[art] The Song of a Bird

I look back: the sun-baked railway tracks are hidden
By stormclouds- even if they change their shape,
May we always remember
The yesterdays left behind by the seasons...

Shining Slash: Stigmas

Enjoy this Stigma Builder. I'm thinking that this looks good for PvE Tanking so far, but I'll test various builds once max level.

[art] Break & Peace

Destroy, Break & Peace
Do it now in order to light the darkness that is silently pressing in
Destroy, Fate & Fear
With those inborn instincts, seize hold of everything
Right now, I just want to hold the truth

Official Open Beta dates!

Straight from Ayase's Twitter:

Aion Open Beta will take place between the 6th of September and the 13th of September.

Pre-selection will be on 18th September, and Headstart begins on 20th September.

Put ya guns on!

Shining Slash: Biting off more than you can chew

Part 3

This column will aim to help new players or people not acquainted with the fine arts of Tanking to gain an understanding of the mechanics, ideas and application of a Tanking class.

If you've ever attacked a mob in an MMO, you've experienced Aggro firsthand. As the gargantuan snake monster bore down on your avatar, the thought that it would be nice if you could kill it without it attacking you likely passed through your mind. Tanks are there to scratch that itch.
The most important role a Tank fills for their group is, of course, letting the group do its thing without the big bad guy chop them into bite sized pieces.

It is unfortunate then that many players, even as they attempt the highest tier of PvE content available to them in a game, fail to understand the basic principles behind Aggro.
When a damage dealing player prides themselves on never falling for a boss's tricks, and never hurting their raid's performance, but regularly gets the attention of said boss, they have failed to understand a thing that they had supposedly had to learn to get to that point.

The person who "has Aggro" is generally the person with the most Enmity. Enmity is a representation of how much of a threat you are to the mob in question. When you attack a mob, its Enmity towards you increases by an amount presumably equal to the amount of damage you did in that hit. Similarly, Healing will generate Enmity. It is important to note that Enmity is invisible in Aion. You have to take a guess as to how close you are to pulling Aggro off of the Tank (I would advise playing regularly with the same Tank, to get a feel for how much Enmity they generate, so you know what you can pull off without killing yourself). While some classes have defensive abilities that reduce a mob's total Enmity against them (permanently or temporarily), others have abilities that generate more Enmity than usual.

In Aion, the Templar class has, inside the first ten levels, access to four abilities which are designed to help them hold Aggro. These abilities all generate high levels of Enmity (one is passive, and increases Enmity done by all attacks!). By using these abilities as soon as possible and as regularly as possible a Templar will generate enough Enmity to hold Aggro, and keep their group safe.

Of course, it's rarely that simple. If every Tank could just keep Aggro without a worry, it would be unimportant and boring, not to mention far, far too easy. As is immediately apparent, gear plays a large part in Enmity generation. Luck, high damage dealing stats and higher quality gear than their Tank can easily cause a damage dealer to pull Aggro, especially with a Tank they are unfamiliar with.

Most pulls in PvE group content aren't single monsters, either. Pulls of two, three or even more mobs are commonplace. Tanking them all with one Tank can be impractical (multiple spellcasters at opposite sides of a room), impossible (the collective damage output of the monsters vastly outweighs the collective healing output of the group's Healers), and at times merely challenging. Yet most content is designed to be attempted with a single Tank, and so all Tanks must know how to keep Aggro on multiple targets at the same time.

Step one: have the damage dealers all attack the same target

This is usually the most practical way to help keep Aggro controlled. Enmity is not cumulative between players, and so the Tank need only stay ahead of the damage dealer generating the most Enmity. This is vastly, vastly more practical than having the damage dealers attack targets of their choice, which will require the Tank to generate high amounts of Enmity against all targets in a pull, which is, at times, impossible. It is also vital to let the damage dealers know in what order to kill all of the mobs in the pull, not just the first.

Step two: use crowd control

While the Tank is an avatar of crowd control, more direct methods are advisable if the collective damage output of a pull is too much to handle, or if there are simply a vast number of mobs in the pull, regardless of damage output. Assigning damage dealers to CC specified targets by sleeping, entangling, stunning or kiting them (or anything else that comes to mind) can put individual dangerous mobs out of a pull entirely, allowing the group to leave them last.
Unfortunately, as Aion appears to lack an "instant Aggro" button (Taunt in World of Warcraft made me soft!), and as Healing generates Enmity on all targets, including CC'd enemies, the moment that the CC breaks on a target it is likely to run off and pummel the Healer. Immediately apparent solutions include leaving the mob 'til last and kiting it while the Tank builds Enmity, or having the Tank use a non-damaging high Enmity ability (damage often breaks CC, be warned) while Tanking the other mobs. A similarly immediately recognizable flaw is that this means the Tank will generate less Enmity on the main targets as they are using an ability regularly on a CC'd target. This leads me to...

Step three: have the damage dealers hold back

If a Tank has trouble with generating enough Enmity, one quick fix is to have the damage dealers just CC for the first, say, 10 seconds of a fight, giving the Tank ample time to generate Enmity on all necessary targets. Which leads logically to: if you pull Aggro, don't keep attacking the target until the Tank has re-established Aggro.
You'll be signing your own death warrant, and nobody will miss you.

