Aion's First Rick-Roll

No joke, it is the rick-roll song... but this is so much more amusing that posting a link and getting goobers to click on it. In fact, Ill just youtube the link in here.

Just watch, I lol'ed.

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Aion Class review: The Spiritmaster

The Spiritmaster

The Spiritmaster class is not the most natural path of progression from the Mage archetype. Unlike the Sorcerer class, the Spiritmasters of Aion no longer feel the need to continue on the path of pure spell slinging, since they've unlocked the secrets to forcing the very spirits of the land to serve their needs. Just because they may not have the full magical range of their Sorcerer brethren, only a fool would believe they can't deal as much (if not more) damage.

Strengths

• High sustainable DPS
• Multiple pet types for different situations
• Less gear dependent than other archetypes

Weaknesses

• Very pet dependent
• Hobos have better armor
• Slow mana regeneration

Words to live by
"Possessing a pet means never having to ask for volunteers."

Yay! I’m a Spiritmaster… now gimmee.

The first thing you’ll receive is your choice of a new weapon. Up until now, you’ve been forced to flip open a spellbook, waggle your fingers, and zap some enemies. Now you can choose between another spellbook and a new weapon type: an orb. There's no reason why you can't choose the Spellbook of Karma if you're so inclined, but the Orb is a far superior choice for the Spiritmaster.

A Different Breed of Spellcaster
If there were only one piece of advice I could give players before they choose the path of the Spiritmaster, it would be this; you are no longer a Mage. As simple as it sounds, there are still a number of players out there that treat their Spiritmaster as a Mage with a new toy. During your first few levels as a Spiritmaster, it's very easy to fall into this mindset, but if you do, it's only going to make things rougher as you go along. Your pet is more than just an added boost of DPS for you and the sooner you get that through your skull, the easier your life is going to become. For some players, this will require a leap of faith, especially since it's very easy to still act like a Mage in the beginning. Trust me when I say this is a mistake. Your pet is not just added damage. They will become both your close companion and your savior.

Whenever you receive a new spell that can be used by your pets, you'll notice that some of them have a list of the different spirit types and what the spell does for them. For example, when you first become a Spiritmaster, one of the spells you'll be able to buy from the trainer is Command: Thunderbolt Claw I. The Fire and Water pets use this as a magical elemental strike, while the Earth and Wind pets use this as a sustainable attack (it ends when they get hit). Another example is Command: Threatening Stance I which you can use at level 13. The spell has different levels of effectiveness depending on which pet it's used in conjunction with. It’s virtually useless when used by the Water Spirit, but extremely effective when used with the Fire Spirit.

The key to staying alive with the Spiritmaster is learning to use the right pet for the right job and being ready to swap on the fly.

Unleash the Beast
New Spiritmasters (and all pet classes from any game) have a distinct tendency to play in one of two ways. They either treat their pet as nothing but added DPS, or they take on the role of pet cleric. Because of the order that spells come to you in Aion, becoming a pet cleric isn't really a viable option in the beginning. By the time you do get the ability to heal your pet at level 16, hopefully you'll already have your own play style and won't fall into that trap. Avoiding the first is going to require some effort for some.

The first pet you'll receive is the Fire Spirit. This floating mass of cracked lava may not be quite at the top of the food chain in terms of hit points (though he is close), but if you're looking for a pet that's able to keep mobs off of you with its taunting abilities, there's no better choice than this guy. It's for this reason that the Fire Spirit makes a good first pet.



Since you don't have the ability to force your pet to taunt until level 13 with the Threatening Stance spell, this is the perfect time to get used to sending your pet in first and letting him beat on a mob for a bit before stepping into the fray yourself. Remember that the two of you are partners and his armor and hit points are far superior to yours. You picked the second to squishiest class the game has to offer (yes, the Sorcerer is slightly worse off), so suck it up and learn how to survive. Rule number one, you are not a tank, so don't act like one.

Despite that last sentence, the Fire Spirit makes a good first pet because you also need to learn the art of pulling agro off of him when you want to. Learning this skill takes a lot of time and patience, all of it through trial and error, but believe me, this is the time to do it. During these early levels there's plenty of room for mistakes and those you make won't be anywhere near as costly now as they will be later - literally. As you go up in levels, so does the cost to heal your soul and recover lost experience for the deaths you accumulate. The best way I've learned to teach the art of agro management to players for years (if they've asked my advice) is to play a game with your pet.

