just an FYI, you really did just describe champions online.  I really like the PvP in this game alot.  It has team deathmatch gameplay and you can make your hero look however you want.  Nobody knows what to expect from looks, unless you arent creative and make a blue guy named McIcePants as your frost power dude.  Also, you do have to have a general theme to your character but after level 26, you have access to all superpowers in the game.  Also for "reflex skill" you can manually block in this game for about half damage, you move slower and cant attack, but it has no cooldown, so if you have good timing and read your opponents you can block in between attacks, and time it so you block your opponents hard hitters.  I highly recommend it.  It is a new game so it has some bugs/balance issues but they are making great progress.  The PvE is good humored and fast paced too.

actually its not pointless.  You get exp to level, points and titles that can be used to get gear, and also there are quests to pvp.  The first "arena" (known as hero game in game) is a cage match but there are tons of others. 

Its actually really fun.  Some powers are overpowered, but if you use your brain and build ur character right you will have tons of fun.

I have built tons of level 10 heroes that are very powerful in PvP, and sometimes I have built characters that suck.  You just gotta try things out and figure out what build works for you.

A biiiig hint is that most classes can choose a passive/self buff around level 7, and while its tempting to get another activated ability, you are going to want to get the passives.  Most of them give huge percentage increases to your role (damage, mitigation, crowd control, healing etc.) 

this game is great and is in no danger of failing.  People just need to stop think that if something doesnt make as much money, or as many subscribers as WoW its going to fail and close.

WoW is an exception in the genre.  MMORPGs do not need to make that kind of money. 

After playing the game almost every day they open it I am VERY satisfied with what they have created.  Combat is very interactive.  I had forgotten what it was like to have to move around and time things so much. 

Some things you didnt mention:

Some attacks let you charge them up for exponential damage but if the person moves out of the way it misses.  (very fun risk vs reward skill based option) 

Blocking at the right times is very powerful. 

PvP is surprisingly awesome, to be honest I didnt even know the game had PvP until I noticed that you can queue for both Instanced Missions and PvP missions from anywhere in the world.  Yes, you read that correctly, you queue for instances and they pop kind of like battlegrounds.  Its a pretty amazing way to handle dungeons/instances.

I also had a small addition.  I spent a good two hours this weekend doing some very fun, and nicely balance surprisingly, PvP in the coliseum in the main town.  So the people saying PvP doesnt begin til level 25 are missing out, because if you just call out in shout for a few people to come to the arena, and tons of 10-15ish chars come for some fun battles just because everyone is eager to try out their char in PvP.  I highly recommend it ;o)

thanks guys lol.  I tried Champions Online and I really didnt like the setup.  Cheers to them for doing something unique, but the episode/room base really didnt make me happy.  I like open worlds with places to explore and huge cities full of player and stuff ;o)

I just wanted to post this to counter some of the hate and stuff on this forum about the game, I read these forums myself and it did kind of ruin my fun the first time to hear so much crap about the game so early on.  I hope everyone finds a game they like, Aion or not.

Ok, so a few weeks ago I pre ordered Aion to play some of the beta. I played for a few hours and determined that I hated the game, and stopped. Now today, out of boredom, I relogged into the closed beta and for some reason this time it really clicked with me. The graphics are great, now with more localizations, its fun to get into the somewhat simple beginning quest-line. I rolled a mage and switched to Sorcerer at level 10 and I am really looking forward to the release of this game.

I know the major gripes against this game because up until today I myself was against this game, but as players of this genre, I think we have forgotten what it is we like about mmorpgs. The first time I played this game I clicked through all of the quests and skipped all of the cutscenes. I ran past all of the areas to where I needed to kill mobs. I didnt talk or group with anybody around me, and because of all those things, I really hated the game.

Today, after really deciding to give this game a chance for the day, I had a great time. I grouped up with some people level 5-11 (when i stopped) and we talked and tried to figure out the ins and outs of the game. The animations in this game are just awesome. I really enjoyed the way my character looked. The mini story line is actually interesting enough, nothing too crazy, but its the beginning of the game.

I only ever thought about stopping because I didnt want to spoil the game for release, and I am surprised to say I would gladly start over in this game once it comes out. I learned alot of the quest areas and little tricks. Hint, do your job advance AS SOON as you hit level 9, it automatically dings you level 10, I made the mistake of finishing the story quests first, and after turning them in I wasted alot of exp because it caps you at 99.99% until u job advance and the extra exp was wasted.