Step four: break up your abilities intelligently

The primary target is going to be the one that the Tank needs to generate the highest Enmity against to hold Aggro, naturally. Thus, the Tank need only generate enough Enmity against all other targets to keep them off of the Healer. As a Tank, figure out how few abilities you can use and still hold Aggro on all secondary targets. Many games use the Tab button to cycle through nearby enemies. This is usable, but unreliable and usually too slow. It also encourages laziness. As a Tank know all your enemies, know which ones to hit when, and target them manually. Thanks to the fact that each attack takes time to occur, clicking on each target in turn is hardly too slow. Be fast, be accurate, be prepared to break off and get a mob back if it goes after the Healer.

Thus, if you take nothing else away from this, remember that Tanking is not a one man job. For a dungeon run to go as smoothly as possible, the entire group must work in concert to that end.

Formal Apology:
That was too long. Oops. I'll likely make this easier on peoples eyes once Aion is in full swing. Videos and the like. Fun for the whole Legion. That and more in depth, specific guides. How to Tank specific dungeons, bosses, pulls. Templar leveling guide.

One last thing, though. As noted, Enmity isn't cumulative between players. One thing to remember while playing Aion is that there are multiple quests that require you to get a mob to follow you to the questgiver. This is supposed to, presumably, teach players that doing more damage to mobs gets them to chase you further (so higher Enmity means they'll follow you more).

What a few people don't seem to have taken away from this is that, in groups, only one person should ever hit the mob. Anyone else hitting it is wasting everyone's time. They aren't helping, and they're making it more likely that the mob will die before reaching its destination.

Please take that on board.

Rangers - A guide for WoW hunters

Ever seen a Hunter in WoW pull that off? I doubt it...

I've read in a lot of places that many WoW players will be switching over to Aion once it goes live. Three of my WoW friends will be playing the Open Beta with me, and at least another two are interested in it. Considering Hunters are the most played class in Aion, and that Rangers are Aion's equivalent to Hunters, I thought this guide might help some people.

When I say "Rangers are Hunter equivalents", I mean that in the loosest way possible. Rangers are probably only similar to Hunters in the sense that they both use bows. Let me list some key differences.

• Rangers do not have pets.
  
• Did you get that one? Rangers do not have pets.
• Rangers are one of the hardest classes in Aion to level up solo.
• A key component of Rangers' utility is kiting.
• There is no such thing as a "stat stick".
• Rangers do not have a deadzone.
  

Rangers do not have pets.
Put Fluffy back in the stables, because Aion Rangers don't have pets. The pet class of this game is the Spiritmaster, which is probably closer to WoW's Warlocks. This leads up to my second point-

Rangers are one of the hardest classes in Aion to level up solo.
Because they don't have what is essentially a second dps with them, Rangers are the hardest class to level in Aion. The lack of a pet to tank mobs for you means you'll either take the mobs hitting you in the face and heal after every fight, or learn how to kite.

I suggest the latter option, because-

A key component of Rangers' utility is kiting.
While in WoW vanilla a Hunter was the only class capable of kiting anything worth a damn, that fine art has since become a rarity since Burning Crusade was released. It got even worse with Wrath, where the mantra seems to be "pew pew first, ask questions never".

If you're a Hunter and you've never kited in your life, have no fear, for the first few levels of Aion Ranger levelling will teach you. Well, not literally. But it helps that the mobs around you while you're trying to kite are neutral and non-aggressive.

There is no such thing as a "stat stick".
By the way, did I ever mention that melee for Rangers is absolutely worthless? You're forced to play like a rogue from levels 1 to 10, but after you get your bow, sell your daggers and never buy another one again.

Ever.

See, in Aion you can only have one weapon equipped at a time. If you ever fancy sticking a knife up a pig-man's butt halfway through the fight, you're gonna have to switch to your melee weapons manually. Considering melee abilities for Rangers are really nothing special (at least at lower levels), you're pretty much just better off finishing them off with your bow. Even if they're clawing at your face, because-

Rangers do not have a deadzone.
What's that? You need a new pair of pants? It's alright, I understand.

Rangers can shoot at mobs in melee range. Point blank.

I really don't know what else I can add here besides "heck yes".

I'll probably be covering other points over the next few days. For now, I'll let this digest. ^^

I can't help but compare

With the conclusion of CB6, the three of us have been slowly going mad from Aion withdrawal. Sensing the kind of eventless two-week endurance march I experienced between CB5 and CB6 would recur, I convinced them to join me in creating a new WoW character... purely for shits, of course. Lewin created a Tauren Hunter to fill the DPS role, Tora created a Droodcow to moo-roar at things while I created a Porgus Shaman to heal the three of us and chuck wayward DPS the rest of the time. Orc. I meant orc shaman.