Call it Fetch, or whatever you want, but the idea is to pick a mob that's at the edge of your spell casting range and send your pet in to begin the battle. The object of the game is to time it just right so that when you pull the mob off your pet, it dies at your feet, only managing to get one or two hits on you, if any. This exercise serves multiple purposes all at once. First off, this is going to give you a very distinct feel for the way you and your pet interact together. You'll soon learn when you need to step up your casting and when you need to back off. It will also save you downtime. If you leave your pet face to face with a mob for an entire battle, it's going to take more damage than it needs to and you're going to have to either recast the pet or sit for long periods of time in order for it to heal. If you pull it off the mob too soon, it's either going to chew through your Stone Skin shield too fast (making you vulnerable until its cooldown timer is finally complete) or chew through you if it's already gone, now requiring you to sit for long periods of time waiting for your health to regenerate. On top of everything else, it's also nice to not have to move to grab your well-earned loot off a corpse. The effort required to master this skill can be frustrating, but if you put the time in now, it will pay off dramatically in the future.

You Still Have to Chuck Some Spells
Mastering the relationship between yourself, your pet, and your current mob is the most important skill to get down and although it can be rough to learn, your spells are there to help you. Unlike your misguided counterpart, the Sorcerer, as a Spiritmaster, you come into your power quickly. The best set of spells you get during your early career is at level 13. Chain of Earth I is a combination DOT + Slow spell which you'll use more often than Ice Chain. Be aware that they're both on the same timer, so if you use one, you can't use the other until the cooldown timer has run its course. My favorite spell of the bunch though has to be Energy of Fire I. The description would be hard pressed to be more bland and uninformative. It merely states, "Summons 2 energies of fire and inflicts magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you." Boring!

So how could such a boring sounding spell be my favorite? Because what it actually does is summon two glowing balls of flame (we got that part already, genius) that do over 100 points of damage *each* to the target. And they cast multiple times. These two little glowing balls of barely contained hell will become a central part of your damage campaign and are what allow you to create an environment of sustainable damage on a target. They'll become the best little no-named friends you ever had in a hurry.

As you continue to grow in power, you'll gain new Spirit pets which you'll need to learn how to play with. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but it's going to take time to master them all. If you make the effort, it will be worth it. Not only to you, but to your groupmates as well. Anyone can play a Spiritmaster in the early levels, but shortly before reaching level 20, you'll begin to see a huge difference in those that learned to play them, and those that learned to play them well.

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10 Things I wish I'd known about Aion

For all of you that didn't get a chance to play the betas I've put together a short list of some things that I wish I'd known before I started playing. You'll find most of this stuff out before you get out of the noob zone, but maybe it'll save you a little time by learning from my mistakes.

1: Bind Early, Bind Often. Obelisks, located in almost every outpost, are your binding location. A simple click and a nominal amount of Kinah will allow you to update your bind/recall location. Since there are no "graveyards" in Aion, a death will return you to your bind-point which, if not updated, may cause a long travel back to the location you were in.

2: Swimming is for the fishes. Your Aion toons are about as bouyant as a lead pipe filled with sand; if you decide to take a few laps around your local pond and the water is deep you might also end up taking a few laps around the zone while you run back from your death...especially if you didn't listen to point #1.

3: Bigger isn't always better (at least that's what my wife tells me....). Large characters will also have larger hit-boxes in PvP. The hit-box difference from the smallest toon to the largest toon doesn't make a huge difference, but every little advantage counts.

4: Maybe bigger IS better! Extendable weapons allow melee classes to double their attack range and clip those pesky ranged classes that are trying to get away.

5: Use the Express-Mail option, that's what all the cool kids are doing. If you need to get an item to someone in a hurry, make sure to use the "Express Mail" option. It's well worth the extra Kinah!! (It's also, to me, one of the best "unexpected" features I've seen in any MMO!)

6: Take a little time to stop and smell the roses...or the oranges...or the ore. There are a lot of quests that require you to harvest items, but if your harvesting skill is too low you'll end up either skipping the quest or wasting time in a zone you've already completed just to keep it up to date.

7: Looks can be deceiving. In Aion you have the ability to not only dye your armor but also to completely transpose the stats of one piece onto the looks of another piece. Just because that funny looking Asmo in the corner is wearing ghetto armor doesn't mean he's not the best geared toon on your server!

