Shining Slash: Open Beta Edition, Part 4!

Part 4, featuring experiences in Rifting and low level PvP!

Apologies in advance for a long post, yet again in wall-of-text format. I might update with pictures to illustrate points and break it up at a later date, but for now, please read on. There's a lot of useful information for new players in this post, as well as some good insights for even experienced Templars, and two handy links for rifting. Enjoy!

In OB one of my aims was to join my Legion in PvP, as I missed out last time around. I rifted several times in this beta, and every time was a blast.

Rifts are portals leading to either Asmodae or Elysea, allowing a set number of players in a certain level bracket to pass through. Although there are [Spy] quests that you can do in enemy zones, the main reason for going through rifts is to PvP the other faction on their home ground, which allows for many exciting encounters. One reason people might not like rifting is that it's difficult if not impossible at times for players on the receiving end to defend themselves from a large rifting group suddenly appearing in their zone. In my opinion, this is a great opportunity for you to team up with your faction and drive out the intruders. Form an organized resistance in General chat and fight them back. Only one rift is up at a time in any given direction, and only a set number of people can get through, ensuring that they will always be outnumbered by the defenders.

While questing in Eltnen, you will occasionally see zone messages that say "A Rift has opened to Asmodae!" or "to Elysea!" At this point a large portal can be seen in the sky above the zone, and the direction it is pointing will give you an idea of where the rift itself actually is.

This entry on Aionic Thoughts has extremely useful in depth information on the nature of each rift, and should be required reading for anyone leading a rift raid.
Similarly, this post on AionSource is useful for anyone looking for a rift. Copy the script quoted into your in game memo pad, and use the links once in game to show each possible rift location on your map, making the zone easier to scout.

It's important to note that you can only pass through rifts leading out of your zone. The rift leading from the corresponding enemy zone to yours can't be entered by you. Rifts are a one way trip.

A few times the three of us (Zot, Tora, myself) ran into groups of Asmodeans in Eltnen, and, being organized (over Vent) we were able to roll straight through them. Tora used her sleeping shot that she gained from a Ranger Stigma, I used Inescapable Judgment to snare and force them in, and Zot called targets. We found CCing the group's healer, then focusing on their squishy dps (Rangers/Assassins are easy targets) we were able to bring them down without any dramas. Against larger raids, we teamed up with our Legion and with other Elyos in the area, drove the invaders to make a stand against us, used Brands (will post on them in a few days) to mark up their Healers for our Alliance (Aion's version of a raid group; can contain up to 24 players from what I've seen), and call for focused fire on specific enemy players (take down yellow 1, etc).

Throughout our defeats and our successes, one truth rang clear. The defining factor in a PvP victory is, above all others, organization and communication. Levels, proper class balance, swift and accurate Branding, individual levels of gear, and individual levels of skill and awareness all play large parts, but even with them all, without communication all will fail. Our organized raid group of only twelve players (with only one Cleric and one Templar) was capable of driving the Asmos in Morheim back to their village and repulsing all their efforts at driving us back for upwards of an hour, until the fact that we were blocking off almost all transportation around their zone bottle necked their entire population towards us, and we were zerged by upwards of three times our number of players. Similarly, we were capable of bringing down larger, better geared, higher level, organized raids in our own territory by playing strategically, and using our superior knowledge of our own zone.

All of that said, there is a key item that is used in rifting (and, from what I understand, Fortress battles). That is the Kisk. Kisks are minature, portable Obelisks that allow you to bind at them, and then respawn at them when you die. Kisks can be limited to only one person, a group of six, or an entire raid of 24. They have a duration, and when it runs out, they disappear. They can be destroyed by the opposing faction if found, cannot be moved once placed, and have a limited number of respawns per Kisk.

Placing your group's Kisks in secure, out of the way locations is particularly important, and failure to protect a Kisk (through misdirection mostly, as once the enemy faction knows its location, the game's up) can usually mean the end of your raid. This is especially true since Rifts only stay open for a few hours, meaning that it's unlikely your raid will be able to return immediately if forced back to their home territories.

Another key thing concerning rifting is that after a set time in enemy territory, your players show on enemy maps as skulls, and can thus be hunted down with almost ridiculous ease. At this stage it is key to get your raid moving as fast as possible if you are killed and respawn at your Kisk, as failure to do so will ensure that your Kisk will be found and destroyed.

With that out of the way, I'll get to the point. Templars are awesome fun in PvP.

There you go. Basically, my role in the raid was thus: to assist with marking the enemy's Healers (Assassins and Rangers, with their stealth abilities, are better suited to this), and to ensure that they were exposed and unprotected for our raid to focus fire down.

I was able to accomplish this by binding my Brands to my numpad, and by using Inescapable Judgment to drag Healers out of the enemy's blob and into the open. Inescapable Judgment is a Stigma ability I've mentioned a few times now, and if you don't know what it is, I hope it's not my fault. It has a 15 meter range, and uses an energy beam to practically instantly drag your target to your location, stunning them briefly and then slowing them for 10 seconds. It can also be used to trap fleeing enemies, or bring ranged dps into the middle of your front line. Incredible ability. With its 30 second cooldown, using it at the wrong moment can and will prove fatal, but correct use of it makes you indispensable in any group.

