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.

Shenanigans in Morheim

We (RoF, our legion) did some rifting last night; or to be more precise, we all did the teleportation quest at once and ended up next to the Morheim fortress. After an aborted attempt that saw us back at our kisks, we settled into a controlled and coordinated descent down the mountain valley path, violently arse-reaming every Asmodian soul unfortunate enough to stand between us and the desert, our goal.

The descent was fairly smooth. We would gank everyone we ran into and periodically turn around to kill/disperse the Asmodians grouping up behind us. Eventually we had disrupted the zone's regional channel enough to warrant an ad hoc group of defenders waiting at the base of the mountain, which we clashed with. Unfortunately for us, every time we killed someone, they were replaced by two or three more. We saw upwards of 30-40 red dots on our radar and didn't expect to last much longer.

But... last we did. For six minutes we stood on that one ground as both the forward asmodian zerg and the one on our rear grew rapidly in number, pincering us from both sides. Our healers are fucking insane. It took minute for our first death and even then, we lasted for quite a while before succumbing to the insane zerg. My best estimate is that by the end, about one hundred Asmodians were on us. That's not an exaggeration. We also killed a lot of people -- my daily counter was in the mid hundreds but some of those were from the earlier attempt and our descent. I estimate about 140 Asmodians lost their lives in that 6 minute neo-style brawl.

Fortunately for us, I frap'sd the entire thing. Unfortunately for me, Adobe Premiere hates me... I wasted so much time trying to get a decent flick going. I just resorted to going back to WMM in the end :P. Click on the below vid once it's playing to go to the youtube site (or just click here) to see it full size in HD.

Elyos vs. Asmodian

The first time I heard about Aion, I tucked into the official faction page. I saw the two races: the pretty good guys and the ugly bad guys. Formulaic, I thought at the time. I'm the kind of metal loving ex black-wearing anti-bogan that loves all things dark and broody so naturally I gravitated towards the Asmodian side. Mostly dark skin... okay, they can make pale skin too, that's absolutely fine by me. Hmm, it seems they're not ugly at all. Tails? Oh, manes, weird. Kind of cool, though. Wow, red glowing eyes! Black raven-esque wings, neat claws too! But they are clearly less pretty than the Elyos. It is obvious that Elyos will be the zerg faction, as Alliance was in WoW... and I love playing for the horde underdogs.


Asmodian it is.

Alas, fate had its wicked way with me. I found the perfect legion, which unfortunately was Elyos. So I made the sacrifice and here I am... a gothic metalhead in a sunblighted Elysian body.

Just kidding. I look about as metal as David Mitchell.

The transition wasn't soft. As I got more into the lore, it turns out the furbacks are pretty much as metal as they sound, while Elyos transformed from goody-two-shoes (a forgivable crime) into arrogant selfish short-sighted ignorant little shits. Joy. Still, they get the best endgame wings imo so it's not a total loss.

As awesome as black crow wings are, these do take the
caek... and quite royally at that.

Weeks passed and I got used to it, though I still retained my long-seated view that Elyos would be the more popular faction. It didn't help that there was no single poll on such matters; only dozens of individual faction polls from around the world. Our own oceanic poll had the Elyos ahead but almost everywhere else had the Asmodians in quite a kickarse lead. Still, I reasoned, that's just the beta community -- in general, we're more switched on and I guess that unique sort of sub-community gravitates towards the Asmodian culture. But come live, surely the masses will choose the pretty side. I just couldn't imagine Joe Sixpack ever even considering playing something with a mane.

Over time that view evolved to be what it is today: we're facing an Asmodian zerg. While I'm happy with that as an Elyos player, it has still genuinely surprised me. In every game I've played, the pretty/ostensibly good side has been the most populous by far. Even WoW's horde only became truly popular after the addition of Blood Elves to their side. What makes Aion different? Is it because the "uglier" side isn't all that ugly after all? Is it because the more visceral faction has the perfect blend of beauty and beast? Are Asmodians the marijuana of dark factions: the first step Joe Sixpack has been unwilling to take until Aion? Will he next be rolling Sith when TOR is released?

Or... is it just because Elyos really are pretty damn generic? Aion has thus far proven to be a rather unique world but in this world where even the critters stand out, Elyos are still pretty much just pretty rich kids from skin to bone. There's nothing particularly endearing or attractive about them and when you actually get down to it, they're actually a rather repulsive people. Things on their whoops-list include heresy, genocide and border-line retarded leaders.

Perhaps an oversimplification. Yes, those are my mad mspaint skillz

I don't know. The world is more foreign to me than it has ever been.

/cuts self with claws