8: UI Customization: There are two "default" UI layouts in the options menu; both are full featured. The game defaults to what I call the "Aion Layout" but if you prefer something a little more familiar you can turn it into a "WoW Clone" UI.

9: Don't spend too much time looking for an Aion Profile for your G15 keyboard. This may change in the future, but at the moment Aion blocks all the advanced functions of gaming devices like the G15 keyboard or your Nostromo Gamepad, so don't waste too much time trying to find a workaround.

10: Don't trust your minimap too much. Your minimap has a radar that will identify mobs/players around you, but it's only effective for a 120-degree Arc in front of you; It doesn't see that SpiritMaster coming from behind to own your soul!

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Aion Tips and Tricks

Here is a few Aion Tips & tricks. Some of them you might know, some of them might be new to you. All ifomation have been gathere from mmOverload.com.

Enjoy!

• Roads aren't always the fastest way between two points. Go offroad! You won't have to worry about aggro (kill on sight mobs) until you get into your level 6 or level 7 quests.
• Remember that you can gather multiple times on each Angelica node, but Angelica grows throughout the intro areas, so don't worry about getting your ten on the first trip. It's good to get in the habit of gathering whenever you stumble across a node, since you'll have at least one quest later on that requires 15 points in gathering.
• Don't replace your chest or foot armor - you'll be getting upgrades to the chest piece soon enough, and foot pieces seem to drop with higher frequency than other pieces.
• Titles give stats in Aion, so be sure to have a title equipped. At level 10, the Raider Hero title is great for melee classes, and the Fluent in Mau title is excellent for magic users (though you'll need quite a bit of kinah to buy the language skill in Pandaemonium).
• Remember that you can switch titles whenever you wish to! If you pick up the Bottled Lightening title, you can use it during long stretches of foot travel then switch back to a combat title when you need to.
• Don't neglect your harvesting skills! You'll run into several quests in Verteron that will require you gather from harvesting nodes around the zone and skill levels will become obsolete quickly if you neglect them.
• Repeatable quests are there for a reason! Grab these quests every time you pick up other local quests for extra experience and coin as a habit. You'll find that they take little effort to complete but offer worthwhile reward.
• Get the ascension done ASAP! The quest reward, wings, and level 10 skills are all worth earning as early as possible. If you need to go back to the newbie area, do so as a pimped out Daeva.
• Most class skills update at level 10, 13, 16, and level 19. Save time by planning your trips back to the city at these levels or if you have the kina, buy as many upgrades as you can all at once!
• Gliding is helpful in quick travel but is definitely an art form! For the best results, travel using your Num Lock or auto-run key then jump from hill peaks or ledges then hit your jump key again, while in mid-air, to glide. You may use your mouse to control your direction and elevation. Glide is also helpful to avoid falling damage. Hit your jump key before you hit the ground to float safely down.
• Getting a little too crowded in your adventuring area? Change channels! Aion utilizes instances to keep zones from overcrowding and all you have to do to switch is click on your menu button at the bottom of your UI, hover over "Support" and choose "Change Channel". A box will pop up at the top of your screen showing you which channel you are in and allowing you to drop it down and choose a different channel.

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Aion Class Review - The Templar

Learn all about the Templar.

The Templar is the defensive power house of the warrior archetype. Unlike the gladiator, the templar relies more on defensive skills and survivability as opposed to a mix of defensive and offensive-based skills. With skills such as “Armor of the Empyrean Lord”, the templar is able to walk into many battles and outlast his foe through sheer defensive force.

Strength:

• Very strong defensively and has a lot of complementary skills that increase survivability.

Weakness:

• The templar doesn’t pack a great punch offensively. While the templar can hold his own and outlast many enemies, he can’t finish them off too quickly.

Templars take a different approach to tanking than gladiators. This class is built more for defensive oriented skills that increase its survivability, making it a prime candidate for the main tanking position. If you want a tank capable of taking a beating and then asking the enemy in a Wolverine-like manner, “what else ya got?” then the templar is for you.

Unique Ability and Divine Power
Templars also gain a race specific Divine Power skill. The Elyos get “Divine Chastisement” (deals level-based damage to the target and you can block all attacks by using shield defense for 15 seconds.) and the Asmodians get “Chastisement of Darkness” (deals level-based damage to target and creates a shield for you that absorbs 50% of damage and reflects level-based damage for 15 seconds.) Both races have a very useful skill and one that can help make them a very effective tank. Divine Power (DP) is built up as you kill enemies that give experience. Once you have 2000 DP, you’ll have one shot of your special ability ready to fire. This skill can come in handy for tanking hard mobs, bosses, or on raids.

