Grind ‘em til you find ‘em

by Maeve

Every MMO has it. The Grind. You know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever played a MMO. That point in the game where it seems like your leveling flows at the pace of molasses in winter. Aion has the reputation of a grind machine and at level 27, I’m feeling it now.

It’s led to a healthy debate amongst our guild. Er, Legion. Some don’t seem to notice it as a grind. Some don’t really mind it. And I’m finding we all have different expectations regarding the grind in general. For me, I’m not really looking for fast leveling. I’ve never been one to be the first to max level. I’m one of those people who enjoys the journey per se. I enjoy exploring new zones and the actual leveling of my character. I like crafting as a diversion from regular game play.

That’s where I’m finding myself sort of stuck with Aion right now. I literally have four quests on my log. I can’t begin to tell you how strange this is for me. I’m an in-game pack rat with both items and quests. In past games, I’m always the one who has to stop to drop quests in order to pick up new ones. This doesn’t bother me because I’m a mad quester who lives for killing ten rats for ten gold coins. It’s more an indicator to me that I’ve already explored most of the content suitable for my level.

So what can I do at level 27? I’m going to scratch crafting off as a simple diversion right off the bat. Crafting is a definite grind in this game. Like, 4 hours of watching Bones and Family Guy on my laptop while doing work orders on my desktop to only gain about 40 points in Alchemy kind of grind.

Okay… what else can I do? Well, there is the Abyss of course. That’s the PvP zone for you non-Aion folks. I like the Abyss well enough. But what can I do there at level 27? I can grind mobs while keeping a watch over my shoulder for big red names closing in on me. You can get a group together and try to hunt down some opposing players. However, as others have mentioned, one of the main problems with the Abyss is there is no level control. Meaning, all levels can duke it out at any time. And you can’t tell what level the opposing player is. It is entirely possible that you could be rolling up on a group of level 40′s and kicking sand in their faces only to become a feathery glob of goo on the bottom of their hooves. Hmmm. What else then?

You can run the Nochsana Training Camp instance. People will tell you that this is one of the best ways to grind out some experience. It has an 18 hour lock out with a level cap at 28. Other recommendations are to run the Kaiden Mines area repeatedly to grind out experience. This is the most enjoyable option to me. No lock-out, no level restriction, so it is easier to go there with guildies and just have a good time. And that’s what I’m all about. Down side is it’s a non-instanced area and with only one channel available for that zone, it can get pretty crowded in there.

I’m not looking for easy XP or leveling. I’m just not much of a raid, rinse and repeat kind of girl or one who enjoys mindless killing of mobs over and over again. I saw a video of a supposed bot in Aion the other day. Sadly, I couldn’t tell if he was botting or just some poor player trying to grind out mobs to level. I do wish there was more content to experience in Aion at this level though. They’ve created such a beautiful world, I want to see more. Another zone with rifting to explore would be great. Another dungeon to crawl with guildies would be fun.

Sigh, for now though, on to killing kobold over and over again. I bet they deserve it, filthy kobold…