Fin~

Well, this day had to happen. I just didn't expect it to happen so... quickly. The three of us have now all cancelled our subscriptions. I intended to stay with it until 50, but I'm having huge motivation problems even just logging in.

I won't launch into what I think is wrong with the game... either you already know, or you're too low level to know... all that really needs to be said is that the game turns into something ugly after level 35 or so. I don't want to put anyone off buying Aion as it's entertained me for two months, a bragging right that most games could never claim, so it's definitely worth the purchase. In perhaps a year or so, the game will be fit for release.

Until then... adios!

I will bite no longer.

Scooby Doo

Where are you?

Mah latest PvP vid 11/13/09 by Zot
Sorcery VII 11/9/09 by Zot
I heard you like wings... 11/8/09 by Zot
Zot vs. Hentai 11/3/09 by Zot

Come on, Tora and Lewin... lazy :p

Mah latest PvP vid

My latest work, this is a compilation of PvP fights from when I was level 42 through 45. Most match ups have the odds stacked against me. Once again, Vegas kicks arse. I think this is the best vid I've made so far :). Click through for the best version.



I've also uh... submitted it... to Aionmovies.com. It's a confusing website and first impressions = it's gonna be worse than YT to publish to. Oh well, do everything once. When it's approved or whatever, I'll edit this post.

Update: It took four days, but Aionmovies finally "approved" it. Clicky here to view at aionmovies.com. The one saving grace about that website is that you can download the movie to HDD.

Sorcery VII

Just kidding, I don't fear gladiators. Ah hah hah.. hah...

It has perhaps been to long since I last graced this blog with my ravings. Perhaps I have simply become too sedentary, the grind of the 40's distorting my perception of reality to think that it normally takes a week of laborious, uninteresting work to get anything done. Or perhaps whenever I think of creating something, my massive unsorted fraps folder immediately springs to mind, putting me off for the rest of the day. But here I am on this fine sunday night... err... monday morning, my desire for Aion sated and usual website haunts depleted, spurred on by an appreciative forum dweller into completing part seven of my ramblomatic column... so let's get to it!

Last week I dropped some pointers about fighting the first four classes on the list: Temps, Glads, 'Sins and Rangers. Today I shall go into fighting Clerics, Chanters, Spirit Masters... and other Sorcerers. Please note that while I PvP a lot, I probably haven't seen the best my realm has to offer and thus my danger-ratings of various classes may be a tad off. In addition, this doesn't cover level differences. Onto the flesh!


vs. Clerics

Clerics are tricky. Depending on the situation, they're either nuts you just need to put some elbow grease into cracking, or inevitable death from above. What are the various situations, you might ask?

Cleric on the ground

Expect the cleric to run, if not immediately then towards the end of the fight. Scroll down to Cleric on the run when this happens ;). Standing there blasting spells won't win this fight for you. You can approach this one of two ways: the usual CC-burst combo with a dash of silence and some conventional spell-slinging to finish, or get in close for wind weaving. Make sure to insert silence and slow into your weaving to prevent running. If silence is unavailable and the cleric doesn't run, wind weaving will outdps their heals. This is a very one-sided fight; the hardest part is keeping the cleric still.


Cleric in a group

Typically a grouped cleric won't try to run, making that aspect of the fight easier, but the issue here isn't the cleric: if you want to kill him, you're going to have to somehow survive the damage and lock downs of his buddies. If you're grouped, great. End of guide -- I'm not going into that aspect of PvP... yet! As a solo sorcerer, your options here are limited. If the cleric's buddy is a ranged class or healer, consider bailing. If it's a melee class then it's not so bad.

The tactics here are essentially running in, CCing the friend with tree/sleep/snares and obliterating the cleric with wind weaving/aether's hold as fast as humanly possible. If the CC breaks then don't bother reapplying -- you'll want to drop the cleric ASAP. If the other class is squishy (scout/mage/possibly chanter) you could do it the other way around: tree the cleric, silence when tree breaks (faster than sleep).

Fun to pull off when it works. Embarrassing when it doesn't -- I've only ever managed to win against a cleric-ranger combo once. An element of luck is required (bad cleric? cleric not paying attention to partner's debuffs? bad partner? huge element of surprise? them not taking a single sorcerer seriously?).


Cleric in the air

A skilled flying cleric can give you a real test of skill. Their tactic essentially is to DoT you and run around dispelling/healing themselves. You will have exceptional difficulty getting in range to do the DPS required to bring a cleric down as they can dispel all of your snares and flying's increased speed makes your 25m-range a lot shorter than you'd like.

Something that works for me is to snare them with Frost or Root to buy a couple seconds of catch-up time, during which you silence them and cast your remaining instant snare while closing the distance for either a tree-inferno-shock or going straight into wind weaving.

As with a grounded cleric, if they stop to use their most powerful heals in such a setting, you can close in for wind weaving which, hopefully, seals your victory -- you should be able to out-DPS their healing.


Cleric on the run

As with a flying cleric, an instant snare followed by silence and another instant snare allows you to gain some distance. It's not as difficult as fighting a flying cleric though, as your 25m range counts for more. At any point if you feel confident you can get it off, try for a tree. Aether's Hold, if available, is excellent for putting a panicking cleric into stand-still-and-heal mode.

You'll want to catch them fast though, as their root is on a ten-second cooldown.


Cleric on the run, in the air

Good luck catching that thing. A flying cleric can dispel all of your snares and fly out of range of almost all your cast time spells while healing any incidental damage you manage to do to him. If you're Asmo, you might have some luck with Boon of Quickness combined with an unrecoverable snary-silency-piece-of-burst, but us bleached ravens (to appropriate a Nezekan legion name) really have to hope it's a crappy cleric!

And on to general tips...

• Clerics have short duration shields such as Blessed Shield. It's not much of an issue -- it's essentially just a preemptive heal -- but it will block an Aether's Hold attempt, so watch their buffs!
• While a cleric will open with damaging attacks, they usually won't be in a position to recast them if you keep on them. They may not hurt as much as your attacks... but then, you can't heal. Offense is your best defense.
• If a cleric gets to that panicky stage where they feel compelled to stand still to cast their best heals on themselves, you will probably kill them.
• In flying group PvP, consider CCing the cleric instead of targeting them first. They are an absolute bitch to catch!
• Their 4000 DP ability is rather nasty. Fortunately, you can dispel it with a potion.
• Difficulty: Low.
• Difficulty to kill: Medium-Impossible depending on circumstance.

vs Chanters

After that mammoth of white space dedicated to the Cleric class, this should be refreshing. Chanters can only heal if standing still, and to less of an extent than a cleric: wind weaving will result in a quick chanter death, especially if you weave silence in. If you need to kill one quick, Aether's Hold works in a pinch.

• Difficulty: Free Kill

In all seriousness though, look out for them if you have your shield down: their crits can knock you down, interrupting what you were reading or popping your monocle.

And I do have a monocle.

vs Spirit Masters

Spirit Masters are the huntards of Aion, but fortunately one of the less common classes. It is difficult to find an SM that knows how to hold a tome the right way up. In most circumstances you will find these creatures and paste them into the ground very quickly while laughing (until the dot tick interrupts your animation). But do not underestimate... Spirit Masters are one of the most powerful solo PvP classes, if not the most powerful, and if by chance you do run into an SM that doesn't suck... be afraid. Well, you won't need to put any special effort into being afraid... the SM has you covered. (Un)fortunately for me, I haven't run into the best SMs on my server in a 1v1 setting, but I've still run into enough not-shit examples to give some valuable pointers.