It's reasonably fun. We have the kind of group make up to take on any situation and we find ourselves three-manning dungeons above our level. We're currently at 20, cruising around the barrens obliterating pigmen (do you know how many pigmen a group of three needs to kill to fulfil the quest for everybody? :X). Unless they've shot ahead... I don't have access to an internet connection capable of loading past the login screen at the moment D:

Life isn't easy as a lowbie healing shaman. All I can really do for offense is auto-attack and do the odd shock spell, or I'll run out of mana. I can only cast about eight healing waves before I run out of mana so I need to keep it reasonably full for when Lewin goes nuts and pulls fifteen harpies at once. I can't help but compare the experience to Aion, a game where my shaman (which translated into Aion would be either a Chanter or Cleric) would be dishing damage out with reckless abandon, attacking and casting damage spells freely and still have the mana at any time to heal my group through a storm. Where it rains concrete. And the lightning bolts have sharks attached to them.

Not only that, but the attacks would have oomph -- instead of just spamming lightning bolt and frost shock, I'd be mixing up melee abilities and casting abilities which chain into more awesome abilities. The full action-oriented gameplay that one might expect to be exclusive to other, more dps-centric classes.

Sure, I know it gets better. At some point I'll have my mana totem, my chain heal, my mp5 regeneration, earth shield, a generally larger set of gameplay-rewarding abilities. That'll start to happen around level 40 or so, with the core gameplay emerging in the 60's. While I'd be there already if I was playing solo for a full week, with my group of three, we can expect such class maturity only coming well after the Aion Open Beta event. In WoW, the first six levels are the main tutorial. After that, the gameplay matures on the road to 80... g r a d u a l l y.

In contrast, the first ten levels of Aion are the introductory levels, mainly to the game rather than your class. I timed myself completing the 1-10 segment in just under three hours in CB5, after learning the area with a previous character. The 'core play' opens up almost immediately depending on the class you chose at ten and expands rapidly on the road to twenty. Now by twenty, things are pretty mature. You've got most of your core abilities that define your class and you've likely been having an absolute blast getting there, especially if you've been playing with a friend or three as these games are best suited for. There's more, though. I've only been to twenty myself, but at that level, I got my first Stigma ability.

Stigmas, combined with gear customisation, form the class specialisation function in Aion. Rather than improve existing abilities, they give you new ones. An example would be the Gladiator class being able to heal themselves or dual wield weapons, Sorcerers cursing opponents into trees, etcetera. Everyone can have up to five of these additional abilities (unlocked with your level), and with version 1.5, three additional Advanced Stigmas which tend to be more powerful but require certain basic stigma combinations. These abilities only add to your selection, they never replace abilities.

In early WoW the designers intended to have only the first 10-20 levels quested, with grinding for the rest. The people let their voice be heard: the game was boring without quests. Where in WoW I will avoid monsters we don't need and get bored mindlessly grinding, in Aion I actively seek it. The gameplay of Aion is, at its core, superior. Where a fight in WoW is a burden or a means to an end, in Aion the fight is worth it for its own sake. For fun.

This is why we're pining for Aion.

[art] The Howl Towards Tomorrow

Stand up and dance graciously oh soldier subjected to thy Fate
Become the origins of tomorrow's peace
Heat up and sprout majestically oh thy soul thou has given to the Heavens
Become the shield for the weak and then lead the world

[art] Please give me wings!

I want to spread my wings
and fly into this wide sky!
I want to flap my wings and fly to this
free sky filled with happiness!

[art] Love is War

I will protect you, this is a war
Whatever it takes, there is no time to choose means
In order to let you understand the extend of my love
I will protect you with all my might

Shining Slash: Announcement?

I'll post more Shining Slash on a weekly basis. These opening posts are generic to introduce non-Tanking players to the concepts, or to help new Tanks, as the first Shining Slash states. More in depth concepts will be discussed as time goes on.

Shining Slash: Making the best of what you've got

Part 2

This column will aim to help new players or people not acquainted with the fine arts of Tanking to gain an understanding of the mechanics, ideas and application of a Tanking class.

While the first post in this column should have helped players without an idea of what a Tank is get a grip on the concept, it only touched upon the many roles that a Tanking player can accomplish within the capacity of a Tanking position.

The first and from some perspectives most obvious (while from others, least!) is that the Tank of a group is often its de facto leader. A group's Tank is in a natural position of power, literally pulling the group forward as he or she chooses, plans and executes every pull. While a Healer or damage dealer can lead a group, they lack the class mechanisms for physically leading their fellow players onwards. Any class can pull, but it is rarely effective or useful, as it greatly endangers their lives in the first few seconds of the pull, while the Tank attempts to gain Aggro on a number of moving mobs (all chasing after the player who pulled, who is during this time also unable to do any damage or healing without further endangering their life).

Furthermore, the Tank is, without exception, expected to be aware of the entire situation at hand at all times. The Tank must have an eye on all of the monsters that may become a threat at any time in the future. They must be aware of their group's mana and health pools. They must have foreknowledge of every encounter, of every patrolling mob that travels through the area, and of every enemy's abilities and how to deal with them. A Tank who is unaware of the challenges ahead severely limits their group's potential, and at many times is a severe liability. This inherent responsibility to know what is coming, and what to do when, is something that no other class is saddled with. In some encounters it is necessary for each member of a group or raid to perform individual tasks, which require immense knowledge and more than a bit of practice. This is not present in most content. Regardless of the level of content, the Tank must always know what to expect.
This requirement means that any Tank intending to be proficient at his or her job must strive for perfection and understanding of the game environment, which usually means that a Tank is more knowledgeable about the challenges that Player vs Environment content poses, which places them in a position of knowledge and power inside a group.

