Aion General Impressions and levels 1-10

Aion is an overlooked gem in the MMO marketplace but it is gaining momentum. As some of you might remember, WoW was not huge when it began but grew after it was released to the giant that it became and remains today. Aion is already catching the interest of many gamers as it nears its North America release and for a good reason. It has smooth and well polished game play, is relatively free of bugs, makes good use of MMO inovations over the past decade and has some new innovative features that make it an amazing game to play.

The first 10 levels in Aion play very much like any other MMO but if you pay attention you will notice that it is well polished with subtle actions like your character catching fish when stopped in water or fashioning an umbrella out of a leaf when it starts to rain. This stuff doesn't really mean much, and many gamers don't take notice, but it adds just a little something special that makes the game feel right.

The game also has cut scenes that occur when doing the main quest lines, which bring back some of the pleasures of single player games and epic storylines that are generally lost in MMOs. It also helps that the game looks gorgeous, although a bit towards the anime style, which can be off-putting for some, and yet still runs smooth and fast on my mid-range laptop.

The first 10 levels play out very solo friendly but with an end area that is soloable but with a high death risk for most classes if not in a group. You are required to finish the main quest lines to move onto a new area so this ending area starts the push for community early. Everyone will be doing these quests and they are much easier and faster in a group so it is likely that you will meet and join up with some fellow gamers that are in the area with you. While this group experience is short, this concept becomes more important in later levels as the main quests lines will sometimes require a group to complete for all players but the most savvy of soloers that also have a lot of time to spare for their solo attempts or just get lucky.

After reaching level 9 in Aion the main quest line will allow you to ascend and you will gain the ability to glide or even fly in certain areas. This is another item that adds polish to the overall experience and makes even normal grinding seem fun when you finish a fight, spot another needed enemy on the path below you and then jump off a cliff and glide down towards it delivering a blow much like Batman would before then commencing your attack. This also adds a huge amount of fun and creativity to PvP, as you might expect, which will be covered in another post.

Overall, Aion is definately worth a try. I came to Aion sceptical that it would provide anything that great. The website isn't very flashy and it didn't give me the impression that this would be a well done game. After playing it, though, I couldn't have been more wrong in my pre-conceived impressions. The game is fantastic and I really expect that as word starts to spread amongst gamers of how great the gameplay is in Aion, this is going to become a very successful game. A lot of recent game failures have been loaded with hype and then flop after release when people chose not to continue their subscriptions. In the case of Aion the lack of hype will probably lead to a slower subscription rate out the door, but since the gameplay is so fantastic it should then pick up momentum as friends of Aion players see the game and realize just what they are missing. 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.

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.

General Overview of the Chanter Class

If you have played EQ2 you could relate the Aion Chanter class to an EQ2 bard with heals. The Aion Chanter is even more distant from the bard classes seen in EQ or Vanguard or many single player games but for comparison purposes a bard is a decent way to think about the Chanter class. The Chanter is a jack-of-all trades being able to dish out fairly good individual dps, take a few extra hits than most other non-plate wearing classes, and is the second best healer in the game.

Being the second best healer in the game isn't much of a statement, though, since there are only two healer classes. However, the chanter is indeed a healer and, while not as good at healing as a Cleric, can still easily be the main healer for an otherwise good group. Having both a cleric and a chanter in a group means that the chanter can backup heal and secondary heal on hard bosses, which makes this an ideal combination for groups and is what most groups will look for. That means you will have to compete for chain gear with the Cleric, though, which can be frustrating if you like gear and have unlucky rolls. If no cleric is around, while not being able to heal as well, the Chanter is still a good enough healer even for some of the more difficult bosses. The reason for this is that, unlike the cleric, the chanter that sits in the back healing will still be contributing dps, armor buffs, and/or whatever is most appropriate for the given situation through their chants.