What makes them so powerful? A few major abilities stand from the rest:

• They can dispel your buffs... this includes your shield.
• Most of their damage is DoT-based, which bypasses your shield anyway.
• Fear is a godly CC -- imagine if Sleep didn't increase Elemental Resistance or break on damage and you have Fear. They have three spells which has this effect, for 14 (lucky) to 41 (unlucky) total seconds of taking full damage while being able to do nothing.
  

Fear is somewhat mitigated by two factors: an SM's damage is limited and you move constantly away from them while affected by it. It's classified as a mental debuff, meaning it is dispellable, but only by a cleric who knows you're feared (most go straight for the physical dispel when they see a green health bar).

The general tactic here is to inflict massive amounts of damage on them and locking down their casts as often as humanly possible.

• Open with tree and cast inferno when there's 3.5 seconds remaining, or vaizel's wisdom+tree+DB+inferno (make sure to include a half second gap between DB and inferno when using Vaizel's wisdom or the inferno will clip the tree before it breaks, doing pitiful damage). The goal here isn't just damage, it's to kill the SM's shield.
• Follow with silence, or if you want to risk it, Ice Chain + silence to lower his mobility (an important psychological effect in PvP aside from its practical uses). Expect him to use his dispel potion here.
• When his shield is down, Ice Chain + Frozen Blast to get your stun in and/or Sleep+Aether's Hold. Don't be afraid to break sleep with AH's initial damage; the subsequent pew pew laser hits will do full damage.
  
• Close the gap asap (preferably when you tree him) for freezing wind weaving.
• Most SMs have their own silence spell (it's a Stigma); save your dispel potion cooldowns for this. Recast your silence whenever it's off cooldown.
  
• You can expect them to eventually fear you. If they're any good, it'll be a chain fear. At level 42+ they have an instant fear, too. There's nothing you can do when this happens, just hope you'll ride it out.
  
• Blind Leap between/before fears to help trip him up.
• This is a perfect example of a PvP situation where stacking HP or MR is the vastly superior choice (I'm going to try stacked MB though one day, for the hell of it xD).
  
• While you can reapply tree/sleep mid battle for a burst wind up or Aether's Hold, make sure you do it quickly -- their DoTs are still in effect and you're giving his abilities a chance to cool down.
  
• Their pet constitutes a lot of their damage. Many abilities of theirs can only be done via their pet. But don't attack it; rather, just root it out of the way or tank it. Don't waste precious seconds and cooldowns on tree/sleep.
• Wind weaving's exceptional DPS really shines versus an SM, but be aware that they have a 1.5 second cast point blank AoE fear (an essential SM stigma ability). Be ready to blind leap out of range. Don't let this put you off wind weaving an SM, though... even if leap is off cooldown or you're not fast enough, the exceptional damage of weaving will often interrupt such spells.
• When your shield is dispelled but off cooldown, wait a couple of seconds then reapply it. Their dispel has a cooldown and chances are they won't even notice the reapplication due to DoT damage bypassing it.
  
• Ground Difficulty: Medium-Hard.
• Air Difficulty: Hard. An SM in the air can DoT you up and simply fly out of range. They're at least easier to catch than a cleric, though. No Aether's Hold.

vs Sorcerers

The fairest fight you could possibly imagine and also one of the most fun.

The first thing to realise is that you're probably both going to open with the same thing: Tree and Inferno. It's a good opener; as long as their shield remains up you are unable to Aether's Hold or Shock them. The issue is getting that opener! If you are both aware to the other's presence, you'll probably just end up treeing each other at the same time. If this happens, a good tactic is to Soul Freeze the instant you come out of it then follow into a few seconds of weaving before backing off (they can do the same thing back to you) or sleep + inferno.

Of course, such fights are very fluid; a dispel potion blows the above tactic out of the water for example. One method of securing your tree before them is to backleap into them before they are in range of you, causing them to untarget you. In such a situation you can even opt for a Sleep opener if you plan on needing another CC burst later.

• If silenced, run out of range or if you can't or are too close, use a dispel potion. If you've saved Leap and aren't too close to him, you can use that to avoid the silence entirely (or get some distance to walk it off).
• Freezing wind is, as usual, great... but this is an equal fight so you can expect the same on you. You may think that initiating a wind weaving fight to be counter productive, but whoever does initiate it has the damage edge that in my experience can overcome even a large HP pool difference. Often, enemy sorcerers won't even know about wind weaving.
  
• Chances are, you'll both have double shields during this fight. Be ready to tree+burst again, or root, silence and weave the shield away. Root prevents him from moving until the shield is gone (or they use a dispel).
• Use your DoTs carefuly... you might need to CC them in a jiffy.
• Don't wind up a CC-burst unless you have something good to go with it like Inferno.
• Don't cast Aether's Hold with their shield up, or without first silencing or treeing them.
• If your shield is down and he's trying to Aether's Hold you, be quick on Ironclad (this will be tough for me as I'm planning on putting Illusion in its place -.-)
• If you have Vaizel's Wisdom or Boon of Quickness, you will have a massive edge. Damn Asmodians.

Vaizel's Wisdom: it's like a portable chanter

Spell Tips
Not a brand of cigarette

Root and Winter Binding
Better late than never: The duration of these two spells remain full in PvP. Rejoice! It can of course be dispelled with a potion, but this isn't always an option for your opponent. Especially if your opponent is a Spirit Master's pet.

Vaizel's Wisdom
Is this stigma worth it? Short answer: yes. Long answer: yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees. In addition to its usual faster-spells funk, it also speeds up your animations... this not only means it's a blanket +25% casting speed, it also means more Aether Flames in one Aether's Hold! Be wary when using this with Tree, DB and Inferno though: Inferno will go off before Delayed Blast by about 0.5 seconds and clip the tree, so pause briefly after casting DB. What it won't do is lower cooldowns... so don't use this with Freezing Wind weaving unless you want to weave longer cast time spells.

Wind Cut Down ranks II, III and IV
At present, WCD 2 and 3 stigmas are very expensive. Too expensive in my humble opinion. The small increase in damage for a temporary stigma simply cannot be justified at that price. Rank IV is the highest level WCD however, so there's no harm in aiming for that if you are fantastically wealthy. Rank I remains effective up into the 40's but I will also forgive you for swapping it out for something else for the time being.

Ice Harpwn
As if we didn't have enough harpwn in our lives, we get this sexy beast. This technically does slightly less damage than Wind Cut Down does total, but it does it instantly and will do full damage to monsters that are immune to bleed effects. It does significantly more damage than Flame Harpwn and is on a separate cooldown. Its long cast time makes it umm-ahh for PvP but I won't know until I've actually tried it. For PvE however, this thing is sex.

Frost/Frostbite
You can get this spell from an instance (Aetherogenics Lab for Elyos, Alquimia Research Center for Asmodians) or with a ridiculous amount of kinah from the broker. I was lucky and got it on my first run. Aside from looking exceptionally cool, it has many uses. Its damage is nothing to be scoffed at; it's like a ranged Freezing Wind in that aspect (and is a great spell to weave into Freezing Wind, too). It is a brilliant burst spell when combined with other spells. Its slowing component is great for snaring runners or slowing persuers, but it's also great for something else: breaking glide. I still laugh hysterically whenever I frost someone's wings away as they glide off a cliff. The awesome spell animation just adds to the effect!