The planning stage of every pull is often overlooked by new players of any class and role. Marking up targets for CC, and the kill order, is crucial in most situations. The group leader, whose role this is, must make sure that the entire group is aware what marks mean what. Any possible patrols must be noted during planning as well, and carefully avoided, or pulled and cleared first if possible or necessary. Any additional mobs joining combat during a pull are issues a group doesn't want to have to deal with.
If additional mobs do pull, however, the Tank's list of jobs grows again, as they must without pause establish Aggro on all incoming targets, while also being aware of any players within their group attempting to CC an incoming target. If the Tank breaks CC accidentally by hitting a mob, the results can be disastrous. This is true for any member of the group, but it is more likely that the Tank will do this, as a good group of damage dealers will always attack the marked target, and leave crowd controlled targets alone.

It is imperative that while planning, pulling and picking up any adds, the Tank is aware of their limits. They must know at all times how many mobs they can hold Aggro on before they become stretched too thin to keep all targets attacking them. They must know at all times how many mobs they can hold Aggro on before the incoming damage is too high for the healer to heal through. If they lose Aggro and are unable to get it back immediately, or if they take a burst of damage too high to survive irrespective of healing, they have not performed optimally, and have put their group in great danger.

In addition to the above, a Tank may also perform class specific roles that other group members may also be required to perform. Spell interruption, kiting (keeping Aggro on a mob while staying out of its reach until either a defined point or its death, which is Tanking anyway!), stunning an enemy to save another group member who would die otherwise. These are but the start, and while all classes and roles have demands upon them, many players are unaware of what a Tank must do in order to give their group the best run possible, and even at times finish an encounter at all.

This may give the impression that vast responsibility rests on the shoulders of a group's Tank, and that is indeed the case.

A Tank must be skilled and knowledgeable beyond reproach. Thus, a new Tank must either play with understanding, greatly knowledgeable players, or must put great effort into learning and understanding the challenges they will face in the future. Legions and even the smallest group of regular players often have set groups of Tanks who have been in their groups for long periods of time. Thus, a new Tank is at an immediate disadvantage when looking for a role within a Legion or even a group for a dungeon. Be prepared to not see LF1M Tank very often. Despite the seeming rarity of Tank players in an MMO environment, established groups of players almost always have Tanks they always work with.

Not all hope is lost, a new Tank who understands all of this, and who has prepared accordingly (practice, study, have the best gear you can get at your level of content) can find a good group of players in need of a skilled and aware Tank.

Sandlol

Being a fan of traditional RPGs, I am naturally attracted to a game's Lore. Some games are better than others in this department but Aion, fortunately, has a good enough story for me to want to sink my teeth into. There's definitely not a large amount of lore compared to an established series like Warcraft or Ultima, but what is there is evidence that they have some sharp minds in the lorelol department.

A refreshing aspect of Lore in Aion is that it's told from the perspective of the Elyos and the Asmodians... and the facts don't always line up. There's no overarching set-in-stone universal truth told through the medium of a narrator or the like.

What is common between both sides is that Aion (a god) created Atreia, an inside-out hollow world where everyone walks around inside. The physical manifestation of his power - the tower of eternity - spanned from one side to the other. It provided warmth, light and other aspects of sustenance to the inhabitants of Atreia, guarded by two guardians: Israphel and Siel. Aion also created a buttload of races, including Humans and the Drakan.

The Drakan were meant to be rulers of the world. I can only guess that Aion isn't an omnipotent god... but maybe he just prefers to delegate. In any case, the Drakan unexpectedly evolved into power mongering world-rapers, renaming themselves the Balaur. The most powerful five of them became Dragon Lords, rulers of their kind. After committing lots of genocide and enslaving two species (the Mau and Krall), Aion decided he'd had enough of them. He empowered twelve humans, creating the Empyrean Lords, who took their forces to the Tower of Eternity -- the Balaur couldn't penetrate the shield around it.

Now that the background's in place, we get to the meat of it all.

Fast forward a thousand years of war. Israphel, one of the Tower guardians, unexpectedly came forward with his idea that the humans make peace with the Balaur. Lord (Lady?) Ariel leaped at the chance. She reasoned that humanity was safe inside the shield and that if possible, they should end the war with a peace agreement and just live on. Slowly, other Lords came to share the same desire. The remaining lords however, lead by Lord Azphel, were simply astonished. I'd imagine they mostly either just laughed ("lol, good one") or were too stunned by disbelief to offer a voice of reason. Eventually, the pro-peace lords persuaded the other Tower guardian, securing the vote.

Now, if you're the peace loving kind, you've probably come to the conclusion that this seems like a nice path to take, that the pro-peace side are "the goodies". Allow me to dispel this illusion.