While this skill isn’t as graphically flashy as the gladiators DP skill, it still provides a very useful resource to use when dealing with harder encounters. DP comes slowly so make sure you save you it for when it counts.

Combat
If you plan to tank the world alone, make sure you don’t leave the safety of the Sanctum without your trusty shield. Many of the templars early skills use a shield. Skills such as Shield Bash can leave your enemy stunned for an opportune moment to dish out some major damage. Templars also gain access to many skills that specialize in drawing the enemy’s ire, solidifying their position as main tank.

You get a couple of decent combos between levels 10 and 19 as a templar, but for the most part you will still be using your old warrior combos pretty frequently. Two of the five combos the templar has are reactive and dependent on a successful block before they can be executed, so in the way of combos, things are pretty thin for the templar until they reach level 19 when they get the new combo of Ferocious Strike – Robust Blow – Desperate Strike.

Combos:

• Ferocious Strike – Robust Blow (Gained as a Warrior)
• Ferocious Strike – Shouting (Gained as a Warrior)
• Block – Shield Counter (Gained as a Warrior)
• Block – Shield Bash (Lvl 10)
• Ferocious Strike – Robust Blow – Desperate Strike -- 19

Key Skills
The templar has an assortment of supporting skills that aid him in being a beast when it comes to defensive tanking. He has everything ranging from aggro enhancements to hitpoint restoration and boosting.

Note: Statistics vary by level.

• Armor of Empyrean Lord: Recovers your HP by 25% and increases your Maximum HP and Natural HP Recovery by 50% and 50 respectively for 3 minutes. In addition, you receive less damage when you are attacked by a PC.
• Shield Bash: Bashes the target with a shield to inflict 102-111 physical damage and puts it in the Knocked back state. (Requires a shield.)
• Taunting Severe Blow: Inflicts 77-86 physical damage on the target and increases its Enmity toward you.
• Divine Chastisement (Elyos) Inflicts X-X physical damage and additional Enmity on the target, and you can block all attacks by using shield defense for 15 seconds.
• Chastisement of Darkness: Inflicts X-X physical damage and additional Enmity on the target, and creates a shield for you that absorbs 50% damage and reflects 20 damage for 15 seconds. The shield absorbs up to a total of 10,000 damage.

Overall the templar is a strong class defensively. They won’t be breaking any speed records when it comes to killing enemies, but there is no one you will want to have at the frontline of battle more.

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Cleric Macros

I found some useful Macros for Cleric

1. Healing and Buffing

a) Buffing multiple groups with blessings:
Code:

/Variable 1 Blessing of Health "Rank"
/Select [%Group1]
/Skill [%Variable1]
/Delay 2
/Select [%Group2]
/Skill [%Variable1]
/Delay 2
/Select [%Group3]
/Skill [%Variable1]

Repeat this pattern, replacing the group number, for more groups.

Create multiple versions of this macro for your different Blessings by replacing the "Number" of the Variable.

b) Healing an enemy's target and re-select the enemy:
Code:

/Select [%Target'sTarget]
/Skill "Heal Name" "Rank"
/Delay 2
/Select [%PreviousTarget]

This macro is very useful if you have 2 off-tanks or find yourself in a group with people who pull aggro off the tank/s frequently.

Furthermore, you can still heal yourself along with the tank if you happen to take damage.

c) Healing a group member and then re-targetting your previous target:
Code:

/Select [%Group"Number"]
/Skill "Name"
/Delay 2
/Select [%PreviousTarget]

Alternatively, you can also /Select "Player Name"

This is probably one of the better cleric macros out there.

2. Levelling

a) Faster resting/Mana regen
Code:

/Skill Light of Rejuvenation "Rank"
/Delay 2
/Skill Mana Treatment "Rank"
/Delay 2
/Skill Refresh Mind "Rank"
/Delay 2
/Skill Toggle Rest

I use this quite a lot for levelling when my mana gets low. Of course you can take out Mana Treatment if you don't have powder.