It's not all good, though: the slowing component of this spell seems to be at the bottom of the snare food chain. Not only will Ice Chain and Robe of Frost's slow effect both overwrite Frost's slow, they also prevent Frost's slow effect entirely. One second left on Ice Chain when you cast Frost? Frost's slow won't take effect. Gladiator hit your robe of frost just as you use ice chain? Apparently, Robe's 4 second slow is more important than Frost's 12 second slow. If you want to use this spell for its slowing effect, make sure your target doesn't have any other slows on it already. Wait for them to wear off before you use it.

Soul Freeze
The silence effect of this is fantastic for most classes.
Gladiators: No real effect (prevents their self-heal but they probably won't die before it wears off).
Rangers: Prevents silences, sleeps, evasion.
Assassins: Prevents ambushes, aethertwisting, evasion.
Clerics, Chanters, Sorcerers, Sprit Masters: Prevents everything.
Templar: I haven't experimented enough to know what silence blocks for them :(

Magic Fist
This spell is worth two Aether Flames. If you normally are able to get 4 Aether Flames and a Fist off, all good... but if you seem to only get 5 shots sometimes and 4 most of the time, consider using fist one shot earlier than you would. Only managing 4 flames and missing the fist is really lame.

Boon of Quickness (Asmodian)
A godly spell, every Asmodian sorcerer should aim to acquire this Stigma. Two second Infernos. One second harpoons. 0.75 trees and 0.5 second silences. In addition, it stacks with a Chanter's Word of Quickness for... you guessed it... instant-cast spells. You will literally run out of damage spells to cast. It doesn't stack with Wisdom stigmas though, so you can forget about using Vaizel's at the same time ;).

Boon of Strength (Elyos)
500 MB = about +41% damage. It does not stack with Wisdom stigmas. Given that its cooldown is 20 times longer than Zikel's Wisdom for a mere +16% on damage, I cannot recommend this Stigma.

Jump Casting
When fighting a melee player, jump casting every spell can add up to a few meters of distance. How do you jump cast? As you finish casting any timed spell, just before it ends, tap jump in a direction. You will continue to finish the spell animation as you jump. Not worth it if you'd be jumping up hill but it really does allow you to get another spell or two in.

Next issue of Sorcery: Sorcerer Stigmas: an overarching review and preview.

I heard you like wings...

The level 50 wings aren't all that flash compared to the level 40 wings. The difference is 30 flight time versus 100 health. At best it could be called a sidegrade. I'm more inclined to call the level 50 wings a slight downgrade. Still, there's not enough of a difference to go beyond calling this anything more than simple personal opinion.

So when I sold my entire stack of Silver Medals for four million kinah, my immediate thought was WIIIIIIINGZZZ. At 12 million kinah I was a little off, but a couple of guildy loans later:

... so we put some wings on yo wings ...

... so you can fly while yo fly!

The glowy blue bits slowly pulse with... glowyness.

Time to smash some neckbeards in style. Of course, first I need to grind some cash back to repay the 2.8 million kinah I borrowed. ^^

Zot vs. Hentai

The player, not the pornography. Sorry to disappoint (or relieve <.<). It turns out that Windows 7's Movie Maker sucks. I guess that's why they didn't include it as standard with the OS and you have to get it as a download xD. So, I shelled out $500 for Sony Vegas (totally didn't pirate it) and gave it a whirl. This vid is pretty much me mucking around with it. There's not very long and there's maybe one fair fight in it but it should be enjoyable enough :). Click through.



I chose a player called Hentai to pick on with my testing, mostly because his name is awesome, I see him everywhere and he's as suicidal as I am ^^. He's always a few levels lower than me but still tries his damned hardest. Hentai, if you're reading: BUY DISPEL POTIONS!

It took me a few hours of just playing with video formats and codecs before I finally got something worth uploading, which has a side effect: my vids are now smaller in size but closer to the original Fraps footage in quality :). And after all that tinkering, I've still got some juicy footage to assemble into another PvP video. But YouTube blows chunks. I might cave and go to that aion movies place next time.

[art] Spiritmasters, wind doggies, and Asmos, oh my!

A commission I did for Aeir over at AionAus.

Icon of a random Asmo gladiator. It's a free for use icon!

Eye On Community feature!

Hiya all, I hope you're having a good Halloween!

My art thread on AionSource was linked in yesterday's Eye On Community!

Much love~ ♥♥♥

[art] Happy Halloween!

Moar Korean Patch Details

Korean Aion has been hit by another patch. Once again the same guys from Abyss Addicts have translated the patch notes.

There are two major points in my eyes:

We added reward for successful fortress defenses. The leader of the legion in control of a fortress will now receive badges through mail. The amount and the grade of the badges will vary depending on the level of the fortress.

Hooray for defense incentive, but this seems a bit off. Only the owning legion? This means the defending force will always be inferior to the attacking force. It may result in increased incentive for legions to ally and share but it won't help pugs at all, while pug attackers will still get medals for their time. Bizzare decision.

Increased experience gain from crafting and extracting.

Wayhey!

As with 1.6, no word on when we can expect it to hit. :(

Kuhhheargit

Tired of sounding like you're giving childbirth whenever you hit someone? Chose the 'young' female soundset and didn't realise your error until it was too late? Think that spells should be followed up with a goofy "a-hyuck"? Suspect the Koreans are subtly making fun of western culture by approving this garbage?

If you played during the closed betas, when Aion was still version 1.0, you'll have known that the voices were a lot cooler. Female characters sounded cute but strong and male characters had a certain Bruce Lee quality to them. That's because the voice pack was Korean. The 'westernisation' has then got to be a cruel joke.

If you think it's not all that bad, go and make a level 1 alt right now with the Female Young soundset. You don't even need to go into combat; just unsheathe your weapon. Congratulations, you now know what I'm talking about. It shouldn't be called 'Young', it should be called 'Mentally Deficient'. She sounds like she is wearing a colander for a helmet and drooling all over her straight jacket when she does something as simple as unsheathe a weapon. If you want to take it all the way, go into actual combat. Even better, make her a ranger and get to level 10. She sounds just as retarded with every. Single. Shot.

But there's light: the Korean voice pack is available for download and so is the Japanese voice pack. I've been playing with the Japanese pack for the last day and am quite impressed... I'm about to give the Korean pack a run. The only drawback to the Japanese pack? Shugo don't say 'nyerk' anymore :(

1. Download the Voice Pack of your choice:

• Korean
• Japanese

2. Find your Aion folder. Extract the contents of the .zip to your Aion\L10N\ENU\ folder. If you're not using the English client, change the location as appropriate (eg. Aion\L10N\CHS for Chinese).

3. Play to the soothing sounds of Bruce Lee kicking some vespine arse.



Source 1, Source 2 <3

Shining Slash: Guest week, a plea to the masses

Long time no blog! I'm here to break the silence with a little post from Minsc, a Templar in my Legion. Every Tank you've run with has wanted to say this at some point, so take it on board, seriously.

============================
Your Guide to "What The Hell Is The Tank Doing" (1-35)

So you're in a group, and that Templar (Or Gladiator) is strutting around like he owns the planet, despite being able to do less damage than Tutty on a bad day. You think to yourself "Heh, but this guy can't hold agro either". Doesn't he have taunt?

Odds are, from a Tank point of view - you're a liability because you probably don't understand how Templar threat works. Tanking in Aion isn't like most other games. Also note: "Agro/Threat" in Aion is referred to as "Enmity".

Note: This is a guide only up to level 35 or so. Things do change after this
============================


The Tools Of The Trade

A Templar (as at Level 35) have two basic Enmity generating moves.
> Provoke: medium range non-damaging Enmity ability. Cool down 12 sec.
> Provoking Slash: melee attack with extra Enmity. Cool down 12 sec.