First we consider the instigators of the war, the Balaur. These corrupted creatures enjoy genocide, slavery and warmongering. They are the embodiment of hunger for power, desiring everything in existence. As an example of the kind of lengths they would go to to get into the tower, they massacred entire races outside the shield in an attempt to draw the Empyrean Lords out. These creatures are the very embodiment of evil and of all the wars everywhere ever experienced by humanity, in Atreia or Earth, this is the most noble, the most justified.

"Okay," you might think to yourself, "so they're bad. But should we not strive for peace as an ideal?" If you are so inclined towards peace, sure. But -- and this is just a suggestion -- perhaps you should not strive for peace if your real, substantial god gave you immortality and super powers and the express command to rid Atreia of the Balaur. And, ya know, the peace treaty only includes your race, and not the other thousand or so races that are currently undergoing ethnic cleansing at the hands of the race you would be honour-bound not to fight.

Now, that's two paragraphs of reason. Repeat that to Israphel and Ariel and they'd have been all "oh, right" and dropped the subject before marching outside to grab their swords. Peace was a very ridiculous ideal and I'd bet all the lords would be feeling pretty silly about it, perhaps even a little humbled by their wavering faith, weaker in the eyes of their peers. But they didn't drop it. They went through with the peace proposal. And this wasn't just one Lord -- it was half the Empyrean Lords and both Tower guardians. Something smells fishy.

If you were one of the lords opposed to peace, you'd be pretty frustrated by now. And they were. Lord Azphel had probably popped a few veins by now, but nothing could have prepared him or the others for the next development.

The tower guardians and pro-peace lords dropped the Aetheric Shield to let the Balaur in for the peace meeting.

Yyyeeeeeeeeeeah.

Queue the vein popping. Making peace with evil incarnate is one thing; placing trust in evil incarnate is quite another. It's like inviting a pack of pedophiles in an orphanage. Or a class of school children into your cottage made of candy. Or the most underhanded power hungry evil race in existence into the place they've been fighting to get into for the last thousand years -- oh wait, that's not an analogy.

At this point, if you were one of the warmongering lords, you'd be past frustration and well into "okay just what is going on here". Lord Azphel made the first intelligent move of the night by pre-emptively killing one of the Dragon Lords. This triggered an earlier-than-planned Balaur invasion, which would presumably have tilted the scales slightly in the human's favour, but nothing more came of it -- the remaining four Dragon Lords were fine and the tower was destroyed nonetheless.

In the lore, neither side dwells any further on these events... but I am a dweller. I dwell. The gross incompetency displayed here is, in my opinion, beyond the capabilities of the Lords and guardians. War weariness can only explain so much. It is conceivable that one of them might start to waver, to have ideals of peaceful existence, before quietly mentioning it to a friend who then rapidly beats sense back into his or her head. But a full eight of fourteen, in the face of un-ignorable reasoning and logic and the direct command of Aion himself... seems a little inconceivable.

Did the Balaur have a hand in this? Were they able to find a way to project their influence through the Aetheric Shield?

I have a conspiracy theory: imagine the Guardians are sick of guarding. It's not so hard. Aion created the Drakan to rule, and that got out of hand. It's not such a stretch to imagine the Guardians thinking after a few thousand years "you know what, this sucks. We got the short end of the stick here. I want to go asplore". The Balaur know all about temptation... if they could have made conversation with Israphel, they could have planted the seeds of conspiracy. Israphel then lets Siel in on the plot: let the Balaur in, the Balaur take over the tower and Aion's power, Israphel and Siel are free to go on their way for their part.

Then there's the matter of the Empyrean Lords. Presumably they are stronger than the guardians, or Aion wouldn't have had need of them at all. Ariel, weary from the war, is approached and promised peace as long as Humans serve the Balaur. But not just peace: they are also promised power and luxury, a life for them and theirs that they couldn't possibly refuse.

The pawns are in place and the game begins. Israphel "convinces" Siel and the balaur-influenced Lords. They put on a show, pretending to mull it over thoughtfully. The false peace agreement provides the pretense for lowering the shield and letting the Balaur in... but instead of taking over the Tower, they destroy it! They have a much greater source of power, after all. Israphel and Siel go wtf, realise the error of their ways and sacrifice themselves to save Atreia... or alternatively, fake their own deaths (Atreia is currently dying, so it's plausible!). The balaur-influenced Lords go south and claim their prize: a land bathed in the light of their new star, pouring through the now shattered exterior of Atreia.

But, the lore-writers probably aren't that clever. Or are they? Dun-dun-dun...

Shining Slash: It's dangerous to go alone, take this with you

This column will aim to help new players or people not acquainted with the fine arts of Tanking to gain an understanding of the mechanics, ideas and application of a Tanking class.

Tanks. A character archetype and group role common through MMOs, Tanks hold the front line in combat. Their role is, first and foremost, to soak damage. The one trait of a class capable of Tanking, across the board, is that they have a way to mitigate incoming damage in a serious way. This can be represented by high damage resistance, a high chance to avoid damage altogether (evade, dodge), or a way to stay out of the enemy's reach, and so avoid damage.
This in and of itself does not make a Tank (the last example especially).

The second trait a Tank must have is the ability to keep the enemy focused on them. Aggro, as it is most commonly known, refers to the act of an enemy creature attacking a specific target. When you "have Aggro", the enemy in question is attacking you.

