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Experiences so far from Korean Aion lvl50 Assassin.

mugengaiamugengaia Member Posts: 347

So I'm an old MMORPG member who's been inactive for quite along time.  Aside from that I've been playing Aion for the last 6months on the korean server (well, I am korean). 

My impressions of the game so far is that it is unfortunately a WoW clone working its way into refining more and more each day. 

The game does seem alittle unrefined compared to WoW, but considering the years WoW has gone retail and has had like 100,000x times of patches to amerliorate the game, Aion is pretty much going through the same process. 

There are alot of bashers of the game, because once again unfortunately, more than 90% of the bashers are WoW carebears.  Ironic to this fact is also that alot of the bashers themselves have been playing Aion eventhough they say they hate it -_-;; (wdf?  korean people are weird...or I just don't understand my country and its people)

People in EU/NA already have this perception the game is a grindfest, but that is a half-retarded assumption only 'fanbois' of other games can make.  Let's make one thing clear, until a recent patch, there was even a way to grind your way to lvl40 in a single day ( of course, this was patched not too long ago).

The korean version of Aion seems like it's almost a rip-off because we have to pay to play such an unrefined game full of glitches and bugs, that only the few find and take advantage of before being reported and patched.  Fortunately for you guys in NA, it will be alot different.  Rumor has it, all the koreans think NCsoft is taking the koreans like test subjects to make profit and refine the game for foreign launches.  (I get this impression alot nowadays).

The game does not start at lvl25.  I guess for the early birds, sure it can start at 25.  But those will be the ones who start from day 1 of open beta.  The problem with the Abyss is that, once there are established players (lvl50s) new players going to the Abyss starting from lvl25 will have a hard time trying to do quests that involve going to different places of the Abyss that is already a huge ass map in itself. 

They implemented the Abyss to spread the Mission Quests and Side Quests that you can do to lvl up, and at the same time involve every player in a never ending open PvP arena basically.  Fields of both Elyoss and Asmodian sides are basically open to PvP as well, but portals are only open every 2 hours, and sometimes random depending on which portals on which parts of the maps.  Raids through portals are about the most brilliant thing in this game in my opinion, and it is very fun and thrilling. 

Overall there are three important aspects to the game.  Those three are crafting, PvPing, and raiding for boss monsters.

Leveing up cratfing skills is a tedious process, but there is a merit in becoming a mastercraftsman.  One thing the game prevents is having a single character become a master craftsman in every category.  You are only allowed to become one mastercraftsman in whichever category you choose.  Weapon crafting for example is a big gamble.  If you successfully have a critical while crafting you can create something of very big value, but if you are unsuccessful at what you decide to craft, it can really hurt your economy.  Alchemy on the other hand is a very profitable skill that brings in stable income.  Whatever you decide to do, it's all discretionary to the player. 

PvPing in this game is also in some aspects a big gamble.  PvP in abyss has its benefit, but players are not enforced to PvP in the abyss.  Usually,  players live and die by PvP in the end game.  Legions will gather and fight for forts in the abyss, and in the same process any player is welcomed to join players of other legions and fight against the opposing race.  Taking down forts will allow you to gather silver and gold medals required to purchase Abyss gears, which are the best PvP gears you can acquire in the game (upper PvP gears have bonus % to attack and defense when PvPing).  Having alot of abyss points also make you a target for the players of the other race either because they do not want you to gather more abyss points, or they can acquire more abyss points by killing you. 

The combat system is very different from WoW, you aren't constantly required to move around to get side and back bonuses.  There are back hit bonuses for certain classes such as Assassins and their skills.  Melee classes can take advantage of motion cancelling to chain skills faster, and in some cases do more dmg from behind an enemy.  For example, archers using the right timing to jump cancel skill motions can do more skill attacks faster than just standing and running around while attacking.  At first people were reporting this as a glitch in the game, but since NCsoft has claimed it is part of the combat system that players with better keyboard control can take advantage of.  Only times when moving control would be effective is when you have weapons that stretch.  If you use any skills that trap an enemy, you can run around from a distance to attack for back hit bounses and avoid attacks from the enemy because of reach.  It is similar to Mage classes using mes to trap an opponent and attack from afar.  They say moving attack is mostly useless because attacks auto-track anyways.  But good players take advantage of moving attack given the situation.  Micromanagement and tactics become very handy for the veteran players, and it is what separates the skilled and new players, as in any game.  For mage classes PvP is totally different but similar to any game in that there are tons are counter skills and different mes skills for certain situations.  A very good mage can be one annoying ass to deal with.  

