in Sanctum, so my FPS was very thankful.

[Ashamanchill]

Friday night during prime time: no queues.

You lie!

[WindupAtheist]

I remember in the Chinese beta, early on the Elyos side, I became Fluent in Kobold, I think it was called, and killing those female kobold cooks in the strip mine / Dukaki area suddenly lost its appeal because I could understand what they were saying.

What were they saying?

[Surlyboi]

Me love you long time.

[gryeyes]

Made me laugh. Waiting for the initial rush to die down before i delve into Aion.

[tmp]

What were they saying?

Can't remember the exact wording but it basically drives the point home you're slaughtering pretty much innocent civilians/slaves.

[Severian]

The interesting thing about it was that before learning the language skill they are saying things, but it appears in gibberish. Then suddenly you understand what they are saying and they transform from MOBs into somewhat sympathetic characters who already have a very hard life and would prefer it if you would leave them alone and stop trying to hurt them, thank you very much. You realize they've been saying that all along, but you didn't know.

Meanwhile the quest I was on was to recover three pieces of jewelry stolen from one of the beautiful people in the idyllic village nearby, and to do so I was committing mass murder of these female slave cooks. Ah yes, I am such a HERO!

[Falconeer]

Protip, especially for melee: circle strafe all you can. Two green arrows will appear under your char and that means your dodge is greatly improved. You'll start seeing much more dodges and your HP will last more, by greatly reducing downtime. Bear in mind that some attacks can be fired while circle strafing, while some others require to stop for a millisecond to shoot it. Was trying to experiment with fighting while moving forwad and backward but it can't be done in aggro zones.

EDIT: Obviously, while your evasion is improved your attack goes down, so your mileage may vary.

[01101010]

The interesting thing about it was that before learning the language skill they are saying things, but it appears in gibberish. Then suddenly you understand what they are saying and they transform from MOBs into somewhat sympathetic characters who already have a very hard life and would prefer it if you would leave them alone and stop trying to hurt them, thank you very much. You realize they've been saying that all along, but you didn't know.

Meanwhile the quest I was on was to recover three pieces of jewelry stolen from one of the beautiful people in the idyllic village nearby, and to do so I was committing mass murder of these female slave cooks. Ah yes, I am such a HERO!

HINT: Elyos are the bad guys in this game...that is all.

[Venkman]

And who says nobody reads the text in the game. 

It is an interesting twist they pulled here though. It's counter-intuitive to the Stormwind/Darnassus crowd that the pretty high society is ultimately the like actual high society (me me me, ivory tower, etc).

[Threash]

Any Elyos who thinks they are the good guys just needs to head over to eltnen and slaughter some kitten monkeys.

[Morfiend]

EDIT: Obviously, while your evasion is improved your attack goes down, so your mileage may vary.

I believe it is -70% damage.

[Chimpy]

So I decided to buy this since some old friends from my WoW days are playing it as a side thing. Now I just need to wait for my download to finish....damn DSL, sigh.

[caladein]

And who says nobody reads the text in the game. 

It is an interesting twist they pulled here though. It's counter-intuitive to the Stormwind/Darnassus crowd that the pretty high society is ultimately the like actual high society (me me me, ivory tower, etc).

Except that's exactly the same trick Blizzard pulled.

The humans are corrupt and war-crazed (also, Arthas).  The gnomes, night elves and draenei are responsible for basically destroying their capital, planet, and universe respectively.  (The dwarves are just ripped out of Tolkien, with all that entails.)  Compare to: two races recently freed from slavery and three races driven into exile (one of which is full of hippies).

Either way, no one's going to care because the pretty ones are always the good guys.

[Ashamanchill]

So is anyone noticing that dying is a bitch in this game? i mean, really fucking obnoxios.

[Draegan]

So is anyone noticing that dying is a bitch in this game? i mean, really fucking obnoxios.

No it's not.  No more than any other game.

[Morfiend]

Forgetting to bind at a stone and dying is.

In general, death is only a bit worse than WoW. Although I seem to be broke all the time and the spiritmaster person is not super cheap.

[Shatter]

So is anyone noticing that dying is a bitch in this game? i mean, really fucking obnoxios.

Umm ok, maybe if you forgot to bind but even then.  I am level 28 now and only died twice up to level 25, one of those was afk :P  Seriously, if you die that much get some pots, they do wonders

[Lantyssa]

The appearance vendor is no longer free.  It requires a plastic surgery ticket, however the dye person you are told to visit does not sell it.  I'm slightly upset since I forgot to shape my ears, and I don't feel like redoing the entire character (or paying whatever outrageous fee) just to make them pointy.