A big part of the problem is the lack of cooperation on my server. The Asmos on Yustiel don't seem to like playing together. This... surprisingly.... holds true in the abyss. I'm going to assume that everyone knows what the abyss in Aion is, but in case you don't it's the PvPvE area of the game; basically you hunt mobs in the same location that the opposing faction hunts in.
It's a riot. I'm honestly convinced that the Elyos couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag without using a fire hose and a chain saw. At 28 I've duo'd a level 44 Elyos. He allowed himself to be tanked so far that we got him down to nearly half his health. Why is that a big deal? My standard (aka white damage) attacks do 1 (one) point of damage to the numbskull. So it's all special attack spam. Then there's the fact that he could kill my assassin in one or two hits. He eventually did. Maybe I should have used my hate reducing skill on him? lol Back onto the tank with you, nub!
Then there are the (surprisingly many) would-be Elyos gankers who walk right into the guards or the lightening tower. Seriously? I think that I have actually lost count of the number of wanna be gankers who have killed themselves on our tower or on our guards. These folks.. they don't have a lick of skill. That's what happens when you focus on plowing through characters that are roughly 10 levels lower than your own: You learn nothing, and you still play like an idiot at 40+.
Yet they do have one thing over us: They travel in groups.
Aside from the odd exception, and thankfully I have had a few, I will ask in /say to those around me if they would like to group up or partner up. I never get a response. I ask for a group in the zone-wide channel & again get no response. Elyos (aka, the red named gankers) can be in our immediate area and they still won't group up! It's amazing. I kind of feel like I'm watching a sociological or a psychological experiment as I'm playing in the abyss because they just REFUSE to break out of their solo mind set. And they get killed for it, including ~30 seconds after I politely warned them that Elyos were just around the corner.
They weren't bots, they just refuse to group.
So... level 28 has been slow, yeah. It's frustrating, but I'll hit 30. It's not pleasant but I've had worse grinds (EQ back in the day, 'yo). I now have so many quests in my character's log that I can't pick up anymore before I complete what I have, so I certainly have enough to do.
By the by, the abyss has some very sweet XP from just about everything that you do. Vendor trash also brings in more cash. The fact that I can taunt Elyos is a bonus. 12 kills today.
Now about trade skills...
Wow oh wow, now that's the grind in the game! And a monumental money sink.
- Gather the items. Don't buy them, you need your skill up to do gather "quests" anyway.
- Two gathered items equal Item A. Two of Item A equals Item B and C. Numerous "Item B" and "Item C" are required to craft your item, among fluxes and usually a green item or two.
- Way too many different flux (colored spheres). Minor, lesser, normal, greater, worthy, blah, blah
- Oodles, and oodles of money. My last craft grind cost about 130,000 kina (kinah = gold).
Work orders are used to grind levels, but you still need to buy items off of the vendor to complete the work orders. This is what cost me over 100 grand in coin. It will cost me about 119,000 to buy my next rank, and then probably twice that to actually level to the rank (you buy the rank from the trainer once you reach a certain level and then you grind it).
This is the kind of craft system that I would expect to see in a MMO the first time that craft systems were ever added to MMOs. It's rough as hell and is as punishing as it is rough.
A lot of complaining here, so where's all the fun?
This evening, much to my enjoyment, I got into a very spontaneous PUG and we worked together fairly well to clear a would-be Elyos gank squad from the area. (I suppose it's redundant to say "gank squad" and "Elyos" together.) That was pretty cool. Short lived, but cool.
I watched a number of Elyos suicide on the tower and guards. I still chuckle a little when I see this.
This week I gave away some boss mob white drops in the starting area. This kind of reminds me of the Neriak newbie log in EQ. lol. Yeah, I retired in that game long before I retired the sub...
Inside reference: Someone pointed out to me that the guy's castle actually DOES exist. That was a, "Dude, cool!" moment. You'll have to play an Asmo to know what I'm referring to here. Now that said there's nothing saying that he actually does have the key to it, but the castle does exist.
My guild works together fairly well. They're MMO vets so it's all old hat to us. I appreciate this more after some recent PUG action both with and without guildies. A.D.D. + area filled with Elites = "wait, what..?"
Oh, I watched some Elyos in the abyss jump off the side of the floating island and die. Maybe this was on purpose or maybe it was an honest mistake. It's hard to say. Let's be honest, though. I did this once myself because I hit the space bar to jump and it activated glide, and there was no way back up from that (cool down timer for flight didn't clear in time).
Bum rushed lvl 39+ players tonight with my lvl 28. Thank you kisk for suicidal fun times (used up its respawn charges, but it was psychotic fun while it lasted).
Lastly, taunted some Elyos with the store. It's the only thing that the store is useful for.
It's bed time. Maybe I'll have some photos and videos next time. I'll have to test out the WeGame recorder with Aion.
MMORPG.com writes:
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