Stigmas are interesting in that you can equip and unequip them, but it's not anything new.  Only thing new about them is that you can acquire certain abyss stigmas with large abyss points.  These abyss stigmas...are really good, however require extreme dedication from hard-core players.

Boss Raids in open field is similar to what Everquest used to be.  There are campers, especially of bigger and stronger legions waiting for Boss spawns.  Although they camp, fighting the boss mobs are not limited to abusers.  Sometimes different legions will gather for epic bosses and duke it out against each other.(most legions let random high level players into their party or force, noone's really left out unlike Lineage series, in which half those alliances were asses)  Whichever party or force does most dmg gets the rights to loot.  One boss monster Menotios? (i have no clue what it's called in english)  which spanws in the very core of the Abyss is open to both races, and becomes a very intense battleground for raiding and PvPing between the Asmodians and the Elyoss. 

Otherwise there are instant dungeons as well.  At this point there aren't many instant dungeons compared to the likes of WoW, but with each new update NCsoft is adding different instant dungeons with different gear drops and related dungeon quests. 

 

The game overall is unrefined at this point, but with each new update it is becoming more and more promising.  Although NCsoft fails miserably when meeting customer satisfaction, only reason more and more korean players are still and will play Aion is because they are waiting for better news with each update.  (It's partly why I still play...)

It took me two months to reach lvl50 with a casual play time of maybe 2-4 hours a day.  Of course, there were days when i played more than 8 hours, but as many days not playing at all. 

People bashing about the grind is basically a misconception and probably an animosity they still have for NCsoft from the Lineage series. 

I will admit, there are certain points in the game when you run out of quests and are forced to grind out killing the same monsters over and over again.  But like I said, with each update more quests, more stuff to do, and patches to what needs be fixed. 

I particularly didn't have too fun of time lvling in between 30 to 40, but heck...every game has its flaws...and Aion doesn't have as many as most of the other MMOs. 

The 6 months I played this game and still continue to do so, I don't regret.  Only, they (NCsoft) could have made things better if they consistently listen to the gamers' requests.  They have been taking care of the botters (which are mostly chinese gold farmers) and eliminated over 100k accounts.  But these chinese gold farmers...they're like pests....they just keep making new accounts and appearing not too long after.  I don't know if there is anything NCsoft can do about this, since it really is up to the discretion of the gamers to decide for themselves if they want to enjoy a game honestly.

When NA players think of bots they mostly think it's a program or script that runs within the computer hard disk and should be regulated through a hack shield.  Honestly it's not simple like that.  There are numerous sites that sell little USB cards with scripts on them that bypass hackshields.  Just as NCsoft updates its hackshields, so do the programmers that create these little USB cards with auto-bot programming. 

 

All in all, I can't say you will love it...because you will hate it when you get backstabbed by assholes that cloack and run around hiding in the fields...or just the fact that certain fields are just infested with bots...even not long after 70k accounts were just banned....But hey, the game does have its merit.  And it certainly has a character customization that is beyond anything out in the market.  Did I mention?  Character customization even got better with more option with the 1.1 update couple months ago...

Hey, they're (NCsoft) trying...which was definitely not NCsoft's forte.

GRIND sucks? You wanna be max level in a month?
Since when did society award easy-goers and lazy-fools?
MAKES ME PHOBIC OF STUPIDITY!

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Comments

  • popinjaypopinjay Member Posts: 6,539


    Originally posted by mugengaia

    The korean version of Aion seems like it's almost a rip-off because we have to pay to play such an unrefined game full of glitches and bugs, that only the few find and take advantage of before being reported and patched.  Fortunately for you guys in NA, it will be alot different.  Rumor has it, all the koreans think NCsoft is taking the koreans like test subjects to make profit and refine the game for foreign launches.  (I get this impression alot nowadays).