As one might expect, Chants are truly the bread and butter of the chanter class. While healing the chanter can chant to bring additional dps, armor, mana regen, health regen, and many other benefits to everyone in the group, although only 3 can be active at any given time and there is no lingering effect that would allow for twisting like in EQ1. As many MMO veterans know, good dps means less heals are needed, which means that where the Chanter falls short to the cleric in raw healing, they can make up for this shortfall in overall group dps, which leads to a faster and safer group experience.

Similarly, while a chanter's personal dps will fall short to the dps classes like mages and scouts, the chanter's dps chants make the overall group dps much much higher than if the chanter were to be replaced by a pure dps class. This means that the chanter might not make it to the top of the dps list but their actual contribution to the group dps will most certainly be at or near the top of any other group members if we assume equal player skill.

It is clear from the above that chanters are a group based class. Groups will want you and, in fact, you will want them. Soloing as a chanter is not difficult. Indeed, many quests are soloable that might be difficult for other classes since chanters can take the hits, heal themselves, and dish out decent dps. So why group if chanters are such a great solo class? Speed. The value you can add to a group as a chanter far surpasses your own individual capabilities. With you in a group even amateur MMO players with less player skill can still burn through mobs fairly well. Of course, if your tank runs around collecting extra heroic adds or your scout constantly breaks crowd control or your mage never assists and always pulls aggro then you will probably waste some time. Luckily, thanks to WoW, enough people have played MMOs before to know at least some basic group mechanics and this shouldn't be a problem too often. In the Aion NA beta events I have yet to run into someone that hasn't at least know some basic group mechanics. Still, as a group class it would be a good thing to have a bit of patience for when the inevitable happens. Good luck! 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.

PVP with an Aion Chanter at level 20

If you have done some duels on the way up to level 20 you may have noticed that as a healer you can do pretty well in 1 on 1 duels but range can be an issue. This starts to change at level 19 even when range isn't an issue since assassins will have enough stuns to take you down solo if they are good at their class. This brings out the reality that a chanter is not a good 1 on 1 class for PvP and you won't have much success solo especially since it can take a while for you to kill another player. You do have some survivability, though, to prevent from getting ganked but it gets more and more difficult to actually get a kill on your own.

Luckily, the chanter is a fantastic force for group PvP and that is really where the most fun can be had from the PvP experience in Aion. You will need an organized group that doesn't split up or wander off but so long as you stick together, your group buffs as a chanter can turn a group on group battle easily in your groups favor. If your group is heavy on heals you can also go into rage mode and deal out a fair amount of extra dps while still being able to assist with heals over time (HoTs) and can click off your rage if a friendly healer drops or if the enemy group is very well organized and is focusing on targets, which will be too much dps for just one or sometimes even two healers to keep up with.

As a general rule if there is another healer I will stay in rage mode while on the hunt to help quickly take out and/or chase down smaller groups of 1-3 players. When a group of matched size is on the horizon I will stay out of rage mode just in case they are focusing targets and the extra heals are needed with no time to spare and clicking off rage could be all the extra time it takes for one of your healers to go down. Since you will be one of the prime targets of their focus, it shouldn't be too hard to spot when the enemy group is well organized. Be ready to die a lot in these situations unless your group is equally organized and you have extra heals. A lot of the time, though, the group will scatter and attack different targets, which means it is safe to go into rage and beat them down so long as your other healer knows what they are doing. Of course, if your own group is also poorly organized then you may need to split off and heal one set or member of your group while the other healer takes care of the others so be ready if you are playing with people you have just met.

After organization, which is the most important thing in PvP, totals heals is one of the next most important aspects of group vs group wins. Either way this can pigeon hole you into the healer role in PvP quitea a lot of the time so you should expect to heal in PvP if you are a chanter and not become a chanter to do dps in PvP. You are a healer first and foremost when it comes to PvP but your chants still make you as much or more of an asset than a cleric for a good PvP group.

There won't be a lot of PvP in Aion at 20 but level 20 is as far as the NA beta events have gone so far. PvP starts to become more integral in later levels and there is a lot of fun to be had with a chanter in a solid PvP group rolling over lesser groups. More on PvP in later levels coming!

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.