Are people who've left WoW and have tried Aion in beta finding anything new and exciting besides the new lore?  Does it feel like a new game?  I've seen vids and I'm afraid it looks a lot like WoW gameplay (except for the flying part). 

People are going to flame you for another WoW vs Aion thread btw.

But for me, it's been amazing, it feels EXTREMELY different, in a good way, not a bad way. Most of the attraction towards Aion comes from the very well done PvP in this game.. WoW's PvP sucks imo (Arenas and pointless BG's are boring compared to real World PvP that no longer exists in WoW). If you want a fun MMO with an amazing PvP game to it, you'll love this.. if you want PvE stick to WoW.

Felt like a different game for me, refreshing and entertaining.

Originally posted by Patchumz

People are going to flame you for another WoW vs Aion thread btw.

But for me, it's been amazing, it feels EXTREMELY different, in a good way, not a bad way. Most of the attraction towards Aion comes from the very well done PvP in this game.. WoW's PvP sucks imo (Arenas and pointless BG's are boring compared to real World PvP that no longer exists in WoW). If you want a fun MMO with an amazing PvP game to it, you'll love this.. if you want PvE stick to WoW.

So is the Aion PVE not good or just non existent?

read my thread here: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/241582/Ill-tell-you-what-sucks.html

 or here:

1. The attack chains in Aion are not only smooth and tactically sensible, but you have the option to hit the power's key that initiated the chain again to execute the next power of the chain (instead of hitting additional keys.) This not only increases efficiency, but increases your attack speed (reaction time) as well as prevent setting off a wrong power durign the heat of battle and missing an opportunity. Of course you have the option to assign the additional chain powers to individual hotkeys and execute them at your own accord. You can activate another power instead of conituing along the chain as well.

The next accessible chain powers also appear as flashing icons on the right side of your avatar toward the middle of the screen. You may select the one of these flashing icons with a mouse click instead of depressing a key for the same effect, the choice is yours.

2. The execution of powers or abilities are fast and right on the money!!! You will not experience any sluggishness or delay from hitting the key to hitting your opponent (quite unlike WAR for example.) Also, the global cooldown is very unobtrusive, barely noticable.

3. The abilities for each class are well thought out and provide a powerful combinations of tactics that make sense for your class. In many games I find that there are gaps in combat within a class which makes you dependant on another class to defeat certain foes. Aion closes this gap and provides each class with the necessary tools to survive many more situations than you would expect.

What I mean is I wasnt left stranded waiting for the cooldowns of my most powerful maneuvers in order to feel like i was contributing to a fight. The time between various cooldowns are well situated so that you can protect yourself with crowd control maneuvers or buffs that are purposeful, instead of just hitting the same 3 attack keys to win a battle.

4. When I play the various classes, I feel like my character is executing a balance of maneuvers, much like in a martial arts film. In other words, the combat is not only fun, it is totally immersive! The Templars perform maneuvers that you would expect a knight to execute. The Chanter feels like a staff wielding magical monk. The Assasin dances to the music of death and destruction. Each of the classes has that particular feel you might be looking for as a soloist or contributing party member. As combat options become available to you through level progression, the feeling that your character gains important knowledge and tactics becomes more and more evident. New abilites empower your gameplay with a sense of expertise and survivability. I never felt like I was waiting for a certain level (or a certain power) in order to, then at that point, begin enjoying the game. From early on I am able to enjoy a fluidity of attacks and sensible progression of abilites. I cannot say this for many other games, nor the extent to which I have enjoyed the combat.
 

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Originally posted by grandpagamer

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Originally posted by Patchumz

People are going to flame you for another WoW vs Aion thread btw.
But for me, it's been amazing, it feels EXTREMELY different, in a good way, not a bad way. Most of the attraction towards Aion comes from the very well done PvP in this game.. WoW's PvP sucks imo (Arenas and pointless BG's are boring compared to real World PvP that no longer exists in WoW). If you want a fun MMO with an amazing PvP game to it, you'll love this.. if you want PvE stick to WoW.