    As someone from North America, all I can say about this comment is...

    WOOT! :)


    (and sorry)

  • natuxatunatuxatu Member UncommonPosts: 1,364

    Thanks for the review. Its well thought out and seems honest without much bias so I can actually take it seriously. ^^

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  • DevilXaphanDevilXaphan Member UncommonPosts: 1,144

    Good comparative review.

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  • TheHavokTheHavok Member UncommonPosts: 2,423

    Nice writeup.

    I must say that reading the threads on this site every day, I've noticed that the people bashing this game aren't the "wow carebears".  Infact, they are the people that hate WoW and believe that because Aion has similar qualities of WoW, they must hate on Aion aswell.

    Also, the idea that Koreans think they are test subjects for Aion is kind of narrow minded on their part.  Of course their version is going to be more bug ridden then the version that the chinese, Japanese, EU, and NA get.  They are the first people to play the game!  Many bugs and glitches are not discovered until they go live. 

     

    I will agree that many people in NA and Europe have this preconception of Aion being just another korean grinder.  Ultimately I think that they will be the ones missing out if they are in fact looking for a solid, good mmo.

     

    All and all, thanks for the writeup.

  • bruciebrucie Member Posts: 22

    Appreciate the review,  thank you!

  • popinjaypopinjay Member Posts: 6,539


    Originally posted by TheHavok

    I must say that reading the threads on this site every day, I've noticed that the people bashing this game aren't the "wow carebears".  Infact, they are the people that hate WoW and believe that because Aion has similar qualities of WoW, they must hate on Aion aswell.



    I noticed it too with some. You also see the fans of other games that tanked bigtime and they are left butthurt with more and more people quitting, so now they want everyone else's game to tank as well. They bring in that anti-Asian nonsense claiming it won't work simply for that reason. Amazing.

    Not sure I understand that one but you see a lot of those flamers used to be ex-"Game of the Year" fans. :P

  • MikehaMikeha Member EpicPosts: 9,196

    I usallly stop at some point in a review when it becomes trollish or fanboyish but I read yours from start to finish. When I first played the Chinesse version I left with a skeptical feeling about Aion but afther playing this beta weekend I really like this game. Its just so polished in every aspect even at launch.  I am really amazed at how great the Cryengine is. This game has almost no lag at all even when there are alot of people running around  with the all the npcs, birds, animals and stuff. This is the best MMO I have ever played and no doubt the best on the market right now. Cant wait to September.

  • JimmydeanJimmydean Member UncommonPosts: 1,290
    Originally posted by mugengaia

    Boss Raids in open field is similar to what Everquest used to be.  There are campers, especially of bigger and stronger legions waiting for Boss spawns.  Although they camp, fighting the boss mobs are not limited to abusers.  Sometimes different legions will gather for epic bosses and duke it out against each other.  Whichever party or force does most dmg gets the rights to loot.  One boss monster Menotios? (i have no clue what it's called in english)  which spanws in the very core of the Abyss is open to both races, and becomes a very intense battleground for raiding and PvPing between the Asmodians and the Elyoss.

     

    Please tell me I'm not the only one that this gave a giant hard on to? As an ex-EQ raider, nothing excites me more than going up against a rival guild to kill / claim / loot World Bosses.

  • EphimeroEphimero Member Posts: 1,860
    Originally posted by Jimmydean

    Originally posted by mugengaia

    Boss Raids in open field is similar to what Everquest used to be.  There are campers, especially of bigger and stronger legions waiting for Boss spawns.  Although they camp, fighting the boss mobs are not limited to abusers.  Sometimes different legions will gather for epic bosses and duke it out against each other.  Whichever party or force does most dmg gets the rights to loot.  One boss monster Menotios? (i have no clue what it's called in english)  which spanws in the very core of the Abyss is open to both races, and becomes a very intense battleground for raiding and PvPing between the Asmodians and the Elyoss.

