Aion Beta Weekend #3

[Erendis]

Came and went and I played it for the first time, successfully overall. Many thanks to Rhay for the heads-up on the key giveaway (and they were going fast) and for creating an european account for me to play. ^^

What follows is a ton of screenshots I took of my char doing various things and exploring various corners. So WARNING: IMAGE HEAVINESS AHEAD

I picked an Elyos Scout to start off and then turned him into an Assassin, at lv10. The playstyle is what you'd expect for a light-armoured, dagger-wielding character: lots of sneaking behind the beasties and then very quickly stabbing them dead.


Meet Romyn, he's here to act as eyecandy (I'm sure most of you disagree). His memory is a bit fluffy at this point and he doesn't remember his past, as you do.



Here he is again, showing off his assets... and a bit of random forest



It tends to get rainy in some areas. Romyn was not pleased getting his shiny hair wet like that



The quests ranked from epic to... slightly less so. Here Romyn is charged with dealing with mushroom-stealing pigs



At some point an ent helps you recover some memories and Romyn discovers he used to be a Daeva, one of the lords of Atreia.



Basically it means he used to have wings and had epic battles in the sky against the Asmodians



At some point in this 'life before' he went up against a rather fiesty Balaur and got himself smashed pretty badly



Luckily for Romyn (and us), he can ascend again



Which means getting pretty wings!



Of course, it also means leaving the starter area and looking good in different places







Soon it's time to find greener grinding pastures and new beasties to smash











There were some really cool looking areas, even with my graphics setting to low





Flying became one of my favourite things to do, it's really well done and it felt great







Eventually Romyn gets shiny new armour



For dinosaur fighting...



And then he flies off to Sanctum, a city in the sky, to wait out the inevitable server shutdown



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On sunday night, I teamed up with Rhay and Anya and started a tiny Asmodian Priest girl







We didn't get very far because it was rather late at night (Anya had all sorts of trouble downloading the client and then getting it to work), but I'm sure we'll carry on during the following beta weekends:

Closed Beta Event #4 - July 17-July 20
Closed Beta Event #5 - July 31-August 3
Closed Beta Event #6 - August 14-August 17

I'm sure more sites will start key giveaways in the upcoming weeks, so if you'd like to join us, poke Rhay since he's the one keeping an eye out for things.


Overall I had a lot of fun and things weren't too grindy yet. The quest rewards were pretty generous both in gold and XP and there were plenty helpful folk around to get you out of trouble when a hostile mob started chasing you. ;D
I'm looking forward to the next weekends!

[Varda]

Great scfreenshots, sis. It's going to be a bitch when the beta's are over and this baby goes into pay-to-play.

Like eri said I had all sorts of trouble with the client. My download speed was abysmally low, which made download take MORE than a full day (started around 10pm saturday night, started playing around 2am sunday night) and then there was trouble with FAILguard. All in all, it made me want to stab things.

I got to play with Rhay and Eri. Made an Asmodian Priest, since Priests appear to be really useful and be able to solo easily (at least in the newbie area) and I enjoyed the combination of smite damage and healing.

A very tall Priest


A birdy. I didn't want to kill them cause they were so pretty.


Not-quite Lothlorien.... But close enough.


A day's work is done.


Didn't get anymore screenshots, as I only played 3 hours or so.

[Rhayader]

wow, those are some really nice screenshots. you should have mentioned your graphics settings though ;D

i really liked the game, even though my pc couldnt handle it. i was running the game on 800x600 with everything set on the lowest settings, and it was still pretty much unplayable on areas with more people, or with a large "draw distance". but enough of my pc woes, i bothered enough people with it already.

its funny that you mentioned that elyos are able to ascend again. because if you play on the asmodian side you dont lose your memory. instead, your future gets foretold by a witch, and you discover that you are destined to become a daeva. wich makes a lot more sense than amnesia if you ask me. and it fits better with the ascension process.

i realyl enjoyed the beta even though i wasnt able to play or see much. but i got to experience the gameplay itself and i found it very satisfying. the world, the music and the lore are really appealing and well done. would love to play more and i cant wait for the next weekend.

thnx for sharing the screenshots! too bad i didnt take any of my own. they would look plain ugly anyway...

[Muppet]

That looks very pretty.
I'd have been up for some of that had I known. Don't tend to catch much gaming news other than what is in mags, and that don't tend to be real-time enough to mention beta events.
If ya do find chances to join future events let me know.

