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Aion News - What Will You Be? Class Play Styles
Posted by Dana Massey on Oct 05, 2009 | 31 comments in our forums
Having trouble deciding who you will be in Aion? Let us help you. Robert Duckworth runs through the classes and gives you some insights into what you can expect from each.
Templars are the best tanks in the game. If you decide to play a Templar then you will be tanking things at some point, there is not much of an option when you are the best there is. A Templar cannot pull off the same damage as the DPS classes, but they can hold their own and so should not be left out of a group if there is already a Templar in it. They have the standard tanking abilities for an MMO that uses a threat system: Taunts, a lot of attacks that deal increased threat, and passive abilities that increase threat from damage. My personal favorite tanking/CC ability though is one called Divine Grasp: your target and all enemies within 20 yards of your target are dragged towards you with spirit like ropes. If you play WoW, it is the same as a Death Knights’ Death Grip, except it grabs everyone instead of just one person. When wishing to deal damage they will equip a two handed sword, but the real essence of a Templar involves using a shield.
;)
Read it all here.
Chanters are able to resurrect. They get the spell while still in the Priest archetype.
To add to the fact that Chanters can resurrect they also have stronger heal-over-time abilities than the Cleric and, if diligent, can keep them up on all members of the group as they last for 40 seconds.
Very, very difficult to play a Chanter in PvP, the few snares you have are at the end of long combos and you probably won't be able to get them off on moving targets.
Finally Chanters press very few buttons as most of their attacks are long, elegant combos rather than providing many different attacks.
"Rigid Classes" Yep that is Aion. That is the problem with this game, few choices. Why is it players flock to games where they don't have to make choices? Where is the challenge? Seems to be the norm when it comes to games coming out of Asia.
Yep. Asia has yet to produce a fun MMORPG. I'm always amazed how people keep flocking to them, and then leaving in hordes. You'd think they'd learn a lesson, but nope, they just keep banging their heads against the wall.
Because with flexibility comes less choice. AC1 was a good example of this (as was SW:G), AC1 basically had three "templates" that everyone followed because they were found to be "the best" at whatever the player wanted to do (heal, deal ranged damage, or deal melee damage).
So instead of 8 classes like AION has, you end up with basically 2-3 templates.
Assassin's outpace Sorcerers in single target damage at the later stages of the game.
Aion has varying attributes on all gear (not just cookie cutter rigidness of wow)
Gear in Aion is socketable with manastones so you can customise your class to suit (unlike wow all gear is the same for everyone period Rigid Cookies AGAIN!)
Aion actually gives your class all the skills you need - without needing a 'Talent Tree' to make the skills effective and essentially fooling players into thinking that Talent Trees are a feature - no they aren't - the programmers were just to sloppy with your base skills to begin with
Combat in wow = click buttons and auto target and auto kill rigid and boring making pvp meaningless. AIon has a combat system for those that manually move during combat - ie. move forward +Attack -defense move backwards +defense -attack - Strafe you ask? Bonus to evade and Parry... again Aion is more flexible than WoW
SO if you want rigid unbending mindless class cookie cutter gameplay stick with WoW - if you want flexibility and customisation and competitive massive pvp play AION
To back up my fellow chanters yes we can rezz & have very fast ... HoTs < heal over time > the matra buffs we are granted are invaluable and i love although we are only granted to have on 3 out of 4 matras at a time, although each race and class was given their own kind of love, we Chanters can still be a Sub-tank class w/ the shield an mace even though we are not a tank ... If need be !!! Being that we can heal this makes us very dangerous tiny tanks. Back to the staff... CRIT lovers "staff is your only weapon of choice" @~~~~~~ The elegant love that is given to the chanter in my book is that we get to weear chain, an as for the combo's as were commented on agreed we can deal a great amout of DPS our skills are many but easy to master the speed of a lvl 19 Chanter's staff is GOD like. Most Chanter are of a "CRIT" base stat / mana stones 2nd comes accuracy & HP you will not find much need or use for more than 1 good size manastone of MP to be inside your armor! "As a chanter Gains so much mana in lvling"... gear: at least 2 sets of weapons... shield/mace & staff...... socket crits in staff and mana acc/shield in your mace/shield set .
< this is for grp party hunts >
or socket whatever you think works best 4 you...
BUT I FIND THIS TO WORK GOOD 4 ME!
What will i be you ask?? I will be one of the thousands that throw it in the trash, damn korean grind fest
Might want to add that assassins do more than burst damage they are considered the best single target dpsers.
noob.. go throw it away go back to WoW were you belong...
you can't deal with a game that needs intellect to play, not just pressing keys over an over you WoW players make me sick.
stay with your heads in the sand!
one of the best NOT the best plus EVEN as at lvl 19 my chanter was dueling ninjas and killing them less they were decked out in all crit and enchant stones as well as UB#R armor an were not Average players...!
a assasin does not and can not Even come close to being compared to a rogue in WoW that Cartoon game should be disbanded ! good night blizzard your raign of rule is gone on WoW !
get a better engine !!!