They have access to two subjective Enmity generators.
> Provoking Shield Counter: Shield "bash", only usable immediately after successful block. Does NOT stun enemy. Cool down 24 seconds.
> Divine Chastisement: DP ability. Costs 2000 DP.

They have access to three Stigma stones which are Enmity generators.
> Inescapable Judgment: Ranged "pull" ability bringing enemy directly to you. Also reduces their movement speed for 10 seconds. Cool down 30 seconds.
> Provoking Roar: 10m PBAoE which generates some threat on up to five monsters. Cool down 30 sec.
> Incite Rage: 15m 1 minute CD Provoke clone with a mana cost added.
> (Remember they may not have one or both of these.)

More come as levels progress, but I don't know my way around the full list yet. There are more Stigmas out there, but for now we'll stick to the level range we know well, and the level range of what we are seeing day-to-day.
============================


Things to know:

First, none of these are a "top of the stack" enmity/threat/agro generator.
They generate a set amount, period. If you've pulled agro, and you're a DPSer... STOP. There is nothing a tank can do if you're still going berserk on a creature that is attacking you. You'll stay ahead of him/her for a lot longer. If you're a healer, all you can do is try to heal through it as best you can and hope the tank can pull agro back off you.

Secondly, a Templar relies on blocking attacks to generate a lot of threat.
He has three abilities at his disposal on a successful block - (a) a shield bash stun, (b) the aforementioned Enmity generator, and (c) a retributive strike (which is their highest damage dealer). If you pull agro, you are going to take away roughly half of his bag of tricks that he can use to keep agro on himself, and some of his damage mitigation to boot. So if he's not got agro on himself, his ability to get it back is depleted, and he'll start to fall behind the healers - and that's wipe territory.

Thirdly, a Templar is not a Gladiator.
He does not have an appreciable ongoing "multitanking" capacity like a Gladiator - he traded it in for mitigation. If there is more than one creature out there, he will be switching between them and spreading his basic Enmity generators around, which means the DPS troops have to scale back their output so they don't pull agro. Healers have to "suck it up buttercup", and hope the chainmail will stop any errant hits if one gets away briefly.
This goes double for if there are crowd-controlled creatures. If one is 'slept', a good tank will switch to that target every time Provoke cool down is up and throw it at that creature (from out of melee range so he doesn't break CC). This prevents the creature from running after the CCer or a healer if it breaks/resists CC. So, if one creature is slept, be sure not to still go absolutely gangbusters on the one you're DPSing at first - give it a grace period of 20 seconds or so (enough for two rounds of the 12 sec cool down taunts) of light DPS after the tank finally has the creature in melee range before you start really unloading with the pointy stuff.

Lastly, a Tank may have to go "Defensive".
One thing a Templar can do is go into "Shield Defence/Steel Wall Defence". This puts his mitigation up quite a fair bit, but he cannot use any abilities while in this mode - this includes any Enmity generators. It gives the healers a chance to catch up if he's dropping below, but in turn stops his Enmity output. So if you see or hear of the Tank going into 'Block Mode' or 'Going Defensive' or 'Putting Up A Wall' or any such thing for any length of time to let healers catch up - dial back the juice or you'll wind up with the bad guy cleaning your clock for you, and it'll give new meaning to "Spray 'n' Wipe + Mr. Muscle".

-

So to recap:
If a Templar loses agro, wind back the DPS, even if it's not you the guy is coming after. The longer the Tank doesn't have agro, the more he falls behind.
If there is more than one bad guy, give the Tank some time to really get rolling, he'll be behind for a while. Ease the DPS for 10-20 secs at the start.
If a Templar is going all defensive mode, lay off. He's not generating as much threat.

-

I hope this clears up tanking. Without a specific "automatic Top-Of-The-Stack" agro/taunt skill, Tanks have a lot harder time actually regaining agro, so take care when you're out there. If you pull agro, you put the whole group at risk here, not like several other MMO's where the tank has an "Oh Shit" button. Some tanks are very good at their job, and can honestly just output threat like it's nobody's business, and a lot of the previous stuff may not apply as much, but these basics ought to give everyone a rough understanding of what is going on.

Cheers!

~ Minsc and Boo.
============================

Thanks, Minsc!

Watch this space for upcoming posts delving deep into the Stigma system (for Templars, of course!) and a look over of the Templar DP abilities we'll have lined up for level 50 content.

Sorcerer Solo Rifting

I always go rifting in a group. Always. And yet most of the PvP we do is small scale... us vs. one, us vs. two, or us vs. massive unbeatable zerg. Abyssal wings can get kind of frustrating too... it's really easy for people to just run (at least until patch 1.6 hits). So I figured, why not just go in on my own?

So I did. The result: almost two hours of furback killing (except for a small hiccup the first time I stepped through), mostly bots but plenty of 1v1 and some 1v2. And about 8000 AP for my time.

The bots were mostly easy as hell: sometimes they just stop attacking you and go after a mob. Sometimes they just don't attack at all. Other times, there would be a clump of them and attacking one would see all of them chase after you, which is like pulling multiple mobs in solo pve xD. The excellent thing about them though is that they're not all rank 9: some were as low as rank 6 and gave sexy amounts of AP. In addition, after killing four or five of them, I'd gain over 2000 DP.

Of course bot farming wasn't my primary goal and I got plenty of actual player footage, including against two skilled gladiators and some SMs. SMs are turning out to be not quite as bad as I thought to fight, especially on the ground; but then, sorcerers have most of their tricks by level 41.

This is a two parter... youtube doesn't like 14 minute videos. Click through (or part1, part2) for the full sized versions at youtube.

[art] Love is War II

Before I realize it, the dawn is already coming.
Time, please stop.

a brief interlude

Say hi to Taihen the Chanter and... the other Tora.

Me and Lewin hadn't played our Ranger and Templar respectively for a few days, and thus the inconspicuous lack of posts from us lately. I still have to make that jumpshot video... d'oh. For that, I apologise; we've been busy with some rl stuff, for me some art stuff and for Lewin ODST.

Anyway, in between the spare time I had, I rolled a Chanter alt, and an Asmo Assassin.

• Chanters are insanely fun. Think Ret Paladins with Druid HoTs. I loved playing my kitty druid in WoW, so Chanters feel very similar.
• Considering how many times I've done the first 15 or so levels, I'm still surprised how fast I power through them, and yet it never got boring.
  
• Male Asmos run funny.
• I expected the Asmo ascension quest to be the same as Elyos, and boy was I surprised.
  
• Asmos on the whole feel a little more badass. Their raiders raid because they can, while the Elyos raiders raid because they get paid. Go figure.

Anyways, we finally hit 36 today, after nearly two weeks at 35.

• The grind gets really boring if you don't build up a steady rhythm.
  
• That is, until you find a legion group and grind elites in the Kaidan HQ for three hours.
• ...and then proceed to do Fire Temple with the same group, and find the xp isn't as sweet at level 35...
• ...and still not get Judge Kromede.

Also, fortress raids are a pain in the butt when your faction doesn't get their act together.

Sorcery VI

Welcome back ladies and ladyboys! Today I will touch on PvP. I, like everybody else, am learning... but that doesn't mean I can't share what I've learned thus far with the world. There are some classes I wish I'd fight more (or fight more skilled ones at least) but I believe I have some down pat :). In addition to my ramblings, there is a (somewhat old) translated korean strategy guide for the sorcerer.