So overall I got through much of the game that the people against it hated. And I enjoyed it. At level 10 I went to the first major city and saw on my map Coliseum. So I ventured over to that area and zoned in for my first PvP fight in Aion. As I was exploring the scenery of the coliseum, a level 10 warrior zoned in behind me and charged me, then beat me down to about half hp. I put up my shield and used my new sleep spell on him, ran away a bit, and started to nuke him. I got him low, and he charged me again and broke my shield. I knew I couldnt sleep him again because I had put a dot on him to try and kill him, and at about 10% hp, I remembered I had one last trick. I spread my wings and took off from the ground out of the warriors reach and shot my last nukes on him for the kill before he was able to take off after me. I realized this is the "aerial combat" that everyone was talking about. Its actually a very unique mechanic that isnt handled similarly in any other game. You cant fly forever, so you need to use your take off and flight time very wisely to win fights, and I absolutely loved it. I hung out in the Coliseum for another hour, slowly more and more people started watching and fighting, and it was the most fun i have had in an mmorpg in a while. It is set up just like a coliseum in Gladiator, where people can safely watch on the sidelines, or jump in and fight for themselves.

And I was surprised to find that the classes were nicely balance, even at level 10. If a melee is getting kited, they can take off from the ground and glide over to you, and because it takes a second to take off, you wont be able to get away if they take off and go in for a slow or a stun. But if I timed my knockback for when they took off, I could give myself time to take off myself. Basically, I never felt overpowered or underpowered. And I won about 50% of the fights.

I dont really know why im writing this, maybe you guys could give Aion an honest try one day next weekend or when it comes out and find that you really like it, and that you just arent trying to have fun playing mmorpgs anymore. Nothing is going to be fun if you arent willing to let yourself have fun. I think this applies to alot of mmorpgs out there, not just Aion.

Cheers ;o)

No, this game has been out for several years, and has had a free trial for several years as well.  Most people interested in MMORPGs, free to play or Pay to play, will have already tried this game, at least for the trial.

I think this will mainly be my secondary game.  I will probably play World of Warcraft mainly for the PvP, a little side raiding.  And when I am bored of that I can now just switch to Dungeons and Dragons Online.  It is free so I see no reason to uninstall the game ever (500 gig harddrive ftw).  I anticipate many people will do the same.

So basically I dont think the free to play crowd will be flocking to this game.  I do think that alot of players that used to play this game will move back to it, at least part time, because it is free to play now.  As someone above me said, this game is easy for like... one level.  After that point you need to really pay attention and think about what you are doing, both in gameplay, and while advancing your characters.  If you look at other free to play games out there, none of them require much of any thought (Aside from a few rare exceptions).  Also they are usually very straight-forward about advancing your character, like you picked mage, intelligence is your stat.  DDO characters take planning and sometimes even creative thinking to make an interesting build, etc.

I agree with you, this game is very pretty to look at but the gameplay is just so boring.

They could not have been more basic with the spells/abilities.  This was the thing that really killed the game for me.  There is NOTHING new here, the most basic/generic fantasy classes, with just the most basic spells and abilities.  Things you have used a billion times before in other games.  

It may just be me, but I dont really care what an ability looks like the thousandth times I use it, I would rather have more interesting effects to play with.  As a Priest I have a heal, a heal over time, 2 buffs, a nuke, and a damage over time spell.  Nothing interesting to do here.  I tried some of the other classes, and the most interesting thing they got was "has a 35% chance to stun" LOL.  How could any developer think this is a good idea.  Randow low chances for special effects on an attack that is just a small % damage increase.

I hate to be a drama queen but everyone needs to stop buying and supporting every new game (especially mmo) that comes out.  NCSoft is a good company usually, City of Heroes and Guild Wars are 2 of the most innovative games out there.  But I feel like Aion is  a HUGE mistake.  Aerial combat is not enough to be the major selling point of a game.  FLYFF has had this and it is a free to play.  Not to mention the abilities in FLYFF are even more interesting.  

the gameplay is a cool idea but it is done in such low quality it completely kills the game.

Lag, and hit just not connecting fluidly really ruined the game for me.  Also the bosses had attacks that were impossible to avoid, so it was just a matter of potion spamming.  Also the classes are not balanced at all.  The graphics did seem nice at first, but after a short while they do feel kind of ugly and strange looking, at least in my opinion.

If this was reworked into a P2P game, and the quality was VASTLY improved it might be fun.

so what is your cause? 

what would you want cryptic to do?  Somehow be able to verify that you are truely a gay person and then let you use the name?  And how would that benefit them, or anyone else who plays the game?

You really need to chill out, and seriously think about what really matters in life.  As gay people we have so many more concerns then whether or not we can name our characters in video games "Qweer Cop".  If you really wanna make a difference go volunteer to help people and families with HIV/AIDs, or go help the hundreds of organizations out there still fighting for gay marriage.

You are just making all gay people look like stupid drama queens.  You really need to pick your battles better.

you arent doing anything?  what are you trying to prove?  You are just making yourself look stupid.

Any reasonable person would side with Cryptic.  This has nothing to do with whether the person is gay or straight or whatever.  You used a word against the naming policy in the game, so it was removed.  If you dont like that you cant use your horrible name, go play a different game.