Thus: a Tank is a character who is both capable of a) keeping enemies attacking them, and nobody else, and b) significantly reducing or completely removing all incoming damage to themselves.

Tanks are important to groups for a number of reasons, but most obviously the fact that they don't take as much damage as other players, and so are less likely to die before a heal cast reaches them, and that they will need less healing than any other player. Tanks are meat-shields, at the most base level.
By having a Tank in your party your Healers will take longer to run out of mana, your group will be able to take on more opponents at a time, and you'll be able to challenge and defeat bosses or elite monsters that you wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

At first glance they seem useful, but in many situations they are close to necessary. Consider an elite mob in Aion. It has a particularly large health pool, and will take around a minute to kill for a solo Sorcerer, if they are using their CC (Crowd Control) abilities appropriately. Things get complicated when a CC ability gets resisted, or a second elite is alerted. The presence of lone Healer, or indeed a lone Tank, won't improve the Sorcerer's chances of surviving. A heal or two would be nice, but when the Sorcerer dies in one or two hits from even one elite, no amount of healing is going to save his life.

Add a tank AND a Healer, and suddenly the group can chew through elites in half the time it would've taken for the lone Sorcerer, and can take on groups of two or more! With a Tank up front taking the hits, the Healer keeping him from dying, and the Sorcerer dealing enough damage to kill the elites before the healer runs out of mana as well as CCing a third elite as necessary, this group is ready for just about any challenge the game can throw at them. More damage dealers would help, and in rare situations more healers or more tanks, but this three man group is more than capable of, with some smart maneuvering and an eye on surrounding enemies, clearing through elite monsters without too much difficulty.

A Tank can even help speed up grinding or questing in non-elite areas, as they can ensure that even with unluckily pulled additional monsters, there will be no deaths among his or her teammates. This is the role of a Tank, before all others: to protect other players by putting themselves in between the others and those who would do them harm.

Patch 1.5 trailer

Initial impressions of awesome! Spoiler warning if you keep reading!

• That huge dragon-that-looks-like-a-boss reminds me of Nightbane. What with the being a huge dragon and being on fire and all.
• Looks like Poeta will be razed to the ground. NOOO NOT DAMINU! D:
• All the new dungeons/instances look really cool, can't wait to get my hands on 'em.
• SKY PIRATES! And Shugo. :3
  

Zot discusses: CBT6 day three~

The two fine people below me saw fit to grant me access to their blog. This will be both a blessing and a curse for them I wager, for while I will contribute positively to the blog, it will always be under an ominous shadow. The ever present chance that I could post something jaw-droppingly retarded, the likes of which would send this blog down into the bowels of hell, festering amongst the thrice-damned blackened souls that wander those brimstone halls.

Uh... yeah, so Aion! Ever since a friend introduced me to Aion, I have been clinging to it in some form or another. Normally I wouldn't bother with an MMO: the vast majority are absolute arse. The success rate of MMORPGs is somewhere in the low tens. But feedback has been good... all of my friend's friends who were playing it were reporting back in the positive. That's not how MMOs work! They gather hype! They string people along and only a few months after release do people realise that WoW really deserves its massive subscriber base! Yes, I'm an ex-WoWer and I don't mean that in a recovering-addict kind of way. I loved the game, but as all games eventually do, it got stale. One of the things I wished I did in WoW was preorder the collector's edition and take part in the closed betas, experience the early versions that you could recall to your grandguildren years on. And, ya know... own a cute baby panda pet that's rarer than a legitimate Stone of Jordan in Diablo II.

Lewin fails at fishing. IT'S TO YOUR RIGHT

So when a collector's edition of Aion appeared on Steam for $50 less than retail, containing special wings and items and a founder's title, I preordered it. My first beta was Closed Beta 5. Since then, every other game I play has a dull edge. It just... isn't Aion. After it ended I found myself pining for CB6... and now that CB6 is over, I pine for the early access awarded to us preordering folk.

I should probably talk about the game :P. I'm Zot/duckInferno, "that friend from World of Warcraft" who is having a love affair with the Sorcerer class. The term usually applied to the magic dps role is 'glass cannon' and the this class is no different. We have powerful bursty offensive spells as well as spells which serve to increase the distance between you and your target, all cast from the squishy cloth-covered cardboard cutout that is the Sorcerer. Woe betide you if a monster gets up to you and you do nothing about it!

We found armour dyes, Lewin makes a funny

Fortunately, there's plenty of abilities to prevent this. A good opening spell is Ice Chain, a damage spell with a modest cooldown that slows your target. It chains into another spell called Frozen Shock which physically pushes the mob back and staggers it (a form of stun). We have an instant root that breaks on damage, a sleep on a 15 second cooldown which puts a mob out of action for 20 seconds, an area of effect cold spell (kind of like WoW's frost nova) which freezes everything in its range in place... and my personal favourite, Blind Leap.