[Muppet]

Finally got me Beta key.

PCGamer mag proudly shouting about:
Exclusive Access for PCGamer subscribers!
GUARANTEED place in the awesome Aion Beta!
Thank you from PCG. To show you just how much we appreciate you......
Your Unique Code for Aion is...


Shame it arrived in the October copy, which was posted through my door this week (before shop release date as usual) - but a week after the 6th and final Aion Beta event actually took place

Stoopid PCG

(Though spookily it reflects exactly what I said about mags in my previous post)


Mind you - the online registration didn't do much better.
I eventually got a a key offer - but the email arrived at the end of the 2nd day (Saturday) of the final event, and only if I pre-ordered immediately.

Didn't want to play the stupid game anyway

[Rhayader]

PCG apreciation FAIL!

im sry muppet, but that is really hilarious. though i find it interesting that mags over there are released a whole month before. over here its just 1 week.

but really, i wonder if they actually knew what the code was all about, and when the weekend events were taking place...

NCSOFT also sent me an email inviting me to the aion beta, but required me to preorder the game. its kinda silly...

[Muppet]

Just had an email from PCG
Apologised for mix up - but says that Aion Beta will be open again from 4th Sept.

So if I can just find a slot to download the massive client, maybe I might see it yet.....

[Muppet]

Well, I did get itworking.
Been spending quite a few hours this week running about trying stuff out.

I made a Spiritmaster, here he is with wings and a pet.

(Random look from char generator - as he is only gunna live a week)
Enjoyed this char. Only avoided Sorcerer cos of reading how they are weak defensively so poor for solo play, and as I was not expecting company tried the Spiritmaster. Sending the pet in to tank really works well. Especially once you get the skill to recover mana, hardly ever need to rest between fights now.

Then I made a Gladiator just to see how they played.

(Yeah, she looks a little odd, but I was having fun with sliders )
Gladiator is also working out well. Once you get some levels up so you can whakc out some damage stuff starts dopping real fast. I imagine she will need some healing later, but so far she is soloable.

Anyone planning to play this weekend?
I'd love to party up for some fun, even make a new char playing as the healer or the damager just to see how other classes play.

[Varda]

Sounds like you're enjoying it, Muppet.

I played a little bit this week, but the game didn't hold my interest. I dare say that even if it was going to stay f2p, I probably wouldn't play it.

Except maybe to climb cliffs and glide down. that was about the only fun I had in the game...

[Rhayader]

been playing aswell muppet! im enjoying it quite a bit. add me, my ingame name is... Rhay
XD yes, original.

to be honest im a bit angry that i didnt know you'd be playing sooner. to be honest none of us said anything here on the forum. it would have been nice to play with you for longer. will definitely try to play this weekend, on my mom's pc! cuz mine sucks.

[Muppet]

Yes Varda - certainly not grabbed me to want to pay a subscription to pay. Seems very grind-based to me. Just keep killing stuff, or collecting stuff, or making stuff. But is a fun diversion.

Rhay - pick a server & race & time and I'll happily join up.
I just tried to add you as a friend and it said it coul dnot cos you was offline - seems a silly system.
Then I tried to mail you and it said I can only send mail to others of the same race. I was on my Elysean at the time so I guess Rhay is Asmodae. Again, not sure why they would stop people communicating in-game just cos their current character is a differnt race.

My current chars are:
Muppet = L15 Spiritmaster, Elysea (Verteron), Parento server
Tinymuppet = L10 Gladiator, Asmodae (Pandaemonium), Votan server
But was planning to try another class next anyway - Priest or Ranger maybe - so happy to make a new one wherever you are playing.

[Erendis]

We've been playing mostly in Kromede with Elyos chars (lv20 spiritmaster myself, Rhay is a lv18 templar, Anya has an abandoned lv12 chanter).
*Char name is Rend

I made a couple of chars in Perento, but they're Asmodians so I can't meet you. ;(


My enthusiasm has waned a bit now that it's harder to level up by running around solo, so I won't be very sad come sunday. Still, I'm willing to start a new char somewhere so we can all run around together at least once (even if grouping cuts down your xp gain by a lot...)