     

    Please tell me I'm not the only one that this gave a giant hard on to? As an ex-EQ raider, nothing excites me more than going up against a rival guild to kill / claim / loot World Bosses.

     

    You're not alone dude, I know the raids he's talking about (giant Ice-rock in the abyss core, and the betoni quest raidbosses) and its really thrilling. Casual players will have their dose of raids with instances, but for the hardcore gamers, open world raids with competition ftw.

     

    They respawn once every 16 hours iirc, so there are a lot of chances to fight over them.

     

    To the OP, I find your review pretty fair, I think the bots have lost their time nowadays in Korea due to an evolving community, which doesn't rely in them any longer, you still see them, but it's not like in L2 where the botters dominated, nowadays in aion KR the most aknowledged players are the ones streaming their gameplay in the abyss.

    I'd also add that I miss a bit of PvE grouping in the abyss, I've always prefered party vs party ganks over solo ganks for high level toons (countering party ganks is doable, and really makes you feel good if you succeed), I've heard that they are working on something to fix this for 1.3, do you know anything about that Mugengaia?

  • OmiragOmirag Member UncommonPosts: 276

    Excellently written! This is the first reveiw,I have read, that hit the points I wanted to hear about. I can finally make up my mind about this game. Thank you very much!

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  • shaulin1shaulin1 Member Posts: 17

    Agreed well writen and just adds to my excitment, I also played the chinese beta but have been unable to get in on the NA/EU beta :(

  • mugengaiamugengaia Member Posts: 347

    I forgot to mention...instant dungeons are a bit boring...and most the times you will be doing them to get legendary gear that have extremely low drop rates...(gets real repetitive, but when you get those legendary armors and gears....O my the relief).

    The newer instances have gotten some smarter bosses...so I guess they're trying...

    Hopefully more instances to come will have smarter mobs like WoW...

     

    I guess the fact that NCsoft is trying is really surprising koreans...well cause NCsoft had this label to be a game company which ignore gamers and only cares about profits..

     

    BTW...yea the cryengine is really something.  You can play on full options with a 9500GT (crappy card) with little slowdown, if none at all. 

    GRIND sucks? You wanna be max level in a month?
    Since when did society award easy-goers and lazy-fools?
    MAKES ME PHOBIC OF STUPIDITY!

  • skeaserskeaser Member RarePosts: 4,200
    Originally posted by Jimmydean

    Originally posted by mugengaia

    Boss Raids in open field is similar to what Everquest used to be.  There are campers, especially of bigger and stronger legions waiting for Boss spawns.  Although they camp, fighting the boss mobs are not limited to abusers.  Sometimes different legions will gather for epic bosses and duke it out against each other.  Whichever party or force does most dmg gets the rights to loot.  One boss monster Menotios? (i have no clue what it's called in english)  which spanws in the very core of the Abyss is open to both races, and becomes a very intense battleground for raiding and PvPing between the Asmodians and the Elyoss.

     

    Please tell me I'm not the only one that this gave a giant hard on to? As an ex-EQ raider, nothing excites me more than going up against a rival guild to kill / claim / loot World Bosses.

     

    Not just a rival guild a rival PvP faction. So it's you, another guild, the "bad" guys 2 guilds in a big FFA to take him down.

    Nothing like the risk of finding the boss and starting the fight and getting attacked by the other side either.

    Sig so that badges don't eat my posts.


  • LynxJSALynxJSA Member RarePosts: 3,334

    Really good to see a review from a high level player. Thanks!

     

    -- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG 
    RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? 
    FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?  
  • vmopedvmoped Member Posts: 1,708

    Excellent review mugengaia! Thanks for all the intel!

    Cheers!

    MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S

  • mugengaiamugengaia Member Posts: 347
    Originally posted by Ephimero

    Originally posted by Jimmydean

    Originally posted by mugengaia

    Boss Raids in open field is similar to what Everquest used to be.  There are campers, especially of bigger and stronger legions waiting for Boss spawns.  Although they camp, fighting the boss mobs are not limited to abusers.  Sometimes different legions will gather for epic bosses and duke it out against each other.  Whichever party or force does most dmg gets the rights to loot.  One boss monster Menotios? (i have no clue what it's called in english)  which spanws in the very core of the Abyss is open to both races, and becomes a very intense battleground for raiding and PvPing between the Asmodians and the Elyoss.

