I have 3 different characters in 3 different legions and I have been in the game since the head start.  None of these legions has declined in the number of people playing in them contrary to a posting above.  I have noticed that the stating areas are very empty when I have had to go back there for quests obtained at higher levels. 

 That's right Stunning Shot is at 19. I find the cd's a bit too long for a ranger on sword and bow skills. it's not like they are doing any amazing damage where they need a longer cd then a mage skill.  I am killing stuff as fast or faster with a lev 13 Spirit Master as I do with a lev 18 Ranger ; I take a tenth of the damage and I don't have to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off to avoid taking damage.   I am hoping for bigs things with a ranger but in watching higher lev rangers they really don't seem to be doing any kind of amazing damage.  They do seem to have a lot of shut downs against casters later.  

So up to lev 18 it seems to be a kite alot class which is hard because your targets reset  if you go to far out of their pathing area.  Meaning that you might have lost half of your health to the target and they reset back to full.  Using swords on things around your level means taking alot of damage and hoping that you don't aggro anything else to dirt nap you.  Weapon swapping is ok but you risk pulling aggro from other mops and/or your target resetting.   Also, the sword attacks and bow attacks are on the same cd which is annoying because alot of times you swap to swords and can only use auto attack, and vice versa.  If you like more challenging game play esp. for the first 19 levs roll a ranger.   At this point I am not understanding the longer cooldowns, the cd's  overlapping,  the lack of damage.  Versus casters; even a clerics damage is as good and the mage class blows ranger damage off the map.  Keep in mind this is talking to lev 18. 

 Yes, if you take the massive effort of spending 2 hours to get to level 10, like all the other experts on the game, it will be linear just like every other starting area in an MMO.  Once you get to about lev 15, which I know is difficult for most of the people who can't find the locate button, you have quests all over the map, and it's a large map.   You  can run around the map all you want at lev 10;  there is nothing stopping you.  You are probably smart enough to finish lev 20 quests at lev 10 like you desire so go for it.     

 Let's see you can have a "open" world where you have 5000 people trying to kill the same boss, npc, or pick up a quest item.  Mmm lots of fun waiting to try to jump on the object of your desire before the other 5000 nimrods.   They had a quest like that in S.U.N., and guess what  NO one liked it.  

You can have channels so you divide that number by 10 so you only have to deal with 500 nimrods.  Which believe it or not, makes the experience alot better ala Aion.   The number of channels become less and less the higher you level in Aion.  It was put in to ease the rush of new players which is btw hundreds of thousand which reduces lag, kill stealing, and generally makes idiots on here bitch less.

 Finally, you can slap things in instances ala WoW...Wailing Caverns, Gnomer, BlackWing Lair, Ulduar, etc... Those are all instances aren't they?  Where other people besides your party can't go in and steal your precious items? 

This totally "open world" being better is b.s. , well i suppose you can have 500 of the same boss cloned all over the map so each of the 10000 newbs on the server gets to kill one of them before the end of the day.   I think open world is a good concept but it has a place and a time in the game, and it's not when you have a huge rush of people at the opening of a game.  It's later in the game ala the abyss,  ala the old days in terran mills, etc.  It's not at lev 5 when 10000 are trying to finish they same quest,

As stated I think that the servers are going to be pretty balanced and NC is'nt going the route of Warhammer and Aoc by dumping a bunch of xtra servers out there.  They, by all appearances, are taking care to fill the 24 servers they have up.   I was really worried about the balance with such a seemingly a high percent of people wanting to play Asmo, but I think they have it under control.....fingers crossed.

Wait until you reinstall everything get the lastest patch and it tells you Game Guard is missing.  Enjoy.

How funny I get the game updated and now it says the game won't run because Game Guard is missing...please re-install Game Guard.   Umm?

I don't know how you can talk until you actually play the ENTIRE game.

