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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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!

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

this is the true definition of epic

I CAN SEE FOREVER.

Look at all the little people.

WE CLAIM THIS LAND IN THE NAME OF RoF!

I don't have much to say other than it was truly epic and awesome. Of course, with such a huge mass of players on both sides coming together in the same place, people were disconnecting and crashing left, right, and center. I myself suffered a drastic framerate drop, and was lucky enough to only crash once. Ironic, considering my pc crashes at least 4 times a day when I'm playing Aion. You peons can now feel my pain, hahaha!

A huge shoutout to players on both sides who were present at the raid, thank you for an awesome experience. Can't wait to go back out there at 50.

Moar Saucy PvP

A bigger and more action packed compilation of recent rifting experiences. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to be one big flowing session as with the first vid due to youtube's 10 minute limit xD. Once again I leave commentary throughout. I also saved the best footage for last. Click through for a larger version.



Upcoming: a Morheim invasion with just the three of us. ^^

Rifts and You

If you're confused about rifts and want to know what the deal is with them, look no further. I'm here to help. Rifts periodically open between Asmodae and Elysea. There doesn't appear to be any set time between the opening of a rift (though I've heard 2 hours) and sometimes, it doesn't even open both ways. In any case, the opening of a rift will broadcast a message to everybody in the zone and everybody who enters the zone for as long as the rift stays open. You can also look up into the sky and see a blue swirling vortex indicating a rift is open somewhere in the zone.

This one was in a higher level section of Eltnen. We had our
work cut out for us reaching the lower level parts of Morheim <.>

The first zone you'll encounter Rifts in is Eltnen (Elyos) or Morheim (Asmodians). There can only be one rift up in a zone of each type (exit and entry) and they spawn at one of several designated locations. The other two zones that can have rifts between them are Heiron (Elyos) and Beluslan (Asmodians).

One of the easiest way to see rift locations on your map is to copy and paste the following into your in-game memopad. Then you can simply click the links and they will show on the map.

Elyos Eltnen->Morheim Rifts
Eltnen [pos:Entrance A <12>;210020000 183.269086357947 2829.47434292866 0.0 -1] Morheim [pos:Exit A;220020000 745.420675537359 1872.32548618219 0.0 -1]
Eltnen [pos:Entrance B <20>;210020000 824.070087609512 2023.46683354193 0.0 -1] Morheim [pos:Exit B;220020000 1364.66325486182 1334.96622313204 0.0 -1]
Eltnen [pos:Entrance C <35>;210020000 1655.10888610763 1858.26032540676 0.0 -1] Morheim [pos:Exit C;220020000 617.477993858751 209.070624360287 0.0 -1]
Eltnen [pos:Entrance D <35>;210020000 1024.32040050063 61.0137672090112 0.0 -1] Morheim [pos:Exit D;220020000 1820.13920163767 1309.37768679632 0.0 -1]
Eltnen [pos:Entrance E <45>;210020000 1459.8648310388 581.664580725907 0.0 -1] Morheim [pos:Exit E;220020000 1559.13613101331 2757.68884339816 0.0 -1]
Eltnen [pos:Entrance F <50>;210020000 2210.80350438048 2644.24280350438 0.0 -1] Morheim [pos:Exit F;220020000 2613.38382804504 2235.68270214944 0.0 -1]
Eltnen [pos:Entrance G <50>;210020000 2180.76595744681 541.614518147685 0.0 -1] Morheim [pos:Exit G;220020000 2930.68167860798 879.490276356192 0.0 -1]

Elyos Heiron->Beluslan Rifts
Heiron [pos:Entrance A <24>;210040000 2662.01160005043 434.266044634977 0.0 -1] Beluslan [pos:Exit A;220040000 126.507629704985 1061.38860630722 0.0 -1]
Heiron [pos:Entrance B <36>;210040000 1300.266548985 1437.9225822721 0.0 -1] Beluslan [pos:Exit B;220040000 1067.50457782299 313.677517802645 0.0 -1]
Heiron [pos:Entrance C <48>;210040000 1103.57004160888 656.180052956752 0.0 -1] Beluslan [pos:Exit C;220040000 1036.98575788403 2073.59613428281 0.0 -1]
Heiron [pos:Entrance D <48>;210040000 649.655024587063 1821.22859664607 0.0 -1] Beluslan [pos:Exit D;220040000 2125.49033570702 456.098677517803 0.0 -1]
Heiron [pos:Entrance E <60>;210040000 725.307527424032 2512.18812255705 0.0 -1] Beluslan [pos:Exit E;220040000 2863.02848423194 542.568667344863 0.0 -1]
Heiron [pos:Entrance F <60>;210040000 503.393519102257 555.310049174127 0.0 -1] Beluslan [pos:Exit F;220040000 2725.69379450661 2343.17904374364 0.0 -1]
Heiron [pos:Entrance G <72>;210040000 2742.70760307654 2078.44710629177 0.0 -1] Beluslan [pos:Exit G;220040000 1744.00508646999 1900.65615462869 0.0 -1]