     

    Please tell me I'm not the only one that this gave a giant hard on to? As an ex-EQ raider, nothing excites me more than going up against a rival guild to kill / claim / loot World Bosses.

     

    You're not alone dude, I know the raids he's talking about (giant Ice-rock in the abyss core, and the betoni quest raidbosses) and its really thrilling. Casual players will have their dose of raids with instances, but for the hardcore gamers, open world raids with competition ftw.

     

    They respawn once every 16 hours iirc, so there are a lot of chances to fight over them.

     

    To the OP, I find your review pretty fair, I think the bots have lost their time nowadays in Korea due to an evolving community, which doesn't rely in them any longer, you still see them, but it's not like in L2 where the botters dominated, nowadays in aion KR the most aknowledged players are the ones streaming their gameplay in the abyss.

    I'd also add that I miss a bit of PvE grouping in the abyss, I've always prefered party vs party ganks over solo ganks for high level toons (countering party ganks is doable, and really makes you feel good if you succeed), I've heard that they are working on something to fix this for 1.3, do you know anything about that Mugengaia?



     

    You can still party gank in the abyss...I only started the game a month after the OBT, so I was behind.  But the XP was definitely better killing mobs in the abyss with a healer preferably a chanter.  With the buffs and heal I get with a chanter as partner, we used to get backstabbed by 40ish assassins.  If we survived the first strike from behind, we'd regroup and go after the sucker and try to gank him/her.  The experience of ganking and pvp in the abyss is probably one reason why me and my chanter friend took longer (2 months) to get to lvl50.  After our experiences in the Abyss of getting ganked and being ganked, we developed this hate for the asmodians and we went through portals in the open fields all the time, forming a huge force and just raiding and ganking 25-40 players in the Asmodian fields...

    LOL...this is probably why I said going through portals was most brilliant and fun experience for me, because I just loved going through the portals to gank on the other race.  But eventually lvl50s would teleport to the fields and wipe us out...so it evens out.

    GRIND sucks? You wanna be max level in a month?
    Since when did society award easy-goers and lazy-fools?
    MAKES ME PHOBIC OF STUPIDITY!

  • SocietyXSocietyX Warhammer Online CorrespondentMember Posts: 2

    I also agree that I thought this review was pretty nice.

     

    I hope Koreans stop thinking of themselves as labrats and realize that while they get the bugs, we in NA/EU also quickly pounce on korean patch notes to get them translated and wish we had all that cool content sooner. Least thats how it was in L2. We felt like waiting 6 months to get that patch was agony and you guys get everything right off.

     

    Far as the rest.. I think the game has alot of promise. I'm already blown away by how different Aion is from Lineage 2. It feels like a game where NCSOFT has matured alot already. And if what you say is true with continued patches adding better and more complex content then it sounds like NCSOFT is continuing to learn. Which is great.

     

    Sad to hear about Botters but it's almost impossible to get angry over them anymore. They're so much apart of the game worlds now you have to just deal with it. Hopefully NCSOFT doesn't allow it to get out of hand like it used to on L2 but long as its just botters and not botters who PK you and steal your mobs... well I can handle that.

  • NedaxNedax Member Posts: 115

    Can you tell me one thing please?  I notice you said that more customizing features would be implemented in 1.1 (which supposedly will be in the NA release) What do you mean exactly? Because if it include's changing eye color I will be so very excited. :) I wanted to have a specific color for my character, but couldn't obtain it in the Closed Beta test this weekend.

    image

  • BigMangoBigMango Member UncommonPosts: 1,821
    Originally posted by Nedax


    Can you tell me one thing please?  I notice you said that more customizing features would be implemented in 1.1 (which supposedly will be in the NA release) What do you mean exactly? Because if it include's changing eye color I will be so very excited. :) I wanted to have a specific color for my character, but couldn't obtain it in the Closed Beta test this weekend.

