Aion: Minor details for those of you in beta...

[Takzenen]

Just some questions for those of you who have played the beta


1. How big are the group sizes, is there a "warband" conversion?

2. Cooldowns, does it utilize the GCD system?

3. Gear, is it easily obtained(decent gear)?

4. Leveling past 10, when does it slow down? What's the speed through the teens and 20s?

5. Have any of you done 45 RvR?

[Keinermacht]

Aug 7, 2009 10:16:16 GMT -5 Takzenen said:

Just some questions for those of you who have played the beta


1. How big are the group sizes, is there a "warband" conversion?

2. Cooldowns, does it utilize the GCD system?

3. Gear, is it easily obtained(decent gear)?

4. Leveling past 10, when does it slow down? What's the speed through the teens and 20s?

5. Have any of you done 45 RvR?

1) Same as WAR - groups of 6, warbands of 24

2) There is no GCD, each individual skill has its own cooldown as well as an animation/cast bar that dictates the speed of combat. As for how this "feels", the game feels slightly faster than WAR/WoW but not overly so... Aion is not a "twitch" game.

3) The game is definitely gear dependent, however most of it is fairly easy to obtain. It's VERY customizable as virtually all items have multiple sockets for "manastones" (like Talismans in WAR/Jewels in WoW). There is a clearly defined divide between PvE and PvP gear, PvP gear has special stats like "-10% damage from other players" but this will not stop a large percentage of players from using PvE gear in PvP because the base stats are still pretty solid.

While the level grind to 50 is pretty reasonable (see #4 below) the grind for the most "uber" endgame PvP gear is not. You will see the vast majority of players wearing the endgame equivalent of Annihilator/Conqueror in WAR while an elite few who play 30+ hours a week will be in the Warlord/Sovereign equivalents. I certainly have no plans to spend that much time in the game.

4) The level grind in Aion is pretty moderate, casuals will get to the cap of 50 within 2-3 months of launch. It's nothing like any other Asian MMO ever released. The "slowdown" point is 25 when you first get to the Abyss. You can expect NCsoft to very closely tune XP gain for the Western editions (NA and EU) to defuse any "Asian MMO grind" criticism. Leveling is definitely faster while grouped and for squishies (ranged DPS) it's practically mandatory, in the beta at least. Again this may also change on release.

5) No, last beta weekend had a level cap of 30. It's almost impossible to say what endgame RvR will be like in the West, the metagame will be fundamentally different here due to cultural preferences.

[Slurm]

awesome responses Keiner, thanks!

[Takzenen]

Excellent, thanks for the answers


I hear the limit on flying is frustrating. What's the length at 25? Does the length restore second by second, say, if you burned through all of your flying time, then didn't fly for 20 seconds, could you fly again for a couple seconds or do you have to wait for it to return to full?


When does your Daeva really start looking badass? Is all the armor they've been showing in videos/SS the max level armor or are mid level characters impressive as well?

[Keinermacht]

Aug 7, 2009 13:06:49 GMT -5 Takzenen said:

Excellent, thanks for the answers


I hear the limit on flying is frustrating. What's the length at 25? Does the length restore second by second, say, if you burned through all of your flying time, then didn't fly for 20 seconds, could you fly again for a couple seconds or do you have to wait for it to return to full?


When does your Daeva really start looking badass? Is all the armor they've been showing in videos/SS the max level armor or are mid level characters impressive as well?

Notes on flight:

• Yes your flight meter restores second by second. When you get your wings at Level 10 you start out with a 1 minute flight timer. Every second you spend in the air must later be recharged with 2 seconds on the ground. And no you don't need to recharge the whole timer... if the timer is totally depleted (2 minutes recharge) but you just want a quick flight of say, 15 seconds to get over an obstacle or check out a vantage point, you can still take off again only 30 seconds later with your timer just a fraction of being refilled.
  
• I also must mention the Glide ability. When your flight timer runs out and you are high in the air, you still get to spread out your wings and Glide in a controlled descent to a safe landing spot. You just don't get to ascend again until your timer at least partially recharges. Also, if you jump off a high point like a cliff while not in flight, Glide engages automatically. Glide can be activated at any time during flight and serves as the de facto transport mode within zones, similar to how mounts are used in other MMOs. (There is also a high-speed "teleport" flight master in most towns for long-distance travel.)
  
• You're stuck with a flight timer of 1 minute from Level 10 through Level 30, and then from there through Level 50 you get to spend exorbitant amounts of money on much larger, more elaborate wings that extend your base flight time to 2+ minutes. Yes I said BASE flight time, think of it just as you would as any other stat like HP, MP etc. that can be buffed by allies, debuffed by foes, increased by item socketing, replenished by potions, etc.
  

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As far as Good Looks are concerned, I would say the "Threshold of Cool" in Aion is Level 30. That's where you get to buy your first set of badass endgame wings, and it's also the level where you are allowed to begin re-skinning your armour pieces. Not to say that you can't look pretty damn cool well before that (that's my Chanter on the left, and Rachel's Gladiator on the right).

[Takzenen]

Thanks for the answers!

Can't wait to get ingame, so close yet so far

[Aberrant]

I know some are frustrated with the flight mechanic, but that sounds pretty cool to me.