Nice look at the classes, I found it informative and interesting. But please watch the grammar:
“They are actually rather sore when it comes to crowd control, since they are never meant to be that close to the action in the first place.”
You could say “Crowd control is a rather sore point for them, since they…”
Sorry but it is not one of the best, they are the best or so korean ppl say, this is at lvl 50. Till that lvl I personally did not find them that strong but you can check youtube videos of high end assassins grinding and compare them to the sorc/gladiator (and I do not mean burst dmg but continuous grind), you will be surprised. It is easy to understand: low hp and armor, no cc and snares, ability to do one and only one role, single target dps, in other words the most specialized class in aion.
Yep. Asia has yet to produce a fun MMORPG. I'm always amazed how people keep flocking to them, and then leaving in hordes. You'd think they'd learn a lesson, but nope, they just keep banging their heads against the wall.
Hmmm wish I'd known this earlier. Why oh why did i waste all that time with FFXI? I really wish you'd informed me that it wasn't fun before. /sarcasm off. Fun is subjective. Clearly you have simpler tastes. Thats not a bad thing, but please don't go bashing games that require a bit of skill and actual input to play....damn, i fed the troll didn't i?
noob.. go throw it away go back to WoW were you belong...
you can't deal with a game that needs intellect to play, not just pressing keys over an over you WoW players make me sick.
stay with your heads in the sand!
Did you ever consider a personal control course?
And it was rather foolish of you to mix in WOW into the discussion of class design... Tank = tank in Aion. Don't think you will heal much in Aoin with the class discussed in the OP. Perhaps too much "intellect" needed in game to restore the mana pool.
noob.. go throw it away go back to WoW were you belong...
you can't deal with a game that needs intellect to play, not just pressing keys over an over you WoW players make me sick.
stay with your heads in the sand!
Holy crap. That's the dumbest thing I've read all day. Aion needing intellect to play and not just pressing keys over and over?
What Aion are you playing exactly? Not the NCSoft one I reckon?
And be honest, mate. You came from WoW, looking at your /spit post (No offense to current WoW players). Don't kid yourself.
Exactly, count me also. I enjoed up to around lv. 17 or 18 when discovered that otherwise pretty good guesting is over for good. Starts classical korean grind trash playing. Ok, still few group quests that can not be soloed. And do not wish to spend hours for looking for group for exclusively group quests. Got there with 6 alts ... and now stopped permanently to play once discovered this sad fact.
Some say there is at some levels for short still some questing ... but rest to end game it looks is pure grind.
noob.. go throw it away go back to WoW were you belong...
you can't deal with a game that needs intellect to play, not just pressing keys over an over you WoW players make me sick.
stay with your heads in the sand!
Well ... your intellect must be pretty low then. Aion is after around lv. 18 pure grind fest ... you need 0 intelelct for this.
I love all playstyles and a variety when I play a game, so I created all 8 classes and plan to level them up together. It will take a while, but the variety will be worth it along the way. Plus the game is meant to be played over a period of years, so maxing one character out in a month isn't a priority.
Guess that shows that I'm made for a sandbox game with a skill system instead of classes. I love being able to do a little bit of everything.
8 very different class choices is choices. Compare that to Fallen Earth which the community is raving about its skill system, and you only have about 4 real build choices in that game. I'd rather have the 8 classes, than 4 viable skill-based builds.
Holy crap. That's the dumbest thing I've read all day. Aion needing intellect to play and not just pressing keys over and over?
What Aion are you playing exactly? Not the NCSoft one I reckon?
And be honest, mate. You came from WoW, looking at your /spit post (No offense to current WoW players). Don't kid yourself.
not kidding myself of course i played it in the passed they destroy it with the 2nd expansion...
as for when i said key pressing .... meaning in DAoC and other games you had to think and use combo's in WoW you do not!
BITE ME !
Good article for those that want to try Aion.
8 classes is well enough for Aion. You wont be bored with them.
-Rangers-
One of the more interesting things to do with rangers is jump shooting. It is possible to run at full speed away from a target using jump turning to continually pour arrows into them. There are also a few issues with animation canceling on some of the casted shots, essentially removing the cast time and therefore allowing you to maintain your mobility.
The part about an issue with ranger animations strikes me as funny. So either all rangers are exploiting a broken game mechanic or its not an issue. I'm guessing the lack of animation while fighting was intentional due to the fact that if rangers couldn't move during combat, they would utterly suck. Just my opinion...
Nice Article...but I read it before, this is no different than Lineage II's class system.
It is just that Lineage II came out 6 months before WoW and all the WoW MMO players that started playing MMO's with WoW never knew Lineage Existed, so for me AION is like Reintroducing the Lineage II formula to the WoW players that missed it.
BTW you did not miss anything, it was a game that was populated with 50% gold farmers and gold sellers...gold in L2 was called Adena.
It had beautiful graphics, solid performance, no bugs, yet, the gameplay suffered, from a very expensive economy and a Huge Grind. Which made the community being very Greedy, and competitive even amongst guildmates, and that is never a good feeling in an MMO that is supposed to be a Game within a social environment.