     

    Yes the eyes color settings have been patched in.

     

    Edit:   patch notes 1.1 and patch notes 1.2  (bablefish translation)

     

  • NedaxNedax Member Posts: 115

    Awesome! Thanks for the responses guys. :)

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  • AganazerAganazer Member Posts: 1,319
    Originally posted by TheHavok


    I must say that reading the threads on this site every day, I've noticed that the people bashing this game aren't the "wow carebears".  Infact, they are the people that hate WoW and believe that because Aion has similar qualities of WoW, they must hate on Aion aswell.

     

    I am probably going to be one of those people who hate Aion and WoW. Its depressing being a huge fan of the genre, but being so burnt out on this style of gameplay. When a game finally comes out with a lot of polish, stability, and great looking graphics, I am faced with the sad fact that it plays exactly like the MMOG's that I played for 10 years. I am tired of Aion already and I've only played it three days. The only reason I can think of for hating Aion is because I so desperately want a MMOG of this quality that plays a little different. So the hate isn't even for Aion or WoW, but rather the stagnation and dumbing down of the genre as a whole.

    I've got two free copies of Aion and my wife likes it so I'll certainly be playing it quite a bit. I'm sure I'll enjoy my time. I can also guarantee you that every time I play this game I'll be wishing NCSoft would have taken a chance and offered a different gameplay experience.

  • mugengaiamugengaia Member Posts: 347
    Originally posted by Nedax


    Can you tell me one thing please?  I notice you said that more customizing features would be implemented in 1.1 (which supposedly will be in the NA release) What do you mean exactly? Because if it include's changing eye color I will be so very excited. :) I wanted to have a specific color for my character, but couldn't obtain it in the Closed Beta test this weekend.



     

    Yea, eye color too, but you can now make SD characters...like those Super Deformed gundams...BIG HEAD...small body.

     

    You can even make some ugly looking things...I've seen some people with some ugly ugly characters...I can see how they made them for fun...but they lvl them up...I don't see how I can stare at a ugly Shrek looking thing forever...

    You can seriously make a character with 2 inch legs, 3feet long arms, and huge or small tennis ball heads.(well I don't know about tennis ball heads but farely close to it.)  Real ugly looking things...up to your taste I guess...

    GRIND sucks? You wanna be max level in a month?
    Since when did society award easy-goers and lazy-fools?
    MAKES ME PHOBIC OF STUPIDITY!

  • BroGamingPageBroGamingPage Member UncommonPosts: 492
    Originally posted by mugengaia


