How are you liking Aion so far? Anyone willing to share their first impressions?

[rynnor]

I'm only 13th since I restarted on Monday on the new server but I'm also working heavily on my collection skills and have been storing literally hundreds of various tradeskill items for when I pick a trade (very soon).

Tradeskills are supposed to be evil to level in this which is part of what attracted me to the game.

I'm also planning some market manipulation... Done it in other games in a small way but somehow Aion strikes me as a game where it could really be profitable

 

[Mabs]

Tradeskills are supposed to be evil to level in this which is part of what attracted me to the game.

work orders are your friends, dont try to level on recipes
and its not that bad, its not as bad as daoc was

 

[BloodOmen]

Indeed, do work orders rynnor the npc provides all of the mats more or less all you need to do is buy a few things from the vendor no farming required (its v expensive however) alot less time consuming than farming everything yourself tho.

 

[ECA]

I did quests upto 26 then I did literally nothing but grind from 26-32, 49-50 is going to be hell tho you need 126mil for 49-50 :<

Yeah but at 50k or 100k exp/mob that's actually only about double what I need now.

The exp grind isnt that bad, especially compared to release grinds in some other MMOs I've played ( It's probably about the same as WoW and less evil than FFXI was for years ). The only diff is you're grinding exp mobs rather than quest grinding.

 

[Adari]

How long does it take to grind to 25 then? On a non healer character

 

[ECA]

3 RL days playing semi-hardcore.
Playing super hardcore... ie 24/7, probably < 24hours total playtime.
you can do 1-10 in 2hrs
I'd imagine 11-20 can be done in < 10hrs so 12 hours total to 20.
I'm pretty sure you could do 20-25 in < 12hours as well.

 

[ECA]

btw 33>34 will take me less time despite being 9.6mill exp compared to 32>33 ( 8mill ) because my exp/hr has gone up from 1.2mill to 1.8mill+

 

[BloodOmen]

Yeah but at 50k or 100k exp/mob that's actually only about double what I need now.

The exp grind isnt that bad, especially compared to release grinds in some other MMOs I've played ( It's probably about the same as WoW and less evil than FFXI was for years ). The only diff is you're grinding exp mobs rather than quest grinding.

mobs at 49 are only meant to give 25k per mob however elites give 250k spread through 6 people so 41k per person which is rather nice if you can kill them at a quick pace.

 

[Adari]

Alright, that doesn't seem too bad, thats like a geek weekend to 25 Im tempted!

 

[rynnor]

work orders are your friends, dont try to level on recipes
and its not that bad, its not as bad as daoc was

I did that free level 1 work order to get my skill to 39 then started doing the more costly ones - skill in the 50s now (Alchemy).

I had a ton of bits for flight potions so they worked out cheaper than work orders and might even be able to flog them on the AH.

 

[ECA]

Got to do a fortress instance ( access only allowed if fortress is your faction ) and freaking loving it.


The more I play the more I enjoy this game.
Crafting is actually necessary rather than an afterthought, instance time attacks..<33333

 

[Coldbeard]

How completely retarded that you can only do an instance once then have to wait 14 hours (!) to do it again. Was looking forward to finally getting some good equip but even though we cleared the whole instance and killed all bosses not a single item dropped, what a fucking pisstake.

 

[ECA]

How completely retarded that you can only do an instance once than have to wait 14 hours (!) to do it again. Was looking forward to finally getting some good equip but even though we cleared the whole instance and killed all bosses not a single item dropped, what a fucking pisstake.

Uh pretty damn standard actually.

I hated the instance spam culture of WoW.

Once you get to 35+ and your side has taken some fortresses you'll have access to multiple instances etc.

 

[Tallen]

How completely retarded that you can only do an instance once then have to wait 14 hours (!) to do it again. Was looking forward to finally getting some good equip but even though we cleared the whole instance and killed all bosses not a single item dropped, what a fucking pisstake.

LOTRO had 7-day lockouts as i recall, WAR has 5-day lockouts as well so 14 hours is probably to stop people playing too much and forgetting to eat or sleep

 

[Puppet]

I am level 32~ now (taking it slow) but I'm a bit afraid it will end up in much the same way as WAR did.

Once the grind is over and you finally reached 50, what's there to do :

* Abyss keep-fights, zerg vs zerg guaranteed and currently very unstable client (mass-crashes, see like 1 crash every 10 seconds in a 25 men alliance)

* Rifting, I doubt it will be very popular once everyone is max. level

* PvE... I doubt it

* Crafting... boring system, IMO

So basically it is hoping that in some way they will introduce small scale fights and increase stability of client. If not --> I see mass-exodus of players once they reach 50.

 

[Ctuchik]

Crafting is actually necessary rather than an afterthought,

crafting isnt a necessity, its slightly recomended but far from necessary.

i had no problems what so ever on my SM not crafting before i rerolled, and i dont think i'l have a problem now either.

 

[eksdee]

late game it is definitely something of a necessity, at least for consumables - i currently take about 8 hours at best, 10 at worst to level (i'm level 42) by solo'ing elites. for this i use a lot of mana pots, without them i would take a looot longer - i basically never rest and kill about 20 elites give or take per hour, giving me between 6-7mil xp per hour. if i had to sit down and rest for a minute or so between pulls, it would pretty much double my time per level.

that said, i don't craft myself and i either get my pots at material price from guild crafters, or simply off the broker. it really isn't expensive compared to the cash you make - i am currently running around with around 3mil after spending 2mil or so on armour in the past two days (this also REALLY helps with xp'ing).