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So is the Aion PVE not good or just non existent?

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It's not bad, it's PvPvE, so it's fun if you like PvP while PvE'ing. But if you're looking for numerous strategic PvE encounters this isn't the right game for you. There's few PvE only fights, and those are Tank and Spank fights. Most PvE fights are in PvP areas.

The game feels like an upgraded WoW actually. PvE is very similar to WoW and PvP is better then WoW. Also there is a lot of PvEvP in this game where you fight both an IA faction in addition to the opposing faction. WoW does not have this. You do not have to do any PvP in this game at all however so if you are not into PvP you are not forced into it. PvP is a big part of this game though so you should at least try it.

You can start PvPing at any level by dueling and you can start PvPing in the arena at level 10. At level 25ish you can head to the Abyss and start PvPing there more hard core.

If you are coming from WoW or EQ2 or LOTRO etc. you will feel right at home here. The game User Interface is easier although the game itself is not easier.

Where AION is not as good at the moment is in content as the game is new. Obviously this will improve as they start to release more patches. They have actually already released 2 more patches on the Korean servers with a third in the works, but they have not made it to the rest of the world yet. Give this game another 6 months to a year and we will start seeing some major expansions and the content will catch up.

It certainly isn't casual like WoW.  Between the slow leveling starting at 6 and higher and the constant scrounging for Kinah to afford new skills or spells, I found the experience to be frustrating.  I can't even imagine the horror of it when things really slow down.  Add to this, the only reasonable way to progress beyond the 20's is through PvP.  Don't expect a lot of WoW players to even want to play this game, let alone stick with it.  I'm glad I got to test it out, saved me the box price.

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Originally posted by Vrazule
It certainly isn't casual like WoW.  Between the slow leveling starting at 6 and higher and the constant scrounging for Kinah to afford new skills or spells, I found the experience to be frustrating.  I can't even imagine the horror of it when things really slow down.  Add to this, the only reasonable way to progress beyond the 20's is through PvP.  Don't expect a lot of WoW players to even want to play this game, let alone stick with it.  I'm glad I got to test it out, saved me the box price.

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You're wrong... Lol, getting to 20 takes like 3-7 days (Depending on how much you play, assuming you're semi-hardcore and not casual). And Kinah is EXTREMELY easy to make, I had about 35k kinah at the end of the last 1-10 beta.. PLENTY of cash to buy everything i'd want. Maybe you were just very inefficient and bought vendor whites every single level you could buy new items and I have no idea how you felt leveling was slow, it's only slow after 25-30.

Thanks.  That's really good news.  I really want to like this game.  I already quit WoW a couple of months ago after playing it for a few years -- just got too burnt out on it.  I'm having a lot of fun with Guild Wars but am determined not to play another game past the burn-out time like I did with WoW.  I'll most likely be trying Aion when it releases if I don't get in the beta.

Originally posted by Vrazule

It certainly isn't casual like WoW.  Between the slow leveling starting at 6 and higher and the constant scrounging for Kinah to afford new skills or spells, I found the experience to be frustrating.  I can't even imagine the horror of it when things really slow down.  Add to this, the only reasonable way to progress beyond the 20's is through PvP.  Don't expect a lot of WoW players to even want to play this game, let alone stick with it.  I'm glad I got to test it out, saved me the box price.

LOL it sounds like you never played the game, you couldn't post more bs if you tried. Everyting you typed is completetly untrue.

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Originally posted by mcgee
Thanks.  That's really good news.  I really want to like this game.  I already quit WoW a couple of months ago after playing it for a few years -- just got too burnt out on it.  I'm having a lot of fun with Guild Wars but am determined not to play another game past the burn-out time like I did with WoW.  I'll most likely be trying Aion when it releases if I don't get in the beta.

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Same boat as me, after 2 expansions it's just the same thing, maybe even worse cuz the world PvP is gone.. just got boring and all the same as the other expansions since i'm not a very hardcore PvE person. Quit WoW in like February or March, but stayed up to date until I played the first Aion NA beta, then I officially cancelled my WoW account.