Get good enough and maybe* you can solo this

PvP's a whole different spaceship of shugo compared to PvE. No longer do rotations come into play; PvP is all about proactivity and reactivity, learning to anticipate what your opponent(s) are doing and what spell to cast for the situation. This is essentially where skill comes in... the pursuit of skill is the pursuit of knowing the perfect move to make given any situation. Still, there are some tips that can be transmitted via blog medium! Note that all of this comes from a pre-level cap sorcerer (41) and thus may not be current at 50.


Gear

What to wear you might ask? The top koreans seem to lean towards full HP or full Magic Resist. Those are two defensive stats I respect, but I wouldn't drop Magical Accuracy entirely -- it's just too important in PvP. Can you imagine if your roots were resisted with a decked gladiator hurtling towards you? Or a resisted silence? Doom is what comes to mind.

To this end, the best Abyss gear has HP on it... but of course they require badges. So often you just need to improvise. As I previously mentioned in another issue of Sorcery, HP just isn't around on leveling gear as much as I'd like. Sometimes you just need to pick up that MP gear just to keep current with the gear's Magic Resistance, etc. So instead, dedicate a larger percentage of your sockets to HP instead. MR manastones can wait for the highest levels, when you start finding HP gear more readily available. I would also keep some room for MA manastones, but don't bother with MB manastones for PvP -- you have tons of damage. Your main focus is on survivability and HP, MR and MA all work towards this goal.


Moves

Master backleap. It is fantastic if only for confusing your opponent as to where your location is. Against ranged classes it's brilliant for getting up close and personal for some Freezing Wind weaving. Against a class that will open with CC, such as a spirit master or sorcerer, leap will untarget you allowing you to get it in first but you'll need to still be close enough to get it off, which means backleaping.

Practice weaving Freezing Wind. Get close to someone and cast it, followed by any damage spell (the faster the better, so prioritise Fusion, Wind Cut Down, etc first) then repeat. It's your highest damage rotation -- if used against a Cleric, you may even find that you'll outdps their heals with nothing else required. Best used against clerics, rangers and SMs, but also great against Sorcerers if they're not used to weaving FW... you'll have the upper hand.

The Abyss is my dancemat

Jumpcasting: most useful with Winter's Binding. If you cast Winter's Binding and jump, you can cancel the animation entirely, giving you precious seconds to move while your opponents are instantly snared. It's difficult to time right (I still suck at it) and there's no visual indication of the WB working so this is definitely something to work on :). On another note with WB, consider breaking your CC with it on templar or gladiators: it will keep them in place without bumping up their elemental resistance... though this is a bad idea on Assassins as they can aethertwist your spells or if your opponent has the presence of mind to use a dispel potion.

Tab chaining: when casting Ice Chain, you can change target and Frozen Shock a separate target. Brilliant if two people are chasing you, or you're keeping someone off you and want to interrupt the healer, etc. Situational but good to keep up your sleeve.

Skew the fight towards happening on the ground: we can't leap or Aether's Hold in aerial combat. In the abyss this is mostly psychological, for eg if you have the jump, land before opening and they'll be less likely to open their wings. If you have the time or potions and your opponent will be tricky, consider running or CCing until they have to land.


vs. Templar

Prior to the highest levels, templar don't do jack all damage. Templar will only pose a threat if they have the best gear with dps manastones, or in that it takes so long to kill them that someone else might run into you. But that doesn't mean you should slack: the length of the fight is his advantage. You can't just burst him down or chain him all day; depending on the room you have to move, he will eventually whittle down your shield.

• Keep Ice Chain on him constantly. When IC comes off cooldown, there's a 2 second window in which to recast it before it wears off him, so plan into the future.
• Use Flame Cage... the lack of Tree/Sleep is not substantial versus a templar but the time taken to kill him is. :P
  
• Constantly move unless you have a Frozen Shock up your sleeve and are confident you can get a good round of spells off before you need to move and/or recast IC.
• If he does get in melee range (due to incompetence, or speed, or confined area) he will likely get your shield down eventually. Fortunately, by that time, you probably have it off cooldown again :). It's best to make sure shield is kept up, otherwise he can drag you into him every 30 seconds.
• Save leap for whenever he uses Inescapable Judgement. The movement slowing effect will kick in even if you have shield up. Shield prevents you from being dragged to him though.
• Possibly the hardest part of the fight is finishing the bugger off. He will likely know that the fight is not going his way long before his end. Be ready for a chase scene with roots and ice chain!
• Templar can easily prevent Aether's Hold, so only do it if he's unable to use any abilities, ie. is tree'd.
• It may not be the hardest fight in the world but don't get cocky. He has all the time in the world to whittle your shield and health down.
• Robe Choice: Cold for control. Flame is also acceptable. Earth's regen is not required; the fight is long but the dps is not intensive.
  
• Ground Difficulty: Low
• Air Difficulty: Low. Cons: no leap. Consider abandoning Flame Cage and treeing him when he IJ's
  

vs Gladiator

I previously thought these little shits were free kills, until I found some that don't suck. Gear really is the measure of this fight though: someone decked in gear can obliterate you the first time they get up to you if you're not careful, while others won't get through your shield. Don't hang about to see which type your opponent is.

• As with Templar, try to keep Ice Chain up. This time however, be a bit more conservative: you do NOT want this guy catching up to you so tree or root if you think he will before your IC finishes.
• Don't Cage him: you'll need your CC.
• Keep Mobile. I cannot stress enough that he can't be allowed to make contact with your squishy arse.
• If he does get up to you, he'll more than likely get through your shield. When that happens, you can be knocked down by his crits (which are plentiful) and stunned (not cool) and Aethers Hold'd (which will likely spell your end). First priority is thus reshielding if available. If not, get the hell out of there! Leap, Root, Tree, do anything you can to get some distance between you.
• If your shield is down and he's about to get in range (or is in range), Ironclad in anticipation of stuns/knockdowns/aether's hold.
  
• If he uses Charge, chain CC him until it wears off.
  
• If he potions your root, use your other roots (Winter Binding for eg) or CC him instead for some distance.
• Gladiators have ranged abilities which will eventually whittle you (or your shield) down. It's important not to string the fight out for too long.
  
• Fight in bursts. Tree, Burst, Sleep, Burst, etc.
• Robe Choice: Cold: their ranged attacks will slow them ;). You want to drop them quickly so flame is also acceptable. Earth's regen is not required.
  
• Ground Difficulty: Low-High (depends on gear and setting). Cons: can be knocked down by crits when on ground.
  
• Air Difficulty: Medium-High (depends on gear and setting). Cons: no leap, jumpcast or aether's hold; harder to judge distances.

vs Assassin

Finally, a worthy opponent. The assassin was the anti-sorcerer prior to 1.5 but PvP damage reduction sorted that out. Now the two classes make for a fun and fair fight. I've seen two general tactics work against this class.

Approach one: Burst + Control

Similar to the gladiator, you attempt to slow or CC the assassin and do your damage in chunky bursts. The pro to this style is that if pulled off correctly, they'll have less contact with your squishy arse. The cons? Assassins have two anti-sorcerer abilities, Evasion (resist one spell) and Aethertwisting (stigma, resists two spells), each on a separate 30 second cooldown. You need to get around this by using quick spells such as Fusion or a FB+Blaze chain to burn the resists away before applying your CC/burst. You also need to keep a mental timer on when these abilities cool down. You can use Flame Cage to instantly burn one of their resists away but be careful: if mistimed and the cage lands, you've just fucked half of your CC and much of your burst for fifteen seconds ^^. You can use Robe of Cold for this but there's a good chance it will break on of your CCs if they make it to melee range.