    So I'm an old MMORPG member who's been inactive for quite along time.  Aside from that I've been playing Aion for the last 6months on the korean server (well, I am korean). 
    My impressions of the game so far is that it is unfortunately a WoW clone working its way into refining more and more each day. 
    The game does seem alittle unrefined compared to WoW, but considering the years WoW has gone retail and has had like 100,000x times of patches to amerliorate the game, Aion is pretty much going through the same process. 
    There are alot of bashers of the game, because once again unfortunately, more than 90% of the bashers are WoW carebears.  Ironic to this fact is also that alot of the bashers themselves have been playing Aion eventhough they say they hate it -_-;; (wdf?  korean people are weird...or I just don't understand my country and its people)
    People in EU/NA already have this perception the game is a grindfest, but that is a half-retarded assumption only 'fanbois' of other games can make.  Let's make one thing clear, until a recent patch, there was even a way to grind your way to lvl40 in a single day ( of course, this was patched not too long ago).
    The korean version of Aion seems like it's almost a rip-off because we have to pay to play such an unrefined game full of glitches and bugs, that only the few find and take advantage of before being reported and patched.  Fortunately for you guys in NA, it will be alot different.  Rumor has it, all the koreans think NCsoft is taking the koreans like test subjects to make profit and refine the game for foreign launches.  (I get this impression alot nowadays).
    The game does not start at lvl25.  I guess for the early birds, sure it can start at 25.  But those will be the ones who start from day 1 of open beta.  The problem with the Abyss is that, once there are established players (lvl50s) new players going to the Abyss starting from lvl25 will have a hard time trying to do quests that involve going to different places of the Abyss that is already a huge ass map in itself. 
    They implemented the Abyss to spread the Mission Quests and Side Quests that you can do to lvl up, and at the same time involve every player in a never ending open PvP arena basically.  Fields of both Elyoss and Asmodian sides are basically open to PvP as well, but portals are only open every 2 hours, and sometimes random depending on which portals on which parts of the maps.  Raids through portals are about the most brilliant thing in this game in my opinion, and it is very fun and thrilling. 
    Overall there are three important aspects to the game.  Those three are crafting, PvPing, and raiding for boss monsters.
    Leveing up cratfing skills is a tedious process, but there is a merit in becoming a mastercraftsman.  One thing the game prevents is having a single character become a master craftsman in every category.  You are only allowed to become one mastercraftsman in whichever category you choose.  Weapon crafting for example is a big gamble.  If you successfully have a critical while crafting you can create something of very big value, but if you are unsuccessful at what you decide to craft, it can really hurt your economy.  Alchemy on the other hand is a very profitable skill that brings in stable income.  Whatever you decide to do, it's all discretionary to the player. 
    PvPing in this game is also in some aspects a big gamble.  PvP in abyss has its benefit, but players are not enforced to PvP in the abyss.  Usually,  players live and die by PvP in the end game.  Legions will gather and fight for forts in the abyss, and in the same process any player is welcomed to join players of other legions and fight against the opposing race.  Taking down forts will allow you gather silver and gold medals required to purchase Abyss gears, which are the best PvP gears you can acquire in the game (upper PvP gears have bonus % to attack and defense when PvPing).  Having alot of abyss points also make you a target for the players of the other race either because they do not want you to gather more abyss points, or they can acquire more abyss points by killing you. 
    The combat system is very different from WoW, you are constantly required to move around to get side and back bonuses.  There are back hit bonuses for certain classes such as Assassins and their skills.  Melee classes can take advantage of motion cancelling to chain skills faster, and in some cases do more dmg from behind an enemy.  For example, archers using the right timing to jump cancel skill motions can so more skill attacks faster than just standing and running around while attacking.  At first people were reporting this as a glitch in the game, but since NCsoft has claimed it is part of the combat system that players with better keyboard control can take advantage of.  Only times when moving control would be effective is when you have weapons that stretch.  If you use any skills that trap an enemy, you can run around from a distance to attack for back hit bounses and avoid attacks from the enemy because of reach.  It is similar to Mage classes using mes to trap an opponent and attack from afar.  They say moving attack is mostly useless because attacks auto-track anyways.  But good players take advantage of moving attack given the situation.  Micromanagement and tactics become very handy for the veteran players, and it is what separates the skilled and new players, as in any game.  For mage classes PvP is totally different but similar to any game in that there are tons are counter skills and different mes skills for certain situations.  A very good mage can be one annoying ass to deal with.  
    Stigmas are interesting in that you can equip and unequip them, but it's not anything new.  Only thing new about them is that you can acquire certain abyss stigmas with large abyss points.  These abyss stigmas...are really good, however require extreme dedication from hard-core players.
    Boss Raids in open field is similar to what Everquest used to be.  There are campers, especially of bigger and stronger legions waiting for Boss spawns.  Although they camp, fighting the boss mobs are not limited to abusers.  Sometimes different legions will gather for epic bosses and duke it out against each other.  Whichever party or force does most dmg gets the rights to loot.  One boss monster Menotios? (i have no clue what it's called in english)  which spanws in the very core of the Abyss is open to both races, and becomes a very intense battleground for raiding and PvPing between the Asmodians and the Elyoss. 
    Otherwise there are instant dungeons as well.  At this point there aren't many instant dungeons compared to the likes of WoW, but with each new update NCsoft is adding different instant dungeons with different gear drops and related dungeon quests. 
     