Blind Leap is a spell that instantly teleports you a distance backwards (and it's free! thirty second cooldown, though). WoW has a similar Mage ability called Blink, which teleports you forward instead of backwards. I find that Aion's approach is much more fluid: when you use it, you're instantly teleported backwards, still facing your target without losing your point of reference. In PvP, Blind Leap also clears your enemy's target so it really does work as a nice spell for gaining a few seconds of time. Combined with Aion's smaller 'global cooldown' between abilities, this all makes for Blind Leap being one hell of a sexy ability and probably my favourite Sorcerer spell.

All offensive spells have a small cooldown with no easily discernable 'rotation', requiring you to instead prioritise... or just go nuts casting whatever is available. Spells can also chain, activating other more powerful spells, making for truly action-oriented gameplay. I actually feel like a powerful spellcaster slinging spells left right and center... hefty charged spells, instant chained spells, damage-over-time spells with instant damage components, pushbacks... all while teleporting around with awesome rippling robes. It certainly contrasts with WoW, where mages have around twenty different offensive damage spells but only a few that are worth casting for the spec and one 'main nuke' that clearly takes precedence over all others.

Note the abilities on my main bar. Five of them are my main damaging
abilities; two more are chain spells and are hidden. I use all of them constantly.

I did some soloing but most of my time was spent grouped with Lewin the Templar. The combination of a squishy damage dealer and a corporeal form of CC is quite powerful. There were several times where we messed up and ended up fighting a ridiculous amount of mobs at once (remember, this is a game where you often can't take on two monsters at once without using consumables), with him insulting the monsters' parentage so they'd attack him, my sleeping one mob, rooting another in place away from us and blasting the living shit out of everything else.

We were so busy talking about how tasty this pig we were escorting
looked, that we lost him and had to go back :(

I think that's enough for an introductory post :P. I will leave with this: I am completely and utterly enthralled in this intoxicating game, and I'm yet to break past level twenty.

Lewin Discusses: CBT6 day 3!

On the subjects of Tanking, Grouping, Elites and their zones, Preselection, and the road to level 20.

Vistas galore, just don't jump off

Today was the last day of the last Closed Beta, and it wasn't wasted.
I've been playing my Templar through the Beta, while Tora's been enjoying (mostly) her Ranger, and as I repeatedly find in MMOs, Tanks are my thing. The Templar is truly enjoyable, reasonably fast paced and responsive, and powerful to boot.

• high physical defense values more than make up for lower than average dps
• high enmity generation after level 10
• reaction abilities

I've been leveling since the second quest with a friend of mine from World of Warcraft, who's having a love affair with the Sorcerer class, and it's a great combination. Either of us can pull, depending on the situation, and while I'm able to keep every enemy we pull attacking me, he's able to put the biggest threat to sleep, or snare it in place, knock it back, slow it, what have you. Our damage output combined is more than enough to survive upwards of six mobs at a time, with some creative maneuvering and smart targeting.

This is great fun, and once we moved into the elite Krall area in the south-west of Verteron we found that the same combination worked wonders against the elites in the area. If we were alone, however, all we could do was stall for time, or run away, as the elites could drop me in a handful of seconds, even with potions, cooldown abilities, and lucky evades. For the job of keeping me alive, we requisitioned a Legion Chanter. While a few levels above us (20, compared to the two of us at level 17), he wasn't particularly powerful comparatively, but his heals were enough to keep our group of three up and running... as long as we didn't pull three elites at once.

In Aion, elites certainly appear to be a challenge worthy of a group, and with a Chanter, a shadow of the Cleric's healing power, and only one dedicated dps class, the Krall camp was a significant challenge. Individual mobs were no big deal, they just took a while to drop, but while our Sorcerer could put a second elite to sleep, he attracted a great deal of enmity from it, and that didn't go down well once we woke it up. If we pulled a third mob before the first one was dead, we had to run.

An interesting note about the zone was that it could largely be stealthed through. Keeping a close eye on the aggro radii of nearby elites, we could skillfully weave our way through the pulls except at one or two locations, where the mobs overlapped (and even then sometimes we could backtrack to a cliff above them and glide over!). The problem lay with when we pulled accidentally.

As a Tank, my job is to lead the group physically through the encounters, at the very least. Preparing each pull, choosing the location for each fight, being aware of patrols, and giving the group the fastest, most rewarding, safest and most fun trip possible. I -personally- like to clear my way through the mobs. I like the experience, the drops, the adrenaline of combat, and afterwards the knowledge that the path behind us is safe for long enough for us to escape through it if necessary. I don't skip pulls usually, unless everyone in the group, myself included, is absolutely comfortable with it.

When we would accidentally pull a mob, it was commonplace for it to be in a situation where simply stopping and killing it was inadvisable or impossible, with yelling patrols winding along the path (they pull every mob in a large area! Very annoying) or with group members spread out due to lack of co-ordination. This meant escape was the only viable solution, as no two of our group could take on an elite if the third died close to one. Unfortunately, as we'd skipped mobs, as noted sometimes by gliding over them, escape was at times literally impossible, and if not, the mob chasing us almost inadvertently yanked more along with him (if we didn't ourselves).

Nonetheless we managed to have a good time in the zone, choosing our fights wisely and often avoiding them entirely, but when I go through that area on my main when the game goes Live, I'm clearing the whole damn place. The experience was excellent, and good drops were commonplace. A full clear of that zone on a quiet channel would guarantee multiple levels, which is incredibly valuable in Aion. I'll probably spend a lot of time there, come September 21st.

