Aion levels 11-20

For a general impression of Aion, please check out my previous post on Aion and levels 1-10.

Levels 17-20 are when the PvE action really starts to get interesting. The quests start out fairly basic from levels 11-17 and are still fun, very graphically appealing, and have a good storyline if you like to read the quests, but, just like at the end of the first 10 levels, the last few levels of this section have an end area for the main quests that is best done as a group. PvP will be right on the horizon at these levels and this group experience is a great way to start meeting some other players from your faction that will soon be on the field saving you from getting ganked, joining you as you terrorize the enemy on their turf, or fighting along side you in epic PvP battles. The PvE continues to be interesting beyond 20, also, with more group content the further you go up in level. This really makes community important and Aion does a good job in the later levels of the 11-20 bracket at getting you to meet other players and solidifying the community experience. There are also world bosses in this area and good loot to be had by all.

Hopefully this experience will help to break you from the solo friendly mold that MMO gamers have fallen into. If you need to solo for reasons like having short available times to play, which happens to me all the time, there is always solo content available. It is not nearly as fun as the group stuff but it is just as fun as the solo content in the top MMO games out there.

Remember, though, that these group quests are required to finish the area and move onto the next area so you will need to join a group at some point or you will miss a big part of the game. The quests are soloable but not easily for most classes. This is what sets Aion's community development apart from a game like Wow. In Wow there are dungeons for each level tier that are fun group experiences but there is not a lot of incentive to partake in this content and there is enough solo content that it was hard for me to ever find enough people that actually ran the lower tier group content. With Aion's forced questing method the only problem with grouping is having too many groups in the same area! So far the quest mobs are all very common with very short respawn timers so you might miss out on some boss loot but you will always get your quests done when you get a group.

If you havn't already picked up your pre-order, which will allow you to play in the closed beta weekends, then here is a link to Amazon.com to get in on the action.