I started playing Aion about 3 months ago or so. Originally, I avoided this game like the plague due to the talk of how overall grindy and awful it is to level. If there is anything I hate in an MMO, it is leveling. Crazy, I know, but I simply enjoy endgame more. So, when I got this game (because it was only $20), I wasn't expecting to stay past my 30 day free month.

Let me say, I was pleasantly surprised. First off: The leveling has been toned down BIGTIME. Quests now give massive amounts of XP. At the lower level (1-30) you can still get several levels a day, at the midrange levels (30-40) you can still come close to 2 a day (and even more than that if they are doing a double XP event or you have XP increasing amulets), and higher levels (40-50) you can, as far as I've seen, get about a level every few days. My highest level character is 44, so I won't say anything about end game. This is primarily for new players from a new player's perspective.

So far, I have leveled 4 classes to 30ish, one to 44 (trying to figure out which I like best). The game seems to keep interest well enough, rifts allow PvP against people my level (not that this always works out... sometimes and really quite often you WILL get ganked; but that's the general downside of open world PvP!) and instances are set up in such a way that most classes do actually have a purpose (at least early-mid game. Not sure end game) and can usually find a spot.

Most importantly, for me, are the visuals. The game is GORGEOUS. I won't lie- if it wasn't for how this game looks, and it being one of the few open world PvP games, I wouldn't have started it in the first place. But I suggest you go look at videos on youtube for your respective classes to get an idea of what characters look like and combat looks like. (I linked the top rated youtube ones down at the bottom. Most of them are fun to watch!)

Will you get hooked? Honestly, I can't say. But for $20-$30 (this website is kinda off the mark on the price, I think) with a free month included, I'd say it would at least be worth a shot. :)

Top Rated Youtube PvP Videos For Each Class:

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Ranger: Aion Ranger 2.5 PvP

Spiritmaster: Aion PvP Spiritmaster 2.5

Templar: ??? AION 2.0 Templar PvP

Gladiator: Aion 2.0 Gladiator Raidou

Assassin: Aion PvP level 55 Assassin

Sorcerer: ShingXiao Sorcerer Aion PvP 2.1 vol 3

Cleric: 55 cleric solo pvp

Chanter: AION - Asmodian Chanter lvl 50 (PvP)

I played aion from launch onwards, and got my first char to 44 i think before unsubbing because of the grindy-ness and gear focus of it all.

But, i'm tired of waiting for GW2 to come out, so i'm heading back to Aion myself to see just how much they've changed it for the better. i'm downloading the client now, and am going to setup a new char once its ready. need SOMETHING to play lol.

already bought the initial 'box' so all i have to do is shell out 15$ to get it rolling again, here's to hoping its better!

PVP isnt really for me, but from what i remember the PVE was great up until endgame, so my plan is to take it slow on my way up, and maybe unsub again once im there. who knows, might get sucked into pvp myself.

Great post, OP. Couldn't agree more. I picked up Aion about 2 months ago and love the game. Leveling is not bad at all, I have plenty of things to do every time I log on, and pvp is a blast.  People who have overlooked this game, or perhaps left early on due to the tough grind, should do themselves a favor and check out Aion 2.6 and beyond. It's a gem.

Its a gorgeous game and fun to play. It only has couple drawbacks and one of them is PVP. The grind is gone and most of the community is good.

***Raises plunger in salute to the upcoming 3.0 patch!***

I played since beta all the way until a few months ago and then picked it back up for 3 months to just end my sub again(3 days ago). I have 2 55's. This is a great game with aestetics, really are no bugs. Quests are pretty easy. They added mentoring so if you are level 55 you can play with anyone who is 10 levels or more under you. This game has great PVE dungeons as well. However on every server the elyos own everything so if you are an asmodian this is going to effect how fast you gain AP. (Abyss Points) The leveling up to 50 is great and you can now go to the newer zone for the 50-55's they added in 2.0. This is where the game either sucks for you or doesn't. This is where the decked out pvp players all hang out. Elyos are always on the asmo side and they out gear them on every server. While you are out doing PVE you will be killed and not have a shot. These Elyos are usually the players who played from day 1 too. Even still there are fully decked out pvp asmos too. So if you are new and have no pvp gearno matter what side you play this is going to make the game more frustrating.