Moving right along, I've noticed some forumgoers complaining about the distinct lack of AoE tanking abilities in the Templar's lineup, with only, from what I hear, one weak ability gained near level 50. They are upset that dungeons are too difficult, with pulls beyond three mobs impossible, as one crowd controlled elite is difficult enough to deal with, but tanking two, or indeed three mobs at the same time is impossible from an enmity perspective without AoE abilities.

This is a lie. A good Tank can hold aggro on whatever he or she needs to. Find a good Tank, and co-ordinate with them. By swapping targets frequently, with good knowledge of which ones to attack, and focus firing dps (I haven't tested it, but I assume that enmity is entirely individually calculated, and is not cumulative: just stay ahead of the top dps in enmity and you'll hold aggro, no sweat), your group will rip the zone up.

Finally, Preselection! I've heard whispers of this, but reading back through the Dev Tracker on AionSource we've got some confirmation of this. Being able to create your character days, or weeks (still unsure!) before even the pre-order head start will help ease the wait until release, and having character names selected safely ahead of time is an even nicer touch that I'm going to jump on the moment it goes live.

Sorry for the wall of text, hanging out for the Open Beta (and my chance to level Asmodian!), Lewin out.

CBT6 day 2

He's a natural.

Didn't do much levelling today, though I did finish a few more Verteron quests and managed to kite the named crab in the area to the town gates. Twice. Inc 4k xp x2.

Went back to the city and picked up some crafting skills, apparently the two that are best for Rangers are sewing and handicrafting. Sewing gets you (presumably) leather gear, and handicrafting lets you make bows (and hopefully arrows) for youself.

I can understand how sewing would equal to leather gear, but did they really have to make it sound so gay?

CBT6 day 1

Can't have the rain ruin his hair, can he?

Soooo Closed Beta 6. Although this is Aion's last CBT, this is actually my first time playing it. I went in with some high hopes, and it certainly didn't disappoint.

Graphics were absolutely breathtaking. A few clipping issues here and there, but really, what more can you expect? Everything was just so pretty, I can't bring myself to find fault with anything else. I also really loved the Daeva city, mostly because it has architecture that makes me imagine Corridors of Time playing whenever I walk through it.

Background music is great, most battle themes remind me of Final Fantasy, and some of the zone themes are just awesome. (seriously, there are not enough words to describe how good this game is)

Of course, me being me, I rolled a Scout right off the bat. I had read in a few places that the first 10 or so levels for a Scout are boring as heck, and boy were they right. I practically had to bandage/rest after every fight, and most fights I finished on about 1/10th health. Combat was a bit bland until about level 7, when I got the Quick Strike combo, then things went a little faster. If you're planning to level up solo, just hang in there till you reach level 10. If you're gonna be playing with a friend, then you really shouldn't worry too much.

At level 9, you get a storyline quest that lets you get your wings. That same quest chain practically gives you a free level too, so drop everything you're doing the moment you hit level 9 and just do the Ascension quest.

BoEs in this game are srs bsns.

Being an ex-WoW player, there were many things that were familiar, but that was probably just due to the innate similarity that all MMOs share. I was actually surprised by the number of people running around in the game, considering this was a closed beta.

I played about one level after getting my wings and full-fledged Ranger badge, and it really just picked up the moment I equipped my bow. I only started with a basic concussive shot and extra damage shot (read: Arcane shot, lol), but somehow I just managed to have so much fun with it even though I was already so familiar with Ranger/hunter mechanics. Maybe it was because of this that made me have so much fun.

I only have one word for you - Kiting. Because Rangers don't have pets, you pretty much have to play like as if your pet is dead the whole time. That's initially what I went in with, but as I kept playing, I started getting used to it. The thing that makes kiting easier/more fun in this is that you can shoot while you run. That's right folks, no more stand-still-to-auto-shoot anymore. Well, technically there isn't even an auto shoot command in this game for Rangers, but nonetheless. It was awesome! I loved it to bits and I can't wait to play more tomorrow.

Anyway, that's my thoughts for today, I'll have another post tomorrow (hopefully level 11 and beyond) and finally another one summarising Aion vs. WoW. Stay tuned!

The hero of Azero- oh wait, wrong MMO.

CBT6

Some good news for this weekend, I'm at the bf's place and he just downloaded the Aion client! So we'll be able to play the beta the next two days.

Looking forward to it!

Hi!

Who the heck?
My name is Toraneko. A few days ago I found out about this new mmo called Aion, and from the moment I finished watching a review video for it, I was hooked.

I also happen to be an ex-WoW addict who ran a not-so-famous Hunter blog.

What will you be posting?
As I'm an artist (lol I draw stuff good), I'll post some of the fanart I've done for this game. Yep, game isn't even out yet and already fanart. Looks like I'm a lost case already. XD

When Aion starts up good and proper, I'll also be documenting my levelling process as a Ranger. I used to play a Hunter in WoW, and so choosing a Ranger seems like the logical option.

That's all I can think of for now, so for the time being, hello and welcome to my humble corner of the internet! :3