Apparently Aion in Asia has a system which I thought was fantastic. As I understand it you pay say $15 and cash gets drawn from that only for the time you actually are playing the game.   However, I guess the rest of us get the typical rip off subscription;   If you go out of town or take a break you are still charged for time you don't use.   It's kind of like filling your car with gas, but the station comes and steals a gallon of gas out of your tank each night.   Guess what next month. even though your car didn't move all month, it's time for a refill.  It's a bogus method of charging that really shouldn't be tolerated. 

http://www.aionsource.com/forum/ranger/30337-ranger-faq.html
 

7.3 Jumpshot
While seen as an exploit by some players, jumpshot has been declared working as intended by the developers. It is used to cancel the animation of certain skills that would otherwise leave you immobile for its duration. This is a huge boon to kiting, but requires a lot of practice.
To initiate a jumpshot, use an ability while jumping when you reached the peak of your jump or are already on the downward movement again. This can be practiced without moving, but is more effective to maintain a certain direction.

 7.4 Movement Modifiers
According to the official PowerWiki, whenever you move into a direction you gain the following boni/mali:

Forward:
+10% Physical Damage
+10% Magic Damage
-20% Physical Defense
-20% Magic Damage (Note: probably typo, should be -20% Magic Defense)

Backward:
+500% to Parry
+500% to Block
-70% Physical Damage
-40% Movement Speed

Left/Right Strafe:
+300% to Evasion
-70% Physical Damage
-20% Movement Speed

However, these values are not commonly accepted, and it is unclear if they affect both melee and ranged damage, and both autoattacks and abilites. The ingame character profile does indicate the boni and mali, but not their respective values. With the limited confirmed knowledge we have about this matter, maintaining a forward movement while kiting is recommended in order to maximize damage.

A quick experiment on a level 23 Ranger over 24 autoattacks, no abilities, same mob level & type for each attempt gave:
average 78.20 damage while standing still
average 54.20 damage while running backwards
average 90.54 damage while running forwards

Of course the sample size is too low, but it should give a rough idea of the damage increase forward movement while kiting provides.
 

Pre 1.5     I believe

It sounds like you are ready to jump back into the crappy arena you left...lol little change.  Or jump into the new bg's for hand me down arena gear for your reward.  Don't hope for the entire set as you only get a few pieces of hand me down lol gear.   BTW if you like weapons that consist of a stick with thorns in it you will like WOTLK.  Oh, and you will recognize many previous things cut and pasted from areas in the original WoW.  Spend the cash and join the fun.

I purchased and loaded it from the Aion website.  It took about 2 hours on both the machines I installed it on.  The patch 1.5 through bit torrent took longer for me.  So far no problems with buying it online.

Here's how you play WoW and have a real life.  When an expansion comes out buy it and play it for a month.  You will then have the same or better gear than people that wasted the last 6 months raiding.  Cancel sub.  Repeat upon release of next xpac.  I think they do it just to draw back old players for a bit and to cash in on another 49.95 per customer.   They promise great things which generally end up getting nerfed/ watered down in the next few months.  Then  you realize the new awesome thing was just cut and pasted from a lev 20 area with a few different colored higher level mobs in it.   I guess their WoW toolkit only goes so far, because they make games the same way I did in their single player games.   

Every time they make a class or a spec "viable" they spend the next 1-3 months screwing it up. 

Looks more like they ripped off Dungeon Runners.

I found the people to be pretty good I got some random help when near death a couple of times and found I was getting buffed alot by random people running by.  I have found the people on betas to be much worse than live, contrary to post above kind of like the kind of people you get on test servers.   I made sure as a cleric that I was buffing those around me as well.   I actually saw  people waiting to kill some quest npc's instead of just running past those already there and wacking away.

Jesus,  Aoc comes out with more realistic but drab armor and weapons and all I here is the bitching that it's too plain...Now this?

If Wow is so smooth why is 3.2 ......Another lag fest as usual? 

I just read through the patch notes and was thinking what a worthless bunch of crap. 

Yeah, tuck your tail between your legs like the rest of these geniuses so we can continue to pay for games that suck.  Hiding in your mom's basement is the best way to let companies know that you don't support their business methods.