The reality is this game does not cater to new players too well. They make leveling up easier though with double xp every now and then. Unfortunetly too the population keeps going down down down. Mainly because of how unbalanced the game is faction wise. It use to be chock full of people but it has been dwindling it is down to 4 servers now and at least on israphel and zikel the populations were not very good.

Just my 2 cents. I am sure it can tide you over as a filler game until something good comes out but once you hit max level it will be really tough.

Aion: It really is worth a shit

^Fixed.

I came back after their 2.0, come back for two weeks promotion they had earlier this summer and I still just couldn't stand the game. Which is a shame because I tried hard to like it, I played all of the betas, even preordered and when it came down to it I just couldn't stick with it. I was subbed for 9 mos only logging on maybe once a week after the first two mos and realized I'm just threw about 80 bucks away to not play a game... Unsubbed and only looked back the one time and it just wasn't enough to make me pay them more money to play their game.

Will wait for the game that's worth a real shot, GW2.

I think Aion's a great game, unfortunately the required time commitment to be competitive in PvP along w/ the disasterous way it handles enchanting/crafting via RNG kinda kills it for me.  

Level grinding was never the issue in Aion, it was always the gear grind at cap.  It's an absolute drag.  Because of the significance of gear in PvP,  It creates a massive gap between your average gamer and a person who has absolutely no life whatsoever and dedicates 8 hours a day to grinding gear.

Games to fruity for me.  Tried it, didnt like the atmosphere.  Not the type of characters I can relate too.  I need my games with a little more grit, not lilly pads for umbrellas.

No, this game needs to go away. They offended me with their abyss faction pvp system and something that offensive is beyond repair. Definately one of the laziest follow ups to a good concept i've experienced in a AAA title.

NO.....oh my God, NO!

Aion = Fail, nuff said

I am currently giving the trial a go.  Thus far, I'm not impressed.  Besides having a very nice character creator and nice character graphics, the game falls short for me.  It doesn't measure up to other games currently available.  This one will be a pass for me.

Beautiful game for sure.  The negativity in this thread is over-the-top.  It's worth playing, for sure.  The leveling curve is extreme, but they've been adding content and updating regularly since launch.  I'm going to resub once 3.0 comes out.

Aion is fantastic until you realize that the home base (Korea) views the west as little more than some extra change in their pockets.  While the eastern version of the game get constant updates and events, the west is lucky if updates/events are ever translated.  The homemade servers somehow manage to translate things months before the devs do, again if they ever do.

If you're satisfied with being a second class citizen then Aion is okay.  Did they ever reveal why the fired the only CM who actually interacted with the players was misteriously fired in the middle of a twitter event?  I'm surprised that any long term players have stuck with the game this long.

Originally posted by augustgrace

Aion is fantastic until you realize that the home base (Korea) views the west as little more than some extra change in their pockets.  While the eastern version of the game get constant updates and events, the west is lucky if updates/events are ever translated. Yeah except for the part where thats BULL**** and patches are regularily translated and published with 2.5-3-5 months delay since release while events are localized in other form as we dont haveall the same holidays as Koreans (i.e white day) and same holidays have been conversed until now at the right timing and no actual player of the game is concerned about noticable longer delays or actual delivery of patches, which trolls for now near two years, half a dozen patches later still deliberately keep acting ignorant about and still try to make outsider feel concerned by spreading false information like you just did. The homemade servers somehow manage to translate things months before the devs do, again if they ever do. Except in fact, despite what private server owner claim and promote to attract user and some trolls make up to create arguments out of nowhere, they usally dont come even close to anything close to official quality, often not even readable quality and are devote of any official translations for new titles and names. If the ever manage to come even close fully translate the patches before the official local release either way. Leave allone if the gamemechanics even works yet and content is actually accessable. They took 1 year to come even near official status of the fort raid system, meanwhile the official mechanics of forts are changed again, and usually take half a year to make other newly introduced gamemechanics work at all or run playable like weapon merges or crubicle instances that still hardly work like on official servers.