[Muppet]

Well, I thought it was fun playing together (while it lasted).
Maybe we will get together again tomorrow for a bit. After all, I have nearly caught up with my new Ranger on your server - he is lev13 (and a half) now Having a team help complete high-rewarding quests is certaily faster than killing hundreds of baddies as a levelling tool.

I got disconnected prematurely, so went to read the update notes about tonights shutdown. Seems the servers will be down for 2 hours, and then we will need to load a 630MB client patch to get back on. So I guess I'll be leaving the NCLauncer running overnight and hoping it gets it all (no guarentee with everyone else downloading too).

Hopefully 1 more full day tomorrow

Class impressions so far.
Spiritmaster
Really liked him. Was a great solo char. Rarely came under direct attack, especially once I had the spirit skill to keep enmity on it. And the mana recovery skill meant I could go for several battles without stopping to regen mana or health. The spells of the Spiritmaster are pretty powerful so I think it would be a great party damage dealer too. The spirit does not do that much damage alone, but there are skills to boost that, and the DP skill (name I forget) especially makes it more than a decoy.

Gadiator
Started slowly as a Warrior, was needing to rest after every kill. Once I got to actual Gladiator rather than Warrior the damage output went sky high. AoE damage too. Swinging that polearm around at multiple foes and seeing lots of damage is as fun as a nuking Ele in GW.
Found I still had to rest between fights though, or spend a fortune on healing potions. Where's a monk when ya need one!
The fact that the Glad can swap to a shield/weap combo and play defensively is also good. I imagine the Templar must be some tank if it specialises in what I saw just a glimpse of.

Ranger
Disappointing so far. As a Scout I was basically playing exactly like a Warrior but without a Warriors skills :/ When I finally got to lev10 and selected Ranger, took a bow, and then found they gave me just 2 bow skills. Half my other skills are no use cos they were melee only.
Then you find you have to buy arrows, which get used pretty fast - so best buy them 1000 at a time.
When we played as a group the Ranger actually worked. I could stay back as Rhay tanked and fire the arrow down, slowing the enemy and getting the odd critical hit for 300+ damage. So I reckin that's what they must be designed for.
Solo, it was nearly always more useful to go duel-weild melee - which means I would have been better as an Assassin. Cannot use the benefit of a bow range and kite as there are so many re-spawning mobs all around you just end up aggroing several.

So tomorrow - do I keep playing the ranger and see if he gets better, or do I start summat new just to see what it does. Not tried Priest yet...
(Guess that depends on whether you folks are around to play with.)

[Muppet]

Well, I didn't spot anyone around so I made a Priest/Cleric.
Here he is.


I thought Cleric was fun. A decent amount of damage, and a decent amount of armor (especially with chainmail+shield), and a goodly amount of healing. I found that the magic level must have been low at the start as baddies kept resisiting my Smite, so I boosted it with what I could find and that fixed it. But really I played mostly with a couple of ranged spells for openers then pummelling them with melee skills while healing myself. Even killing things a level above me I did not have to panic if a 2nd spawned too close and joined in.
I would think they would be useful for group play, as they can do either melee, ranged spells or healing.

I enjoyed that Beta, despite my poor PC struggling with the demands.
I think if the game was priced like GW, with just a purchase price, I'd be there. But it didn't grab me enough to justify monthly subs.
(If I was gunna start paying that I guess I'd have to try WoW first)

[Rhayader]

after the servers got shut down on saturday for the update i gave up on the game. its true that they extended the beta period all the way till monday, but i felt that i had already done everything i wanted in the beta and it would be useless to keep pressing on.
i had already tried all of the character classes in the previous closed beta. Templar is still my favourite. it really is a different type of melee class, with a lot of focus on shield combos. sorcerer is a close second. i had a lot of fun playing with him on the asmodian side.
overall i really liked the game. the enviroments are gorgeous and appealing, although a bit linear. too bad you cant fly anywhere, but i understand that its just a mechanic to force you to fight your way through instead of just flying over. i love gliding between areas and off a cliff. its really satisfying.
had a lot of fun with crafting too, even though some people find it boring. i wasted a lot of money on it though, but it gave me a feel of what the system was like.
the quests were my biggest disappointment though. kill X mobs, collect X plants or mob drops. there werent many quests that managed to offer something different and make you feel you were doing something meaningfull. i simply pressed next on the quests until a 0/10 counter appeared on the corner of the screen.