Ok. I joined multiplaying a few (several?) months ago, a bit before Aion launched. I was excited about it, as were many of the members and contributing visitors to the community. As I recall, there was a bit of hype concerning the game in many other areas too. I know that initially spirits were high, and that eventually most of us fell to the wayside, due to various problems and frustrations, mainly the grind inherent in the structure of the game itself. Sure, there were issues with gold sellers and bots, but the design of the game, and its fairly open-ended grind, are what threw most people off the wagon. Eventually I joined another legion, which was helpful for both them and myself. We hit it off and got working towards endgame, and I recently hit the level cap. Hard.

At level 50, there’s quite a bit to do: you can either grind, or you can grind. Apparently the PVP option is to do as many fort sieges and instances as you can, along with the Dredgion PVPVE instance, to get as many abyss points and medals as it takes to get the high end gear. The Dredgion is available to you once you reach level 46. You get a  little button on your UI that appears around where the surveys do. Click on it, and you have the option to join a Dredgion instance with a group, on your own, or with a partial group. It’s exactly like the old BG queue from Warcraft. It will try to assign a healer to each group, meaning you might get a chanter rather than an actual cleric. The purpose of the instance is to get to the end and kill the captain, destroying mystical surkana stones along the way, and crippling the Dredgion. There are two linear paths from you and your opposite numbers’ entry points to the bridge, and there are many branches along the way where you can encounter the other faction team. The Balaur enemies in the instance are tough, and drop valuable crafting materials necessary for high level items such as your endgame sets. In general, it is often easy to see which side is vastly overpowered compared to the other, and in my experience it’s always been the Asmos, all at level 50, all in the same legion, obviously in vent, and wiping the floor with my groups, which are often not even full, as some drop out when they see how hopeless it is. Still, even if you lose, it is worth 1500 AP. Whoop-dy-doo.

Going the PVE route is not much better in terms of what to do. For the Elyos, endgame PVP consists of running Steel Rake in the hopes that some stigma will drop, or doing Dark Poeta, which is set 500 years in the future of the timeline, where the Balaur have won the war. The instance is timed, with a tougher boss and improved loot table available to the groups that finish the instance more quickly. The SOP is apparently to find a static group to run Dark Poeta daily, trying to get gear from the instance, as well as work on your high level PVE armor sets, Fenril’s for the Penguins, and Miragent’s for the Elyos. So yeah, you get to grind instances and materials for that. Yay.

This is a game, not a job, so the most important question should really be, as always, “is it fun?” With a fairly regular and dedicated crew of folk on vent, and often around to help you out, it definitely is. I myself play MMOs mostly for the cooperative and social aspects; I tend to play tanks or healers as these roles facilitate, and help others to achieve goals in-game.

Of course, it’s still nice to have a tank in PVE instances, someone that can hold aggro and is easy to keep alive. Sometimes, it’s tough for me to get a spot, as the group would prefer not to gimp their DPS (‘a glad can tank it-he’ll take one or two more hits than the cleric before he croaks, but he can, technically, do it’); I tend too do alright though, worry ye not.

I no longer get turned down for fort defenses, though as a templar- a wholly defensive PVE focused melee class- I do not have many opportunities to shine in PVP. I can still surprise a few ranged types by ripping them off my quarterback in a frenzied fracas of flagrant fisticuffs, and I have a few (quite literally) stunning  techniques available to interrupt spellcasting. Rogues, in both their assassin and ranger incarnations, really do not like being on the receiving end of a stunlock. Much less 5 in a row.

Case in point: I’ve never claimed to be a fan of the PVP, but occasionally something occurs to make me grin, or sneer, I’m not sure it matters which. Some lower level guildies (sorry, ‘Legionairres’) were calling for help on some quests in Heiron, a hotly contested area wherein the other faction can send players around 15 levels higher than the home side’s minimum range. We decide to kill some time, and a world boss, while we wait on a few other group members to get there. In the middle of it, an alliance of those penguins comes out of nowhere and smacks us around. Ow, but it happens, Oh Well. So we get the band back together, start heading back to the quest area, when we get an alliace invitation of our own. We chased the remaining enemy down, and somehow they got separated from us. Another templar in my Legion, our leader ( a Chanter) and I found them first, a standard gank squad of dps and direct damage freaks with a chanter for heals. All of their attacks hit us, and still we came for them; it had to be Nightmarish. Perhaps the theme from Terminator played in their subconscious, I cannot say; it would certainly have been appropriate. Two sword-and-board templars have a LOT of staying power, and resistances, and stuns. We were three against many, but what a three we were. The other group scattered and broke ranks, so after we killed those to slow or stupid to escape we hunted them down at our leisure. Judging by the xp and ap rewards, these little penguins were not far from us in level or in PVP rank; they were simply inferior, unskilled, UNFIT. So after that, I was pumped about the game for a bit more, and made the final push over the last few levels.

So the endgame of Aion beckons, and I’m not too surprised to find that it’s similar to most other MMOs out there; prettier than most maybe. It’s got encounters that are certainly not as well scripted as those from Blizzard’s workshops, but I’m still looking forward to it. Apparently there will be some addendums and additions to the game sometime next quarter…maybe. Who knows, I may still be playing it then. I still see Saia and Aniat in there from time to time, and I haven’t been hacked yet; that’s right, I’m one of the few.

Even with all it’s faults, such as bosses in instances that reset as your killing blow creases their foreheads (alas, this happens far too often), Aion can be lots of fun if played in the right company, and I’m still playing it because I’m actually enjoying (most of) my time there. So if anyone is still interested in coming back, I can give you…ummm…

Well, I can give you a big in-game hug, and not too much else, because I still stay broke most of the time. But I’m sure we’d be happy to see you!

It’s over 9000!