Opinions on the leveling in Aion?

[Solvanirn]

I will say, first off aside from the campaign quests, I do not do most of the normal quests as they are run and fetch quests that do not yield a lot of exp. Can usually grind more exp in the time it takes me to collect 20 herbs for a measly 3 mobs worth of exp. I am also a little OCD and can sit there for hours grinding the same mobs over and over. I farmed up over 12 artifacts for my skald ffs so I am kind of a machine at grinding.

To be honest I like the leveling in Aion. If you want to grind mobs you can. The cash drops are nice as well as the chance to score extra loot. If you want to quest, you can (especially good for upgrade items). If I wanted to group I can, this is mainly because I am a cleric and love grouping anyways (sorry dps'ers but you can blow stuff up faster usually grinding then group exp). And if I don't feel like doing any of that I can go into the Abyss and join a group pvp or just sit there and craft while watching crappy movies on HBO.

I probably just covered EVERY MMO out there, but seriously if there was not any sort of grind or curve to become more experienced with your character then it wouldn't be an RPG. It'd be an FPS where all you would get were upgraded guns.

I am loving all aspects of Aion and am very impressed with it. I know I do not play a whole lot, but just being able to play for a couple hours, get a 1/2 of a level, while chatting is nice in any game. My only beef is the imbalance of pvp sometimes (some classes have it very easy while others do not), but hey that's life, I can't be the best healer AND the zomg uber melt your face dps at the same time. I can live with that. Hell I played a Healer from Midgard in DAoC...talk about sacrificing dps for heals.

I hope they add maybe another dungeon or 2 for the 29-34 area. 29 is kind of a bitch level if you can't get a good KM group together. FT is nice, but most of the mobs are 35+ in it, but you can get in at 30...not saying most can (grinding the key I got pretty lucky), but its kind of a let down.

EDIT: typo

[Grok]

I somehow managed to avoid any kind of grind between 20 and 30. I'm not sure how I did it, but I always had a quest to finish between levels 20 to 27, and from 27 to 29 I was in Training Grounds which yielded over half a level per run. I remember level 24 as taking a long time, but again, I had quests to get me through it.

I think Aion has it right for the most part. Leveling feels appropriately spaced out and you really feel you've earned the levels you've acquired. What I'd like to see is a few more rewards along the way to make the journey a little more enjoyable. I was wearing level 18 gear until level 27. Seeing my character in the same damn outfit (lavender FTL) for almost 10 levels was a bit of a disappointment and I think a few more gear based rewards along the way would have been welcomed. I'd also like to see a more even distribution of skills throughout. A new skill or two every 3 levels at this point feels a bit drawn out.

As for the question of addons, I agree with you Slurms, Aion doesn't need them. In WoW it could be a bit of a downer to have to maintain a set of addons that were required for raiding and equal footing. It also helped to turn WoW into min/max game where diversity was discouraged in favor of raid optimized builds and setups. DPS meters turned many (myself included) into more selfish players, and I'd hate to see that happen here.

[Maeve]

For me, it's not so much that I feel like I'm leveling too slow. Heck, if I'm having fun with something at one particular level, I'm sometimes disappointed to level. (See WAR...) I don't rush to end game because my history with MMOs has me getting bored and leaving shortly thereafter. I agree that some games definitely make it a little too easy to level.

While I'm not necessarily a huge quester, I think what I am missing in Aion is a new zone to explore. Something to do when I can't get a guild group together to go explore the Abyss or what not. Part of it is my own fault because playing a healer in WoW has left me forever with a case of PUG PTSD. I don't like them. If I don't have at least 2 or 3 guildies in my group, I'd rather skip it.

The plus side to this leveling curve is that our guild is quickly getting within range of each other so that it will be easier to play together. That alone should fix what ails me.

[Winin]

I gotta say, my favorite times in mmos have been going with a group of friends to some out of the way dungeon and crawling our way through it (only to find a level 50 necro parked on the boss spawn ). From what I've seen in many games over the past 10 years: group grinding/crawling promotes socialization and questing promots soloing.

[Slurm]

Good point Winin. Maybe that's the problem. Hmmm mind if I steal this for an article?

[Winin]

Yes, but you may quote me and build your article around it. Also you have to work in the phrase "phased-out spider monkeys" somewhere in the article.