 

[eksdee]

I am level 32~ now (taking it slow) but I'm a bit afraid it will end up in much the same way as WAR did.

Once the grind is over and you finally reached 50, what's there to do :

* Abyss keep-fights, zerg vs zerg guaranteed and currently very unstable client (mass-crashes, see like 1 crash every 10 seconds in a 25 men alliance)

* Rifting, I doubt it will be very popular once everyone is max. level

* PvE... I doubt it

* Crafting... boring system, IMO

So basically it is hoping that in some way they will introduce small scale fights and increase stability of client. If not --> I see mass-exodus of players once they reach 50.

at least on spatalos, i see 6man groups everywhere i go. the only times i've seen zergs have been at keep takes and a couple of times in the abyss. i definitely share your apprehensions given how war turned out in some ways, but i do also genuinely get the feeling that (at least on our server) things might turn out pretty decent.

 

[Ctuchik]

late game it is definitely something of a necessity, at least for consumables - i currently take about 8 hours at best, 10 at worst to level (i'm level 42) by solo'ing elites. for this i use a lot of mana pots, without them i would take a looot longer - i basically never rest and kill about 20 elites give or take per hour, giving me between 6-7mil xp per hour. if i had to sit down and rest for a minute or so between pulls, it would pretty much double my time per level.

that said, i don't craft myself and i either get my pots at material price from guild crafters, or simply off the broker. it really isn't expensive compared to the cash you make - i am currently running around with around 3mil after spending 2mil or so on armour in the past two days (this also REALLY helps with xp'ing).

exactly, u just buy the potions you need. so even if you ARE soloing elites (wich by the way is the least effective way of leveling up) you still dont need to be a crafter. and if you are it will just take 10 times longer to level up as you need to keep your crafting up to level aswell.

so if anything, crafting just makes things go slower

 

[eksdee]

how is it the least effective? i get 6-7mil xp an hour doing elites and i haven't been able to break 4 mil an hour on normal mobs. maybe it isn't effective for other classes, but it definitely is for a cleric.

 

[eksdee]

should also point out that (given i don't know what level you are), you are actually right up until around 38, doing elites definitely isn't worth it, because the lower level elites don't give as much xp.

 

[Ctuchik]

get a good AE group going and you will never want to solo ever again.

but yes, if you insist of being solo, elite is the way to go, but its far from the best overall option if you want to max xp/hour...

the XP thats comming in from a good AE group is almost close enough to what you could achieve in classic DAoC in malmo/fins groups..

 

[eksdee]

what group setup and what level range of mobs do you do?

 

[Ctuchik]

well, as there isnt all that much AE'ing going around the classes thats worth to mention, actually calling it AE groups is probably wrong, but as far as setups go, as long as you have a templar and a healer, 2 more random high DPS classes will suffice. just dont go for a full group as that will absolutely murder the xp/hour, even if the kills go really fast.

was 40 on my SM when i rerolled, and what level elites is probably something you have to figure out when you start as alot of it obviously depends on how good players your grouped with, just dont go to high lvl elites, even if you can kill them. the main thing by doing it in a group is the faster kills and the ability to have 2 or more mobs going at the same time so there will always be a mob already engaged when the previous dies. might want to have 1 ranged (not the cleric ) aswell for the chain pulling so the tank dont have to run all over the place grabbing new mobs.

your still primarily only gonna focus on one elite at a time, you just need to do it fast enough to beat the group penalty.

i know that ppl claim that 2 work better but i never really noticed that as the kills come in quite a bit slower. but maybe it evens out i dunno, didnt really test that a whole lot as i actually wanted to group, and noone else complained about bad xp.

 

[Kinag]

I honestly find the game tough to level in at lower levels.. My level 12 assassin can hardly handle 2 mobs, if I get an add I have to pop a health potion or run away, and usually I do the latter

Hope it gets better at higher level though and it seems to be quite fun, just hope there's some grouping in the distance.

Love the combat though, can't wait to get to higher level so I can do some pvp.

 

[eksdee]

25-28 abyss instance, 32-38 or so fire temple, 40-44 alquimia research lab/steel rake, 45(?)+ draupnir cave = all pretty decent xp instances where you will need a full group. fire temple is worth doing 100s of times if only for the fact that you have a chance of getting a yellow weapon that will last you until 43 when you get the yellow spy quest weapon.

as a sin you can definitely make amazing xp later on duo/trio'ing elites also.

 

[Kinag]

Just a matter of getting to that level Leveling ain't that fun due to my ability of not being able to kill multiple mobs.

I might be screwing it up for myself by adding +parry enchants on my armor/weapon I just thought that defense>anything else for survival

 

[Garaen]

Just put Physical Crit stones on all your gear Kinag if you're a sin, it caps out at around 300 afaik but you won't have to worry about that until level 35+

 

[Kinag]

Just put Physical Crit stones on all your gear Kinag if you're a sin, it caps out at around 300 afaik but you won't have to worry about that until level 35+

I think I got aprox. one of those stones.. They seem to be rare.

I leveled a gladiator to level 11.. god how easy they have it.

Never died, not even once.. my sin has tons of deaths at 14

 

[Garaen]

If you're on Spatalos / Elyios tell me your name and i'll send you some kinah and physical crit stones