While I don't do a great deal of damage as a low level, Block socketed Templar, I also don't take a lot of damage, and have abilities that make me immune to most CC, which allows me to rush the enemy lines and drag out key targets into dps range, if backed up by a quick dispeller and Healer. In addition to this, I made my Templar big. He's pretty huge compared to most characters, and thus is often targeted first, since he's obvious, and since I stand in front, which means that I block line of sight to the players behind me. While this won't help against a determined Tab-targeting player (too slow for effective PvP, but sometimes necessary to get a specific target) or if the player in question has been Branded by the enemy, it works more often than not, and makes me a prime target.

Inescapable Judgment doesn't just make the enemy's raid vulnerable on an individual level, it also can break their confidence, and force the enemy raid back. Furthermore, it is incredibly threatening, and the simple knowledge that I'm running up to drag their Healers out is enough to get most raids to focus fire on me. That doesn't help them much, since I'm ridiculously hard to kill when backed up. High physical defense and a good block value mean that, when kept healed, their damage is wasted on me, allowing dps to move up in my wake and quite literally destroy their front line.

I was able to augment the facts that I was a large target and an obvious and immediate threat by taunting the enemy. While they tried to taunt us with their cross-faction communication (player store messages can be read by both factions, make good use of them), ultimately I was able to goad a large number of their more touchy players into attacking me first regardless of the situation, simply by insulting them on a personal level. Instead of responding to their insults, I attacked their cowardice (hiding around high level npc guards) and in general called them out.

All of these methods and more can be used by a Templar to Tank in PvP. Awesome.

At higher levels, Templars can also use a Stigma that causes all damage done to one friendly target to be taken by them instead. Save your Healers. Your mitigation doesn't help, as you take damage at the rate the original target would've, but with your undoubtedly larger health pool you can save Healers who pull aggro in PvE, and save pretty much anyone you like in PvP. You have to stay close to them, but it's a small sacrifice. You're a human (or Daeva, I suppose) shield, get used to it.

In duels, I found Templar performance to be a little different. As a class we simply don't have the abilities to take some other classes down efficiently one on one. Good, max level Templars are practically the hardest class to kill, but a similarly skilled Ranger or Sorcerer will be able to kite you almost infinitely (although you can counter this to some extent). On the other hand, duels are one on one fights to the last point of health, and so are very different to world PvP, where you don't know your opponent's level, playstyle, Stigmas, gear, skill level, knowledge of the area... so on.

I've found that Assassins and Gladiators are fairly easy kills for a Templar in duels. They can't realistically escape from you to heal (and if they do, then they leave you a chance to heal as well, and believe me when I say that each point of your hp is more valuable than each point of theirs), and they don't have any significant ability to bring down a high armour melee class. Assassins hit fast, and with two weakish weapons, and so your physical defense is counted once per hit as usual, resulting in even less damage taken than against a Gladiator with a two-hander. The downside is that Assassins tend to have high Accuracy, and as I'll discuss in a future post, Accuracy reduces your Evade/Parry/Block stats -point for point-, meaning that you're down to your physical defense (the same as an equally geared Gladiator, by the way) to protect you. Good thing it's high.

One ability you'll find indescribably useful is Steel Wall Defense. Learned as early as level 22, it increase your Block value by 1000 points (very good for getting around your enemy's Accuracy rating), your physical defense by 15% (obviously useful against Rangers, Assassins, Templars, Gladiators and Chanters), and most importantly your Stun, Knock Back, Stumble, Rotation and Aether's Hold resistances by 100%. It decreases your attack speed by 50%, but who cares. What's important is that it is canceled the moment you use any other ability. Nevertheless, while up it turns you into some kind of god of resistance values, making you ridiculously hard to kite and immune to most CC.

Learn to use it effectively and you've got a real winner on your hands (combine with Inescapable Judgment and Shield Bash, a short term stun, for extra win).

Finally, use a greatsword. Not all the time, your shield and its abilities are what make you special. But suppose you're being kited by a Ranger. You finally manage to close to melee by using Steel Wall Defense and Inescapable Judgment, but you do small amounts of damage with your one-hand weapon, and are unlikely to get a reaction ability from a block off before the Ranger escapes. Hit swap weapons (default shift-z, though it can be put on your action bar or re-bound) and slam them a few times with your greatsword before swapping back to your shield the moment they pull away from you again. Keep this up and, in a duel at least, they might just die eventually.

Every class in Aion is great fun from what I've seen, but they aren't balanced for one on one viability against every other class. Don't expect to be able to always beat everyone else, and expect to be significantly weaker against some classes than others. Just practice, constantly PvP in defense of your leveling area (or offensively!), and you'll learn your own strengths and weaknesses, and by the time you hit the Abyss at 25, you'll be skilled enough to hold your own against most players. Just don't expect to get many kills in Abyss PvP while solo. Templars are hard to kill, but they have serious difficulty chasing people down. So Templars in PvP face the same problem as late game Chanters in PvE: they need to group to be effective.

There you go. Do with that what you will, but remember that Aion is a PvPvE game, and at the very least, to survive in this game you'll have to understand and enjoy your role in PvP combat. Go for it, young Templar. It's a fun world.