Asmodian Morheim->Eltnen Rifts
Morheim [pos:Entrance A <12>;220020000 450 2350 0.0 -1] Eltnen [pos:Exit A;210020000 718.938673341677 2779.41176470588 0.0 -1]
Morheim [pos:Entrance B <20>;220020000 750 920 0.0 -1] Eltnen [pos:Exit B;210020000 383.519399249061 1277.53441802253 0.0 -1]
Morheim [pos:Entrance C <35>;220020000 250 500 0.0 -1] Eltnen [pos:Exit C;210020000 1289.65206508135 2438.98623279099 0.0 -1]
Morheim [pos:Entrance D <35>;220020000 1650 1400 0.0 -1] Eltnen [pos:Exit D;210020000 93.1564455569462 246.245306633292 0.0 -1]
Morheim [pos:Entrance E <45>;220020000 1630.78403275333 1099.5516888434 0.0 -1] Eltnen [pos:Exit E;210020000 1329.70212765957 346.370463078848 0.0 -1]
Morheim [pos:Entrance F <50>;220020000 2400 2300 0.0 -1] Eltnen [pos:Exit F;210020000 2295.9098873592 2278.7859824781 0.0 -1]
Morheim [pos:Entrance G <50>;220020000 2450 600 0.0 -1] Eltnen [pos:Exit G;210020000 2586.27284105131 651.752190237797 0.0 -1]

Asmodian Beluslan->Heiron Rifts
Beluslan [pos:Entrance A <24>;220040000 233.323499491353 150.910478128179 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit A;210040000 2132.44408019165 434.266044634977 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance B <36>;220040000 1301.48219735504 634.12512716175 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit B;210040000 1955.92157357206 1821.22859664607 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance C <48>;220040000 767.402848423194 2226.19023397762 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit C;210040000 871.569032908839 903.311562224183 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance D <48>;220040000 2069.53916581892 262.812817904374 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit D;210040000 861.482032530576 2194.44761064179 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance E <60>;220040000 2842.68260427263 618.865717192269 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit E;210040000 291.566511158744 2658.44962804186 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance F <60>;220040000 2812.16378433367 2561.89725330621 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit F;210040000 362.175513806582 514.962047661077 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance G <72>;220040000 1596.49745676501 2053.2502543235 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit G;210040000 1905.48657168075 2577.75362501576 0.0 -1]

It's beneficial to have both Elyos and Asmodian sets on your map, so you can see where your enemies are flooding in from. Note that rifts are one way for both races. You can't go back through a rift you came in from and you can't enter an attacker's rift.

Rifts last for up to 26 minutes before they disperse. They also have level requirements; generally, the further the rift is from the fortress, the higher the level requirements. It also works in the opposite way, though... the closer you are to the fortress, the lower your level has to be for you to enter. This is to help prevent mass ganking by high levels xD. Each rift has a set number of people that can enter before it disperses; generally the lower level the rift, the fewer people it lets in.

Finally, be prepared when you step inside! The place will be crawling with enemy players and they would love no more than to zerg your sorry arse. Keep moving and don't ever let yourself get pinned down in one location. Avoid the heavy questing areas (you'll learn to recognise them). If you have 40k to spare, purchase a Group Kisk before you enter and place it somewhere safe and out of the way on the other side, to give your group a respawn should things go awry. And if you kill too many low level players, you'll get cursed -- you will be displayed on the map to all enemy players. The curse shows in the top right of your screen when you have it.

Happy rifting!

Saucy PvP

Tora and Sada weren't online and I was sick of waiting, so I just ran out to the abyss to hunt some furbacks. Fortunately I remembered to turn fraps on this time. This was recorded a few days ago; the same area is swarming with furbacks now :P. Unfortunately we've had an Aion break over the weekend and so I don't have much more footage than this. I'll make sure to remember to fraps everything we find this week ^^.

Shining Slash: Brands

As I've mentioned in the past, co-ordinating a group's attacks is vital to success in both PvE and PvP. The combined firepower of 24 people on one Cleric is going to bring him down before any other Healers in the vicinity even have time to start casting. But how are you going to make that elusive magic happen? Yelling over Ventrilo doesn't do the job, isolating people with Inescapable Judgment helps, but the final word in getting people to hit the same bloody target is Branding.

While leading a group of any kind, or as the vice captain of a raid, you can mark targets with Brands: bright, obvious icons that stick above the player or mob you put them on until you "unbrand" them. Calling for people to kill the "yellow two" actually gives them a blatant target to hit.



In dungeons, marking targets is the obvious way to go, as it provides dps with a clear kill order, practically guaranteeing that your party will focus fire each mob down in turn, allowing for much easier Tanking and Healing, as well as throwing the dps an easy way to physically select their targets. It also can be used to mark dangerous mobs like patrols, so people can keep an eye on them, or targets for CC (the Zzz Brand is not only funny, but logical!).

In group PvP, it provides the same utility, but as PvP tends to move a lot faster, the prime uses of Brands are to mark up the enemy Healers for quick takedowns, and to mark your own Healers/Tanks, so people know who to stay within range of if they want to live, and who to run to when in danger.

Utility aside, there is one element of skill in Branding, and that is speed. The faster you can do it, the more effective it is. In Nochsana the last two days, I've pulled like lightning (haha, because Inescapable Judgment is a lightning bolt...), leaving barely seconds between most fights. I'm only Branding the primary dps target (Zot is good with CC, and generally trees then sleeps the secondary or tertiary target, or the Nochsana Doc if we're fighting one, since they dispel CC on other mobs), but I still have to be quick about it. As such, I use keybinds.

In your keybind options, you can set any key you want for any Brand. Not only that, but you can set keys to select Branded mobs. I use my Num Pad (1 through 9) to Brand targets, and I use Ctrl-Num Pad (1 through 9) to select the same targets. This is quick, easy, and allows marking of up to nine targets; more than enough in most fights.

Basically? Get some practice using them. If you're leading a group, get used to marking for dps or CC, and if you're not, then why not go bind some keys to select specific Brands that your leader is fond of using, so you can select your target in the blink of an eye. Either way, learn to love them, because you'll be using them in every situation imaginable while in a group.

Gankfest / Grindfest

I get intimate with Fraps and Movie Maker.





View them on YouTube for full HD yummyness (click the embedded vid twice) and their full descriptions of what's going on.

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.