    The game overall is unrefined at this point, but with each new update it is becoming more and more promising.  Although NCsoft fails miserably when meeting customer satisfaction, only reason more and more korean players are still and will play Aion is because they are waiting for better news with each update.  (It's partly why I still play...)
    It took me two months to reach lvl50 with a casual play time of maybe 2-4 hours a day.  Of course, there were days when i played more than 8 hours, but as many days not playing at all. 
    People bashing about the grind is basically a misconception and probably an animosity they still have for NCsoft from the Lineage series. 
    I will admit, there are certain points in the game when you run out of quests and are forced to grind out killing the same monsters over and over again.  But like I said, with each update more quests, more stuff to do, and patches to what needs be fixed. 
    I particularly didn't have too fun of time lvling in between 30 to 40, but heck...every game has its flaws...and Aion doesn't have as many as most of the other MMOs. 
    The 6 months I played this game and still continue to do so, I don't regret.  Only, they (NCsoft) could have made things better if they consistently listen to the gamers' requests.  They have been taking care of the botters (which are mostly chinese gold farmers) and eliminated over 100k accounts.  But these chinese gold farmers...they're like pests....they just keep making new accounts and appearing not too long after.  I don't know if there is anything NCsoft can do about this, since it really is up to the discretion of the gamers to decide for themselves if they want to enjoy a game honestly.
    When NA players think of bots they mostly think it's a program or script that runs within the computer hard disk and should be regulated through a hack shield.  Honestly it's not simple like that.  There are numerous sites that sell little USB cards with scripts on them that bypass hackshields.  Just as NCsoft updates its hackshields, so do the programmers that create these little USB cards with auto-bot programming. 
     
    All in all, I can't say you will love...because you will hate it when you get backstabbed by assholes that cloack and run around hiding in the fields...or just the fact that certain fields are just infested with bots...even not long after 70k accounts were just banned....But hey, the game does have its merit.  And it certainly has a character customization that is beyong anything out in the market.  Did I mention?  Character customization even got better with more option with the 1.1 update couple months ago...
    Hey, they're (NCsoft) trying...which was definitely not NCsoft's forte.

     

    Probably one of the best reviews I've seen to date. Thanks! I couldn't make it into closed beta this weekend, keys were gone so fast. I do enjoy reading reviews on this game because it's an upcomming game that I hope gets me back into mmorpg's fulltime. I loved your review. Good job man!

  • mugengaiamugengaia Member Posts: 347
    Originally posted by Aganazer

    Originally posted by TheHavok


    I must say that reading the threads on this site every day, I've noticed that the people bashing this game aren't the "wow carebears".  Infact, they are the people that hate WoW and believe that because Aion has similar qualities of WoW, they must hate on Aion aswell.

     

    I am probably going to be one of those people who hate Aion and WoW. Its depressing being a huge fan of the genre, but being so burnt out on this style of gameplay. When a game finally comes out with a lot of polish, stability, and great looking graphics, I am faced with the sad fact that it plays exactly like the MMOG's that I played for 10 years. I am tired of Aion already and I've only played it three days. The only reason I can think of for hating Aion is because I so desperately want a MMOG of this quality that plays a little different. So the hate isn't even for Aion or WoW, but rather the stagnation and dumbing down of the genre as a whole.

    I've got two free copies of Aion and my wife likes it so I'll certainly be playing it quite a bit. I'm sure I'll enjoy my time. I can also guarantee you that every time I play this game I'll be wishing NCSoft would have taken a chance and offered a different gameplay experience.



     

    Well, it's not far off.  That is to say, what you are hoping for.  New titles in development such as Tera, not sure about Blade and Soul, Mabinogi Heros..., and supposedly Lineage 3 will have free roaming non target based combat systems.  (From rumors they say Lineage 3 is going to be an open world with non target based live combat system.)  Companies are definitely taking a new approach to MMOs and are dropping the target based auto-lock system.  You're no longer required to click on mobs or players to lock-on, instead attack similar to action-RPGs with the exception of vast amount of skills.  I don't know how well or even when a very promising title with this system will be released, but a tech demo showing Mabinogi Heros was really something. 

    GRIND sucks? You wanna be max level in a month?
    Since when did society award easy-goers and lazy-fools?
    MAKES ME PHOBIC OF STUPIDITY!

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