Originally posted by Vrazule

It certainly isn't casual like WoW.  Between the slow leveling starting at 6 and higher and the constant scrounging for Kinah to afford new skills or spells, I found the experience to be frustrating.  I can't even imagine the horror of it when things really slow down.  Add to this, the only reasonable way to progress beyond the 20's is through PvP.  Don't expect a lot of WoW players to even want to play this game, let alone stick with it.  I'm glad I got to test it out, saved me the box price.

Level 1-10 can easily be done in 1 day and money is plenty to buy skills. I really wonder what mmorpg experience you have which lets you feel frustration in such early levels. Is WoW so easy nowadays? As I played (2 years ago) I had the same levelspeed as Aion today. 

Stop comparing Aion with WoW. Aion is not WoW and will not be. The reason we wait so long is exactly because there is a huge difference. It's like to compare an apple with a pig, which is impossible since the first is a fruit but the second an animal.

Originally posted by Vrazule

It certainly isn't casual like WoW.  Between the slow leveling starting at 6 and higher and the constant scrounging for Kinah to afford new skills or spells, I found the experience to be frustrating.  I can't even imagine the horror of it when things really slow down.  Add to this, the only reasonable way to progress beyond the 20's is through PvP.  Don't expect a lot of WoW players to even want to play this game, let alone stick with it.  I'm glad I got to test it out, saved me the box price.

PvP in Aion does not give you any experience points, which is needed for leveling. Your statement here is incorrect.

Originally posted by injurer

Stop comparing Aion with WoW. Aion is not WoW and will not be. The reason we wait so long is exactly because there is a huge difference. It's like to compare an apple with a pig, which is impossible since the first is a fruit but the second an animal.

WoW is the MMO juggernaut.  All new MMOs will be compared to it.

I wanna try this game.  The OP's post is making it tempting.

Originally posted by injurer

Stop comparing Aion with WoW. Aion is not WoW and will not be. The reason we wait so long is exactly because there is a huge difference. It's like to compare an apple with a pig, which is impossible since the first is a fruit but the second an animal.

Actually to more like comparing a green apple to a red one....

Come on man even you can see both games start off the kinda the same.
Aion's differences slower become apparent as you level.
Are they the same? No, but they are still comparable.

Originally posted by mcgee

(except for the flying part). 

Haha...yeah, except for that itty bitty detail.

I dunno from gameplay much, because I have such strong issues with WoW's art direction and graphic style that I couldn't really give it a proper go, but I will say that, in a nutshell, Aion feels fun.  After a pretty solid weekend playing, I find myself wishing the next beta phase would hurry up and get here, which is a good sign from this particular cynic.

So basically what I'm getting from the responses is if you're not into having PvP endgame (which a majority of people are NOT into, I'm talking NA only), this isn't the game for you?  I also get the sense this isn't as casual friendly as WoW.  Remember, casual friendly isn't just how fast you level, but the sense that I can log in for a half hour to an hour and feel like I can get stuff accomplished.  Is this true?

Originally posted by tanoril

So basically what I'm getting from the responses is if you're not into having PvP endgame (which a majority of people are NOT into, I'm talking NA only)

I'm curious as to how you came to that conclusion.

Regardless, Aion has both a strong PvP and PvE offering. They're intertwined. Imagine WoW raids. Now give them a meaningful goal other than loot (ownership of a keep, dominance over the other side). Now throw in a bunch of enemy players along with the boss.

It's extremely exciting. DaoC was a popular game in its time, and Aion follows a similar formula.

The main point I have about Aion is that the combat is enthralling, smooth, and fairly balanced. There's plenty of good content, and good design. The game overall feels fantastic and complete.

The only similarities it shares with WoW are the clear interface, two warring player factions (albeit in a very different setting), and incredible attention to detail that made WoW (and will make Aion) such a great game.