3. Combat

a) Simple assist target and announce target:
Code:

/Select [%Group"Number"]
/Yell DPS [%Target'sTarget] selected by [%Group"number]!
/Select [%Target'sTarget]
/Delay 2
/Attack

Alternatively, you can replace [%Group"Number"] with the name of your group's main assist.

b) Cast Holy Servant and cast HoT on it:
Code:

/Skill Summon: Holy Servant "Rank"
/Delay 2
/Select Divine Energy
/Skill Light of Rejuvenation "Rank"
/Delay 2
/Select [%PreviousTarget]


HoT'ing up your summon makes it stay around for one extra attack (4 instead of 3 hits), which is quite good, especially if simplified by a macro.

As stated above, currently I have not found a way to target a previous hostile target, but you can just hit TAB to do this quite easily.

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Aion Class Review - The Cleric

Immerse Yourself In The Cleric

The Cleric is one of only two healing classes in Aion; both come from the priest archetype, but the Cleric is the closest to a traditional healer of the two. Armed with an arsenal of player buffs, heal over time and direct heal spells, the Cleric is an essential element of any complete group.

Strengths:

• Ability to wear chain armor, allowing for higher survivability than cloth casters.
• Powerful heals that when used properly can make the Cleric nearly impossible to kill.
• Bulk of their power comes from ranged abilities, further enhancing survivability

Weaknesses:

• Low damage output when solo

The Cleric possesses the ability to resurrect its allies which no other class can do. While the Chanter is more of a dedicated group buff class with strong damage potential, the Cleric is very much the healbot or walking potion of the group. Healing in Aion, however, is a very dynamic process and resource management is key to being an effective healer here.

Unique Abilites

Clerics learn a race specific Divine Power skill at level 10. The Elyos get Salvation while the Asmodians get Pandaemonium's Protection , a different name for the same ability that allows the player to trade two thousand Divine Power points for 50% of their maximum mana and hit points. Divine Power (DP) is accumulated by killing mobs or Baldur, it is not a resourse to be used lightly as it is not gained quickly or easily.

Combat

Solo combat will be slower for the Cleric than it will be for most other classes, but it will also be steadier. Managing your health and mana properly can make you an almost unkillable soloist with little to no downtime.

Clerics can initiate combat with their ranged spell - Smite. It deals a strong amount of damage and has a short re-cast time. Smite deals ranged damage with a two second cooldown. If you have pulled from max range, you should have time to get two or three of these off before the mob reaches you Once the target closes in on you, your primary combo attack can finish them off.

Combos

• Smite - ThunderBolt - Discharge - This is your ranged combo chain, both Thunderbolt and Discharge are instant casts, however Discharge is a random chance proc ability that deals insane damamge, if it pops up you need to use it.

• Condemnation - Heaven's Judgement - Lightning - The melee combo for the class. Condemnation starts the party with a low damage strike but it signifigantly lowers the targets attack speed. Heaven's Judgement is a stun spell, use this against a target with high melee damage and a considerable amount of health. Lightning is an isntant cast nuke that is great as a killing blow.

Defining Abilities

• Dispel - A cleansing spell that removes harmful effects from you and your allies. A great class specific spell.

• Summon: Holy Servant - A stationary helper that deals damage to your target for a limited amount of time. An excellent "get out of jail free" card that can really save your bacon when you get an unexpected add.
  

• Resurrection - The only class to have a ressurection spell. Standard rez spell, but at later levels you gain a group rez spell as well a summon and rez spell for wipe recovery.

• Rebirth - The ability to self rez! lasts thirty minutes and has a thirty minute cooldown. The ultimate weapon in wipe recovery and an amazing tool that vittually assures you a never ending demand for your services.

• Reverse Condition - A mana tap that allows you to swap your current mana and health levels. used properly this spell will make you a casting powerhouse.

Overall the Cleric is a great class for those that want to be the cornerstone of a group as well a capable solo class. Most long time MMO healers will gravitate towards this class as it fits with the standard defenition of the genre. The Aion Cleric is an amazing blend of some of the best traits of all the healing classes seen currently in MMOGs and with the advanced combat chains and ability to wear chain mail armor they are certainly one of the most fun to play.

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Altgarde Fortress shortcut

This is an instructive vid that shows a shortcut between Altgarde Fortress and the road just east of the Impetusium. It's like a valley in the mountains between them. However this is not made on purpose by the developers and i was quite lucky to find it. It can be quite tricky the first try but after 1-3 tries anyone should be able to do it Made in Windows movie maker so you'll have to excuse the quality. Recorded on Aion CB6. Good luck and have fun playing Aion!

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