Approach two: Freestyle DPS

Perhaps not the most traditional method, it is none the less one I found that works none the less. The disadvantage of using Flame Cage on an assassin is that you can't tree or sleep them. The advantage is that you don't need to worry about it getting through aethertwisting... as you won't be using Tree/Sleep anyway! With this method, instead of CC + Burst, you instead just use movement and sustained damage with quick damage spells. It's a more on-your-toes method and will get your robes quite dirty.

Use Robe of Cold and stay on the move. Whenever he hits you he will be slowed. Erratically change your direction and Freezing Wind as you pass him. Use Flame Cage to burn his twists at every move, and keep it up on him regardless for the dps. Root and jumpcast Winter's Binding where possible to get distance. Don't bother with ice chain unless you have good distance and you know his twists are on cooldown; instead, just cast quick spells like Soul Freeze, Flame Fusion, Wind Cut Down, etc. Disclaimer: I haven't tried this tactic on someone with less than 200 ping yet ^^.

Since learning to kick Vylette's arse, tension has been high

Back to general tips...

• Learn what the Evasion and Aethertwisting buff icons look like. Never cast a noteworthy spell like Root while they are active. Instead, wait them out or burn them with quick spells. Remember that a mistimed Flame Cage will screw up your tree/sleeps for the next 15 seconds.
  
• Only cast Aether's Hold, Inferno, etc. while they are tree/sleeped or you are certain their twists are on cooldown.
• Oceanic players (all players?) aren't optimal while on a moving target. Using movement and robe of cold you can actually Freezing Wind a skilled assassin to death.
• Keep mental note of their twist cooldowns. Even if you get a root off, they might twist your ice chain, inferno, etc. Cancel casting important spells as soon as you see a twist icon appear.
  
• The assassin will get in range to get some damage in several times during the fight, guaranteed.
• Only use leap to escape melee if you can't CC them (cooldown or twists up).
• If your shield is down and they're in melee range, Ironclad in anticipation of stuns/aethertwisting/spin.
• Silence locks down a LOT of Assassin abilities; use it whenever you can get it in. Similarly, Magic Resist will prevent a lot of abilities (such as the ambush stun) from taking hold.
• Clairvoyance will not work against a level 34+ assassin; they get advanced hide.
• Robe Choice: Cold. This is not a damage fight, it is a control fight: cold will serve you most of the time. Earth's regen is not needed and Flame's damage increase is not substantial enough.
  
• Ground Difficulty: High. Cons: he can aether's hold you.
  
• Air Difficulty: High. Pros: assassins aren't very effective when you move erratically. Flight gives you an extra axis :). Cons: can't aether's hold, leap or jumpcast.

vs Ranger

Another close fight. Whoever gets the opener has the advantage: we can unload some amazing burst and then silence them. They can unload some amazing burst and then silence us.

• Dispel potions are a must. If you bawlk at their price, don't complain when you get nailed to the wall. You need dispel potions to break their silence ability; don't use it for anything else.
• If you get the air jump on them, a good burst chain is
  Sleep -> Delayed Blast -> Ice Chain -> Frozen Shock -> Soul Freeze
  Follow that up with damage spells. Save your tree for a second round of burst... I always forget to!
• If you get the ground jump, it might be best to skip IC and go for Aether's Hold.
  
• He'll likely dispel your silence, or it'll wear off before you've killed him, so be ready to dispel his.
  
• Silence messes up rangers pretty bad. You'll notice their previously amazing damage go to hell. Many rangers don't anticipate silence: work to this.
  
• Unlike other ranged classes, rangers don't have any shielding or stun prevention. Everything you do eats into their finite health.
• Every window you give the ranger is a window in which they can sleep or silence you.
  
• Ranger's sleep last something like 12 seconds in PvP, compared to our eight. In addition it doesn't mess with their damage, unlike our sleep. If they do get a sleep off on you, expect some nasty burst. If you have shield up it will rip through it and probably be capped by a nasty stun. Magical resistance really is undervalued.
  
• If they had the opener, you can expect that sleep to be the end of you.
• If you had the opener, you can tree or sleep them for a second round of burst.
• As with Assassins, rangers have Evasion. Since that's only 1/3 of the spells that a assassin can resist, it's easy to forget about it. Try and keep it in mind and watch for the evasion buff icon.
• Most rangers won't bother laying traps against a sorcerer. Use that to your advantage and backleap into them for some FW weaving! Be aware of traps if chasing a fleeing ranger, though.
  
• Unlike Assassins, the Ranger's hide skill can be seen through with Clairvoyance.
• If a ranger gets the jump on you, your best move is to Soul Freeze them (rather than tree) and go from there. You have a fighting chance if they don't dispel it.
• Robe Choice: Flame. Cold will break any trees/sleeps you place on them most of the time, switch quickly if fighting a ranger. Earth's regen is not needed as the fight will not last long.
  
• Difficulty: High. Pretty much depends on who gets the jump.
  

As with all PvP combat, difficulty relies entirely on the skill of the opposing player, the gear of the opposing player, the level difference and the setting. Keep that in mind if you lose to a templar in a 5 meter by 5 meter arena or kick Spirit Master's arse who is 5 levels below you.

Dueling is the safest and most efficient way to get your skills and tactics up. Duel everyone you see and accept all requests, especially if they're a couple levels higher than you! Just don't take duels seriously: there's no honour at stake, nobody will think any less of you if you get creamed. Use the duel to learn. Try unproven tactics, make intentionally stupid moves to see if you can recover, and above all don't whine or give any excuse if you lose, even if it's valid. It just makes you look like a tit.


Spell Tips
The ubiquitous section

Boon of Iron-Clad
This ability, when used, will overwrite your Stoneskin buff. As stoneskin prevents everything that Ironclad does, never use it while Stoneskin is up!

Lumiel's Wisdom
I feel confident enough now to call this an essential sorcerer ability. Never abandon this Stigma, ever, or you will run Out Of Mana!

Boon of Clairvoyance
At level 34, Assassins get advanced hide. Clairvoyance will no longer see stealthed assassins past that level. Rangers are still uncovered, though.

Aether Flame
I previously had this hotkeyed and could get four during one Aether Hold, sometimes five. Since moving my abilities around on my bars, I need to click it now... and appear to be getting five reliably every time I use it. I have no +attack speed or +spell speed gear as of yet. Anecdotal or pro tip? You decide!

Soul Absorption
As this abilities damage directly affects how much mana you gain, consider using Zikel's Wisdom (if you have it) whenever using it for maximum mana gain.

Lightburst/Shadowburst
I've used this twice in PvP so far. The first time against a chanter which one-shot him, doing 4000 damage. The second time against another chanter which also one-shot him, doing 4500 damage. Both chanters were within my level range. My 5k health cleric buddy in my guild was also one shotted yesterday. If you have Zikel's Wisdom, you can add another +25% onto that damage. It's official chaps: we can one shot people.

Soul Freeze (aka Silence)
I mention this spell in this issue but you may be wondering what it is. Well, here you have it: a 30 second cooldown, 8 second silence, 1 second cast ability that inflicts a good amount of damage. If that sounds overpowered... well, it is. That said I'm damn glad I have it as it definitely makes certain class match ups a lot more bareable. In PvP it should essentially be cast whenever it's off cooldown as silence kills a LOT of abilities for all classes (and it's technically the highest dps non-DP spell we have, excluding Inferno). Silence can be removed with a dispel potion of the appropriate level.

Flaming Meteor
If this looks good, I'll forgive you. In practice, it rarely stuns. It's also awkward to cast... you need to select the ability then wait about a second before clicking the target area, otherwise it will make your character start running off into the distance :|. Its AOE damage is also lackluster: in PvE it does about 1000 damage to everything in range... with a recast of 5 minutes. I have yet to make this spell work for me.

