Fourth and Inches

Aion Online's CB4 comes to a close and I thought I'd post my thoughts on it. I really wanted to level up my Cleric to 25 in order to gate through to the PvPvE content in The Abyss but I wasn't really willing to kill myself over it. I figured I'd see how things developed naturally instead of forcing myself to do stuff I didn't really enjoy.

I got as far as level 23 this weekend. I absolutely could've dinged 25 with a little more effort and with the help of a good guild maybe. But since I was soloing, 23 was as far as I was willing to go. No regrets as I was able to accomplish everything else I wanted to do including doing some more crafting and raising both my gathering skills up over 100.

Level 22 proved to be a watershed level for the Cleric as I spent almost 100k kinah on what must've been 10 new skill books. One of those was a 30 minute self-rez buff further reinforcing the similarity between this class and the WoW Shaman. There was also a great skill called Divine Touch that chained off a basic move which provided some much-needed DPS.

I can't wait for future Beta Events and finally being able to step foot in The Abyss.

Aion Eye Candy HD Videos

Thanks to Mithoron for pointing these pair of videos out to us in this AionSource thread. Taken during the CB2 and CB3 events, some great looking shots of both the Elyos and Asmodean zones. Pump up the HD option for maximum enjoyment.

Aion Online Screenshots

As promised, you can go here to see my meager collection of screenshots taken during CB2 and CB3. Believe me when I say that there were quite a few more screenshot-worthy events that I failed in capturing. I'm surprised I even took this many, to be honest, as I'm really not on first-name terms with my Print Scrn button.

Included in the limited play I did of the 20+ zones was a little PVP which was quite unexpected and a nice change of pace. Let's just say if you're trying to run away from the enemy, you better hope there isn't a Priest class nearby. I love having a root on my Cleric.

Aion Priest 1-10

I started out with my plan in the CB2 event in Aion to roll an Asmodean Cleric when I finally could get on Friday. Despite reading of queues and other horror stories while at work, I was able to get right in after login.

The first thing I did was go through what would eventually become a ritual after creating a new character which was click through the options to make my gaming life easier. I enabled all the extra hotbars, disabled click-to-move, and enabled displaying monster names. The latter option was particularly handy as it meant I didn't have to mouse over and click on every single mob to find the one I needed for a particular quest.

At one point, I was a bit puzzled over my character's inability to equip chain armor and shield as a Cleric. Then I realized he wasn't exactly a Cleric yet and wouldn't be until he Ascended at around level 10. For now, my Priest was stuck with leather armor and no shield. Not that he even needed the extra survivability of the heavier armor. With a HoT that cost a pittance of mana to upkeep, he was a grinding machine with little to no downtime.

There was some definite differences between the Elyos and Asmodea zones. In Elyos, the player starts out as a benign mercenary in the employ of the peasant NPC's. In Asmodae, the player starts out as a warlike raider who has subjugated the peasant NPC's. This tone was reflected in the quest text and content as well. My fears that the zone scenery would reflect such a dark race proved groundless. If anything, there were some areas which looked more bright and colorful than their Elyos counterparts. I think I'll stick with my plans to go Elyos, though. I just can't get over the long, flowing back hair typical of the Asmodean models.

There were some amusing harvesting experiences. The first happened while harvesting some Angelica in the newbie zone - I actually dinged. Yes, that's right; you get XP from harvesting in this game. It's not much (60 XP or so) but every little bit helps especially if you're a gathering fanatic like some folks I know. The other happened after I got my wings at level 10. It's what happens when you pair a limited flight timer with floating resources placed high in the sky. Now I know how Icarus felt.

I'd go on to level 3 more characters to level 10 which was the cap imposed by NCSoft for this beta event. Doing this enabled me to experience the differences at the early levels between the Priest, Mage, Scout, and Warrior archetypes.

Anticipation

Props to those old enough to remember what this image has to do with the title.

Aion Online is getting ready to start another of their Beta Events today. This event is scheduled to run through the weekend and anticipation is pretty high judging by the state of the Beta forums. I have access to this and all upcoming Beta events due to my pre-order and I have to admit I'm starting to feel a little excited about the event myself.

Despite having participated in numerous MMO Betas by now, I still feel the same excitement over a AAA title every time. There will be those that will say participation in Betas will only accelerate the feeling of burnout by the time the game releases. I counter that some of my most lengthy stays in MMO's were titles in which I also participated in their Betas as well. I would even go so far as to say that content in games is not the determining factor for me anymore as to whether it's time to move on or not. I'd say it's the people you meet and play with on a regular basis in MMO's that determines this. A good guild can go a long way towards hiding any perceived deficiencies in a game. For a while, anyways.

I'm still unsure which class to start out with in Aion. I usually go with a Paladin class type; being a heavily-armored melee fighter that can heal covers up a lot of typical newbie mistakes. Initially I thought this would be the Templar class but some research on the forums suggests Cleric might be the class I'm looking for. Hopefully the Betas will provide ample opportunity to mess with various alts and find the perfect fit for me.