It is also why I did not rush to get AION, got my lesson with Lineage II, and am still waiting to see how AION evolves, by the looks of it it is much like Lineage II...already has issues with Gold Farmers...was that on purpose? That is the real question, can designers from Korea make a game that does not involve RMT?
But I am diverging topic here, class system can be nice, it is the rest of the game that I have doubts about, and to answer the thread's question "what will you be?"...for now, none of the above.
So you're basically commenting on something you know nothing about, based on your experience with Lineage II, which is another game entirely, just because both games were created by NcSoft? Talk about judging a book by it's cover; ignorance at its best.
I've played both games, and I can tell you that AION and Lineage II aren't really anything alike. The only things similar that I've seen is the Power Shards, which remind me of soulshot, but aren't needed or really used like they were in L2; and the graphics, which are actually common among all asian games. The rest is entirely different. I'm not saying L2 was a bad game, rather I'm saying the two games are different.
Agree with this. AION is the worst ever for gold spammers. Since day 1 i got in average 3 to 5 gold spamming whispers per hour. And despite being in Korea out - as i understand - for a year ..... only after about 2 weeks they have at least added shortcut to block whispers. But no reporting. So one must stugle through complicated "help" system that never get reponse. Then I have reported *same* player (that was very pervasive) around 3 times .... yet after about 1 week after first report he was still in and happily spamming with whispers my other alts that have still not blocked him or even in general chat. Nobody at Aion it looks cares at all for gold spammers. Maybe because main players base are they.
But main reason I left permanently with 6 alts between 16 and 18 was when I discovered that after that level game becomes more or less disgusting grind fest for leveling. Up to this level however quests I admit are pretty fun. I enjoyed that first levels but lost all interest when I have discoved sad truth. Well ... I have not maxed out to speak from personal experience ... but have read from forums or chatted with much higher level players.
noob.. go throw it away go back to WoW were you belong...
you can't deal with a game that needs intellect to play, not just pressing keys over an over you WoW players make me sick.
stay with your heads in the sand!
ROTFLMAO!! I was wondering when the hysterical Aion Defense Farce was going to show up.
I suppose it hasn't dawned on you, that not everyone who doesn't care for Aion is playing WoW?...<rolls eyes>
to all the people that read my last out-landish hateful andd uncalled for post my apology to the community... as well as all other gamers aside from WoW, yes i played WoW ... i was trying to just defend aion as i like it and i think it has a small quality of DAOC in it sorta "holycow did i just compare aion to DAOC some one slap me HARDCORE... what i mean is the way we had to play in daoc was to use combos and not just single spells and ramble key pressing to fight !
forgive my rank on calling any one a noob it was a long night when i posted that idiot comment i shall watch the topic and keep my replys to the issues and topics of the forum from now on... by the way if the gold spamming and power lvlers keep selling their services Aion will be gone with in 2 yrs time IMO, sad to say but there is always D2 coming and cant wait fot DAOC 2 if it starts production... i think its on the table of they might do it, i did not read the entire post on if they are going to do it or not.
I CAN ONLY HOPE !
8 very different class choices is choices. Compare that to Fallen Earth which the community is raving about its skill system, and you only have about 4 real build choices in that game. I'd rather have the 8 classes, than 4 viable skill-based builds.
Even if that were true then you could say I want to be 25% class one, 60% class two and 15% class 3, the choice would be yours.
FE is all about compromise, there is no single build that is uber, every single choice give an advantage or disadvantage. For example I like high damage long range combat with scopes, but it makes me extremely vulnerable to martial artist. I could have gone for shorter range firearms with mobility but I like my personal style of playing.
You see melee people that depend on attack avoidance, melee that depend on psi buffs, melee that depend on toughness, melee/pistol combo users, snipers, gunslingers with veritable gun kata's, weird priestly healers, stout crafters, soldiers types with a ton of armor and heavy weapons and its all available to you through personal choices in how you buy up your skills and stats.
That being said; to the gentleman with the blue letters: Not all people like choice, sometimes it is just comforting to have things prepared for you so you can focus entirely on playing and not worrying about whether or not you make a wise choice. I think we should be happy that the same day two different games came out that in many ways create a wonderful experience for different types of gamers. Both Aion and FEs are great games but they certainly do not cater to the same audience.
i do not know about u but i am one happy lvl 30 rank 5 assasin and until now i had to grind 5 bars of xp , the rest i got from normal quests/abys quests/party quests , so the part with the grinding after lvl 18 is bull , the grinding comes arround lvl 35+ when indead the quests become harder much harder to do alone , but after 40 u get again manny quests until 45 or so , so unless u make a character higher then 20 u have the right to make an opinion about grinding .
The main thing with aion in my opinion is party the hole game is based arround that , party for xp ( loot is better in party too ), party for pvp , stay with your mates and u get higher faster stay alone u get to grind more material items loot and less armor/wepon items