Frost/Frostbite
This upcoming spell (for me) is almost insulting for other classes. Yup, we get another snare... and what a snare! You can think of it as Root, but instead of the target being unable to move until you damage it, it gets slowed for a full twelve seconds and takes a nasty spike of damage. The cons? Apparently, you can only get it from instances, not city vendors.


Next issue of Sorcery: Sorcerer, Spirit Master, Cleric and Chanter PvP tips!

[art] avatars batch 2

Give me more men to draw plz.

Sorcerer vs. the Upper Abyss

My third PvP vid ^^. Click through for the highest quality version on YT.



Most of it is made up of solo encounters but the latter half also includes Baddingo, a chanter from my guild, whom I ran into while PvPing. I made sure not to make this one so compressed/sped up compared to the last one.

Also: holy crap, my first vid has almost fifteen thousand views ;x

World Boss: Raging Kraterr

EchoComplex, CaliberXIII and Rise of the Fallen of Nezekan contributed six high level group members each and took on a Legendary difficulty world boss: Raging Kraterr. I was around to take footage and complain about being OOM. He casts nasty AOE, which increases in frequency the more damage he takes. Eventually he brains up and moves into the ranged group to cast it, too. Messy :X



He has a chance to drop fabled quality items but none this time i'm afraid. I walked away with a shiny new earring. Others walked away with recoverable XP ;)

It's Mau Time - What to stack?

It's a long way to the bottom if you don't know what to do.

In my previous post, I said I would talk about the Jumpshot controversy... but I've found some enlightening information tonight that I'd like to share.

Over at Weekly Ranger (which regrettably seems to have stopped updating), there's a great article about the Crit soft cap as well as what Manastones to use. I've done some searching about exactly what stats to look for as a Ranger, and unfortunately have come up short until now.

From what I understand, Crit and Attack is the way to go. Rangers have a base high Accuracy stat already, and throw in the accuracy buff we have, we really don't need to waste any more sockets on the stat. Coming from WoW where reaching the hit cap in end game is crucial may have ruined my perceptions of what stats are important, but at least now I know better.

The general consensus among the Ranger community (based on info that I've found) is that 440 is the "soft cap" for Crit. After 440, you'd need 20 Crit for 1%.

Basically it means that you should be socketing crit until you reach 440. The amount of crit needed to yield 1% crit after reaching the soft cap makes socketing additional crit stones a waste.

You'll also not want to say no to the occasional HP manastone, and Evasion can come in handy too, but generally you're better off going for offensive stats.

patch 1.5.0.9

Grab it here.

Instructions:

1. Save the .ncpatch to the Aion main directory.
2. Launch NCSoft Launcher.
   
3. If the patch does not apply automatically, restart your pc.
   

Anti-Botting in Beluslan

A small vid of a few of us taking out bots in Beluslan. :)

Sorcery V

After posting information about stats and spells, I think it's high time that I get into rotations. I'll also correct some of my information in previous Sorcery installments. Screw editing old posts; I'll keep this column stream-of-consciousness. I've broken off from leveling with Tora and Lewin for the most part and find myself soloing both PvE and PvP to a greater extent... which is fantastic for my XP and sorcerer learnings, if not my ability to survive running into a rifting group xD. This guide will assume you are level 34. You're likely not, so subtract abilities you don't have... it should not affect the rotation any.


Solo PvE

By now you've probably figured out a good solo rotation so I won't go into this much. If you're taking around 25-30 seconds per monster then it's worthwhile to not hold back. First use Lumiel's Wisdom or Zikel's Wisdom if you have either of them.

DB -> IC -> FS -> Fusion -> Cage -> (Wind Harpwn) -> Harpwn -> FB -> Blaze

Certainly makes a difference from WoW, doesn't it? That's a complete chain of unique spells. By this point it should be dead, whatever it is. If not, either whip your book/orb out or harpwn/fb until it is, depending on its remaining health. If you've stacked HP exclusively or don't have wind cut down then you may need to insert more harpwn. Blink if you need to and don't be afraid to use root, it's only a minute cooldown, you'll be fine ^^. While casting instant spells such as Blaze and Cage you can run away from the mob (don't backpedal).

Of course, not all monsters last that long. Monsters in the abyss for example tend to be somewhat frail. For this we need a pair of rotations... to rotate between.

DB -> IC -> Fusion -> (Wind Harpwn) -> Harpwn -> FB -> Blaze -> FB
IC -> FS -> Fusion -> (Wind Harpwn) -> Harpwn -> FB -> Fusion -> FB

Yo dawg, i heard u leik rotations... Er. The reason for a pair of rotations is to save your cooldowns. You will otherwise kill one monster excessively fast and then have to muck around killing the next in line for hot fiery death. Cage is generally not worth bothering with against monsters that die quickly as if it doesn't get its final few ticks in, it's inefficient damage-per-mana wise. The rotation of DB and FS means that you'll always open with an acceptable piece of burst.

Of course, every two minutes you can always just cast the following gamebreaker...

DB -> IC -> FS -> Fusion -> Inferno -> (anything)

... but you didn't need me to give you an excuse to use Inferno :)


Group PvE

I refer here, of course, to proper groups: tank, healer, instance/elites, etc. Our role here changes to a cross between damage mitigation (via Crowd Control) and damage dealer. Your damage rotation changes in that you won't always have things off cooldown when your tank pulls the next monster and some spells just aren't as worthy of your attention: in fact, rotation is swept aside in preference to a priority system. The standard priorities, in order:

• Cage
• (Wind Harpwn)
• Fusion
• Blaze (yes, blaze -- but only if you're finding yourself getting resists)
  
• Harpwn
• FB

Other spells have their place, of course: IC->FS is quite helpful for its chance to interrupt monster abilities if you can anticipate it or take some heat off the tank. Inferno is just worth casting whenever it's off cooldown (but watch your burst threat!), as is Aether's Hold. On that note, if using Vent, announce when you're using Aether's Hold so that other classes can make use of it. If there's multiple mobs, you're not using CC and you have Fire Burst, use that whenever it's off cooldown.

But perhaps our greatest group role is CC: Crowd Control. This usually needs to be designated by your tank first. Treeing or sleeping a monster that's in melee range of everyone is likely to be broken by Gladiator AOE or even by the tank himself (it's hard to see if some monsters are slept, such as the gargoyles in Fire Temple). Simple old Root can be used on monsters that don't have ranged attacks. If tree is resisted you can use sleep. You can use both root, tree and sleep to indefinitely disable two mobs, or temporarily disable three. I've noticed in Aion that you really need to announce that you're doing CC before you CC, or have marks up before you CC, or it's likely to be broken.


Solo PvP

This topic deserves an entire section on its own (hmm, good idea!) but there are some openers and conditionals that usually ring true no matter the situation. If they haven't seen you, open with Delayed Blast. If they're likely to run, cast IC. If you're unlikely to need to CC them after opening on them, use Cage.

If they've seen you, cast tree. From there you have lots of options:

• Delayed Blast + Inferno, or if you need to move, get your distance + Inferno, making sure the tree will run out before Inferno goes off. DB will break the tree for you if you don't need to move.
  
• If they're likely to run, DB + IC + FS + Inferno is a decent opener. They'll have a moment of time though between IC and FS, so make sure you're not fighting something that can mess you up during that time (such as a ranger) and are close enough that they don't get out of range.
• If you need to move, you can either settle with opening with IC or Sleep them, giving you an additional chance to wind up an opener. Note that having both CC's on cooldowns is risky though!
  