Funny that you also felt the need to post this twice....

Honestly, get over yourself.  Not allowing you to use that word in your name is perfectly reasonable.  Should they alow people who claim they are a certain race to name their characters derogitory slang?  Stop trying to play the victim here, and stop trying to make a point out of something that is pointless.

are you serious?? rofl you are so stupid it is embarrassing that you are part of the gay community.  Honestly, re-read what you just typed and then think about it a bit more.  You used a name against the naming policy, and now you are getting all up in arms like somehow they are descriminating against you.  You are the worst kind of gay person.  You just like to draw attention to it and play the victim any chance you get.  I am a gay gamer myself, and there is no reason to name my characters (terrible sounding anyway) names like that.

I definitely agree.  I think that is one of the most frustrating parts of lord of the rings online. 

I have a 50 loremaster and 51 burglar and Mines of Moria has just be mostly frustration and tons of getting lost.  Unfortunately I took a break for a while before the expansion.  So Logging onto my characters now does not even feel like a continuation.   I am tempted to just reroll so I  can shake the constant feeling of just being horrifically lost and bored because of it.

I think warhammer has the best idea.  I mean roleplaying could even figure something out to allow this.  If someone asks me to go grab something for them at a store i have never heard of.   I would just ask them, hey can you point that out to me on this map (before google maps lol).  It makes complete sense that any rational person would want more to go on then "Search for the missing lore tablets buried underground somewhere".  I mean if it is that important for these people then I think they would at least be able to help you more.

I also had an idea while writing this.  What if you could take different difficulties before accepting a quest.

They could scale rewards based on how hard/easy you made the quest.  More information would make it easier, less would make it harder.

I do not think it is fair to say that all games currently suck.

But I do think we are all just really tired of World of Warcraft.  For some reason people love to say they hate something even after they enjoyed playing it for 4 years(like the end of some relationship).  It is like World of Warcraft has broken your heart rofl. 

It is becoming a problem that new games are having features that resemble World of Warcraft way too much.  And WoW might not be the origin of alot of these ideas, but it is the place that we, and millions of other people, already experienced them. 

Most of us do  not hate WoW, we had a great run, but even with the amazing new expansion the game is still WoW.   Companies need to just realize that if we wanted to play a game with similarities to WoW, we could easily just play WoW again.

It has killed so many new games for me, Warhammer, Age of Conan, and other free to play games. 

I dont know what game you are playing when that is true.  But in most good game that is far from the truth.  If mobs just stand there and dps the tank I dont think that would be a very fun game.

Most good mmos have different dots/AoE/Debuffs etc that damage everyone, and the healer has to keep everyone up.

City of Heroes is really unique and a good change of pace from WoW.

I really do not understand what you are compaining about.  Endgame raid gear is far from the best gear in the game. 

Endgame raid gear pretty much only allows you to do more raids.   The stats setup is usually completely useless for any other part of the game.  So if your idea of competitive is starting in the middle of Dalaran having much higher PvE stats than everyone else, I guess WoW isnt the game for you.

Your other options are

-PvP at your own pace whenever you want for the actual most competitive gear in the game....

-Craft gear that is a relatively balance mix of PvE/PvP gear.

-Run short pick up group dungeons and heroics for a very comparable set of PvE gear.

Did you play World of Warcraft like 3 years ago and forget to make this post until now?

I am just going to give you the tried and true best advice for any game when it comes to nerf/buff threads.

Play the class and then you will understand. 

Also pretty much every class has a detaunt, White Lions included.  So unless you are getting killed by two witche elves at once, you should be just detaunting them and then dpsing them down.  At that point they have 2 options, stop attack you and detaunt also, or try and dps you down still, which will most likely result in their death.

Witch Elves do rock if you enjoy their playstyle, which is basically all offense and very little defense.  But they are incredible difficult to play.  Most of your time in scenarios is just dropping a healer as fast as possible and then dying.

Although occasionally when you get a really unorganized and not class balanced order team you can tear a ton of people up.  But it has alot to do with positioning.  You have to go after people that the rest of the people arent going to notice.

My other advice is stop running around alone.  In a team game it is best to stick with your team -.-

Misdirection is alot more valued by intelligent raid leaders than you think.  Rogues now have a somewhat similar ability, but its nothing compared to how easy some fights can be made with a hunter misdirecting. 

In my guild we usually try and bring at least 2 or 3 hunters (vs 1 or 2 locks and 2 mages), because they do amazing (and safe and foolproof) dps, virtually never pull threat, and misdirect simplifies so many difficult pulls.  Also having a pet is another factor i dont think you include.  Alot of bosses with a random target mechanic are made easier with a pet sometimes taking the blow.  I know blizz has restricted alot of abilities from hitting a pet, but alot still exist.