If you're satisfied with being a second class citizen then Aion is okay.  Did they ever reveal why the fired the only CM who actually interacted with the players was misteriously fired in the middle of a twitter event? Stop trolling and stop spreading false/falsified info. The CM was fired before the twitter accident and then abused access to official twitter account whithout any permission nor within regulation of their contract to chilidishly bitch about the lay-off. That alone says much about that person and the people defending her.  I'm surprised that any long term players have stuck with the game this long.

I am always suprised how much effort and how far below the belt line some overzealous people go to damage the repuation of a game (usually strong competitioner of the current actual own played game) they often didnt even play, sometimes not even attempted to inform themself about. Even when the have to deliberately spread false or falsified information to make make interested people unreasonably concerned or shoo them away.

Best game u can play for 15 bucks a month right now good looking gear and graphics good community and alot of events that actaully give u good gear and items to get u money personally am finding aion awsome easy to learn how to duel with ur class with ur legion helping u i personally got good gear fast and learned how to PVP better with my temp..also this game is gear dependant but u can easly get gear now all i now is if u want to try the game fuuck all the haterz and try it out u might end up buying it lol so just check it out dnt listen to haterz or assholes that bandwagon with everyone.

Originally posted by manny702

Best game u can play for 15 bucks a month right now good looking gear and graphics good community and alot of events that actaully give u good gear and items to get u money personally am finding aion awsome easy to learn how to duel with ur class with ur legion helping u i personally got good gear fast and learned how to PVP better with my temp..also this game is gear dependant but u can easly get gear now all i now is if u want to try the game fuuck all the haterz and try it out u might end up buying it lol so just check it out dnt listen to haterz or assholes that bandwagon with everyone.

First of all:  http://robin.hubpages.com/hub/Grammar_Mishaps__Building_a_Sentence

I swear I was on WoW's trade chat for a moment...

I bought Aion when it was first released.  It came in a nice metal container.   True, the game looked great, the gear was very nice looking.

The immediate downside of it becomes apparent as you quest, you have a rough time finding groups.  Everyone is in a solo questing frenzy so they can level cap to pvp.  It was the same as soloing with others who are soloing.  There was rarely any chatter.   I found it a beautiful, lore-less asian grinder based around end game pvp.  If that's what you're after, then it's your game.

If you're looking for solid indepth lore, detailed talents, detailed crafting, or something that will take years to get mundane;  this isn't for you.

Downloading trial...

I don't know much about this game other than it was made by the same people who did LIneage 2 and I loved that game the first couple years.

Aion is a lot better than this thread would have you believe.  There are only four games I feel are worth playing atm, and Aion is one of them (the other three being LotRO, EvE, and CoX).

I get the feeling that a lot of the negativity is from disgruntled players who haven't played since the launch period.

Originally posted by dreamscaper

Aion is a lot better than this thread would have you believe.  There are only four games I feel are worth playing atm, and Aion is one of them (the other three being LotRO, EvE, and CoX).

 

I get the feeling that a lot of the negativity is from disgruntled players who haven't played since the launch period.

^^ Spot on.

Hmm well so far I'm rather disappointed by Aion.

It's nothing like L2, and everything like WoW... From what I've seen, it just looks like another boring themepark quest grinder.

It's also totally dead, at least in the newb zones.

No doubt it gets better at higher levels but there's no way in hell I'm wasting my time grinding mindless quests day after day in order to get there.