• Sometimes it's best to open with Sleep so that you have CC in a snap, in the form of tree. Particularly useful against melee classes or shield classes.
• If it's a mage with a shield up then here's a nice rotation I've found: Open with sleep if possible, nuke them with a damage spell or two (inferno works), time a tree to go off before sleep wears off and then continue with your real opener. This takes a nice chunk out of their shield before the fight's started. I should note however that I don't know for sure whether or not Tree/Sleep's elemental defenses also apply to the shield. If they do then this rotation isn't quite as awesome as I've made it sound :(
  

Fusion is a very nice spell but be aware that it is very flashy. Someone seeing it under their feet will immediately have a psychological impression that they are taking damage. If you're trying to wind up a burst on someone like a healer, consider taking Fusion out of your rotation: in my experience it causes a lot of players to wise up to me and move out of range.


Group PvP

Again, CC comes into play here, but not just disabling CC this time: Ice Chain becomes very handy to allow your melee classes to close the distance or prevent runners. Root becomes somewhat less reliable due to its tendancy to be removed by clerics or dispel potions. On that note, if there's a cleric in the opposing party's group, either focus him or CC him: he'll just dispel his team mates. Call out spirit masters and sorcerers and tree them if they have their shield up: your damage dealers will carve through his shield like butter without breaking the tree until it is down. If there's a ranger you want to CC, make sure they're not attacking you or you're not using Robe of Cold as his delayed shots + RoC's proc will break any CC you put on him.

Also, calling Aether's Hold on a healer is a must: unless there's another cleric or they have lots of CC, he's likely fucked :)


And finally, some more spell notes!

Zikel's Wisdom
I'm a complete idiot, of course this is available for both factions xD. It's also a worthy replacement for Lumiel's Wisdom as the additional damage means you don't need to spend as much mana on spells to kill your target. It gives you a flat +25% damage for its duration and appears to still be awesome if it takes your MB past 1200.

Curse of Weakness
I still haven't tried this stigma yet, but I've found out higher ranks raise the percentage of damage taken per spell cast. The level 40 version (rank 2) takes a whopping 10% of your target's health off per spellcast! I am so getting that.

Robe of Cold
This spell will break any CC you've placed on your attacker, if they are able to get some shots off before you cast the CC. This mostly means rangers but it can also mean casters and glads/assassins with their bows out. Switch to another robe if you're fighting them and need CC.

Wind Cut Down
It's as sexy as it looks: Flame Harpoon with an additional 600 damage as a dot component (at 31 with average MB). GET IT.

Tranquilising Cloud
Last issue I said it had a massive range. I misread. It's only a 5 meter radius on your target. Sorry ;)! It also doesn't raise any elemental defenses. So if you have 3000+dp consider using it to wind up an extremely nasty burst of damage on whomever you're fighting. I also have yet to test this but I suspect it lasts the full duration even in PvP.

Fire Burst
This stigma turned out to be really underwhelming. The 500 AOE damage it does in PvP at level 34 is not worth bothering with and the 1k every 14 seconds in PvE isn't used as much as you'd think. It's not a completely arse spell, it's just not worth a stigma slot in my opinion. Lumiel's or Zikel's are more preferable.

Flame Fusion
As mentioned, this has a real psychological impact in PvP, possibly even more so than Inferno: it's an extreme visual indicator that you're taking damage from a high damage, bursty class. Use it sparingly if against someone likely to run. Also, resistances can go negative in Aion -- this spell will make your target take more damage even if their resistance is at zero.


!! Holy Shit Bonus Section !!

Level 37's incoming and I'd like to give my first impressions after mulling the new abilities over.

Magic Fist
This spell completes Aether's Hold for Sorcerers... literally. Thought Aether's Hold + Four Pew Pew lasers were cool? Make the fourth pew pew laser do 3x the damage >:). This effectively gives us the equivalent of six pew pew lasers per Aether's Hold but more than that, it raises our burst we can do during that four seconds, which while previously unhindered due to the immobility of AH, was... let's face it... somewhat average in the DPS/burst department. I can't wait for +20% attack speed gear. Heh... we get to fist people (snicker)

Vaizel's Wisdom
If this doesn't look big, shame on you. As far as I know it doesn't reduce animations, only spell cast time, so it's not a blanket -25% spell casting time ability... but it'll make your inferno 4 seconds instead of 3, Ice Chain and Flame Harpwn 1.5 seconds instead of 2, etcetera. You can see the appeal of this in a PvP setting and I definitely want to acquire this stigma.

Soul Absorption
It looks like a flame harpoon on a 5 minute cooldown, yes, but it should instead just be looked at as... Life Tap. Yes, Life Tap from WoW. It takes 10% of your health and gives you 500+ mana in return. It's simply a mana management spell. The damage is just icing.

Hooray at more abilities to place on my burgeoning bars....


Next issue of Sorcery: Sorcerer PvP tips!

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The Morheim Massacre

I'd been delaying getting to this as I had a ridiculous amount of footage and dreaded having to compress it into 10 minutes of action. But I did and here it is: our spy adventure into Morheim. Fun and questing was to be had, though not on the part of the poor asmodians. By the end of it my kill counter said 179 kills that day, but I know it clocked over at some point during our session so it's more. But an official figure of 179 is fine by me ^^. At one point we did an excellent job of re-enacting the zombie walk scene from Shaun of the Dead, with asmos instead of zombies.



It's also worth watching to see how sorcerer group PvP tends to go, sans healer. And how sorcerer CC is broken by laggy group members <.<

The spy quests we completed were:

• Celestine's Antidote
• A Gift of Love - ARGGH
• Message to a Spy
• That Old Elyos Spirit
• Respect for Deltras - honouring our favourite genocidal general ^^

Sada and Tora died three times each while I died twice. After our first wipe we kisk'd and continued; after the second, we were kind of burnt out and decided to leave. I turned off fraps just in time to notice Azphel's Curse doesn't go away when you die and there were three asmos on my semi-afk arse xD

It's Mau Time - Ranger self buffs and when to use them

One of the things Rangers are known for are their powerful self-buffs. Three of them have very good PvE uses, and the others are either situational or good in PvP.

Dodging increases your evasion for 200. The first self buff you get at level 13, and great for when a mob is wailing at your face in melee, though its usage is severely diminished once you get the next two.

Aiming increases your accuracy by 200. Great for when you're fighting higher level mobs who have a higher chance of dodging, parrying or blocking (especially in instances) or when fighting Gladiators, Templars, Assassins and other Rangers. For example, in Fire Temple fighting the level 37 elite boss, keep this up throughout the whole fight and your shots will be dodged a lot less.

Strong Shots, the last and best self buff, increases physical attack of your bow by 5%. Keep this up as often as possible!

These three buffs each last for 1 minute, and have a shared cooldown. You can also have all three up at the same time, so having Aiming and Strong Shots while fighting a boss is a really good idea. Unfortunately, there is only one rank of these buffs, despite the misleading tooltip... maybe in an expansion?

Focused Evasion is something you get as a Scout, and has only one rank. It's great for avoiding an unavoidable attack (eg. Kraka's huge AoE), but I mostly save it for when Templars use Inescapable Judgment on me. Knowing when to pop this to avoid an attack requires a bit of good timing, so with a bit of practice you'll get it.

Tactical Retreat lets you run really fast when you get hit. Something I imagine will be really good for kiting in a pinch, but I love it because it lets me run away from melee classes to get range on them. It has kind of a long cooldown (2 minutes) so try and save it for when you're swamped and need to get away.

Next up on It's Mau Time: The Jumpshot Controversy