[Sarc]

MORE quests! This is Raim's conclusion in the MMO weakly thats gonna drop on saturday. The rollercoaster of slow levels and fast levels due ot instances or campaign quests has kept me going. b/c the downhill rush of a fast level or two and getting up to the next tier of trainable skills is pretty exciting! ... until i realize i dont hav eenough money to buy all my skills... :/

i think they need more instances. not just grouping for mindless grinding, but grouping to grind in an instance with a goal of loot. Training grounds was alot of fun for me, the fortress instances are also a bunch of fun. Its hard to find groups though.

When we get some more people in the 30s we will have to try the fortress instances! good times, good experience and good loot! i've done eastern and western siel so far.

[Slurm]

Can't argue Sarc. As the others have already said, I really think some instances would do this game some good.

[Takzenen]

Well, I have seen a video where they said that they specifically planned to put more, and lower level, instances into the game

[Keinermacht]

Oct 22, 2009 12:35:51 GMT -5 Sarc said:

When we get some more people in the 30s we will have to try the fortress instances! good times, good experience and good loot! i've done eastern and western siel so far.

I've done Eastern and Western Siel too, as well as Sulfur's instance. Siel Western is MUCH better than the others IMO and in fact it is my new official "favorite Aion instance so far", even beating out Training Grounds (mostly because of TG's idiotic level cap).

Have any of you started doing Fire Temple yet? Yes you need the key, but getting it is easy for Elyos (random mob drop, as opposed to a complex campaign quest filled with elites for Asmodians). Fire Temple is more of a traditional "dungeon crawl" than the wackiness of Siel Western but the multiple paths and variable boss spawns are pretty neat... I've run it twice now and still haven't seen all of it.

As for Aion's grind: I am up to 35 now and the levels are slowing down again. 20-25 was excruciatingly slow while 25-30 flew by in a couple days. At 35 I need 16 million XP to hit 36 and an average non-elite mob in the Abyss is giving me 16,000 which means the grind is currently 1000 mobs/level. I've heard the XP scaling on nonelites pretty much stops around level 40 and the mobs/level grind ratio dramatically increases above 1000.

Hopefully soon we will find out if/when we are getting the new patch with increased quest reward XP. Because right now the XP reward for a lot of sidequests is pretty insulting... "Collect 7 monster parts for 50,000 XP" and in the process of killing 40 mobs for 7 monster parts I get half a million XP... at which point I just begin to say "why bother?" The only quests that are really paying off for me right now are Campaign quests.

[Takzenen]

35 is gonna kinda be a slow level for you, 36 you should be able to get into a KHQ group though.

[Keinermacht]

Oct 22, 2009 14:45:23 GMT -5 Takzenen said:

35 is gonna kinda be a slow level for you, 36 you should be able to get into a KHQ group though.

Yeah I'm not complaining... yet. I got about 25% of 35 done last night grinding Balaur and other assorted baddies in the Abyss for 3 hours. Also, slower levels give me more time to pile up kinah for the skill books which are insanely expensive.

Oh and as far as KHQ... I'm Asmo so we have MMM (Mist Mane Mau) for high-30s Campaign quests and I actually knocked out half of those at 34 as part of a multi-group coordinated zerg on Tuesday. But yeah I wasn't getting many hits in on those 40 elites and I had a 100K Soul Healing bill at the end of the night. So even though I got almost half a level it's not something I'm going to recommend to other guildies.

[Digix]

I think they need to add group bonuses and camp bonuses like in DAOC, and possible up the AP reward for killing players when grouped.

Agreed on most points, except the 20 level cap to talk..is that a joke?

[Dachartach]

I for one enjoy a leisurely pace. I do wish there were some more incentives for grouping, and more group friendly areas like the Krall area. We could really use a few more places like that in the early and mid 20s, and I'm sure there are some openings in later areas. I prefer instances, because you can really cut down on the asshole quotient when you don't have little kill stealing bastards running around cutting your lunch. We're in the famous Ataraxia legion, after all, we shouldn't be afraid to reach out to our fellows to start our own groups. I continue to dread the mind-numbing abyss that is pick up groups and the looking for group chat channel. ewww.




there is a type of courage to be found in the depths of suffering

[Winin]

Yeah, I usually just ask if anyone wants to join an Ataraxia group, and the I get flooded with tells. Of course they are all gold spammers monitoring the /lfg channel, but it makes me feel loved.