An Aion Page

Aion 1.5.1 Patch Notes and Comments

2009-11-18T16:59:00.000-08:00

The 1.5.1 patch for Aion is now live and you'll find the complete patch notes here.

NPC Behavior - Assassins, murderers, and other unsavory types (yes, you) will have greater difficulties sneaking into certain villages in Heiron and Belusian. New guards have been given better glasses and can see stealthed characters more reliably than the other guards.

A common glitch in many MMOs (and other games) is the ability to attack a mob from a point that it can't reach, so you get to attack for free. Certain instanced dungeons in Aion have the same quirk, but now the mobs will be able to attack.

Loot - Drop rate for a variety of loots have been tweaked (generally for better drop rates) and many of the bosses have been made somewhat easier to take out.

Gathering - A couple of interesting changes have been made here.

More XP will be given from gathering and crafting. It's a slight amount so don't expect to see much here. There's no change in how quickly one gains skill though.
From the Wiki: "When you extract Aether, there’s a chance that Aether Poison Gas will infiltrate your body. The poison blocks gathering for a certain period of time unless you detoxify the poison.... Once you are poisoned the only way to detoxify yourself is to utter the "Cleansing Word.” (This is a captcha field. A code is displayed and you type it in.)

The latter item probably extends to gatherables in general and, of course, is intended to stop bots from gathering. The idea being that a bot won't be able to read the displayed code and enter it. Some people seem to think that it's a fairly trivial task to code a bot to read captcha fields, but we'll see.

One poster in the forums suggested that the flight time could be reset to 100% is the correct code is entered. This sounds like a good idea to me.

I think that stopping the gathering bots from gathering will have the consequence of raising prices on a lot of gatherables. This could be a good or bad thing, depending on whether you're buying or selling.

Abyss - there are now awards for defending a fortress (hooray,) but they only go to the legion owning the fortress (boo!) "You now receive contribution decorations as reward for successfully defending a fortress under the control of your Legion."

So this gives the controlling legion incentive to defend the fortress, but nothing is offered for those who might otherwise want to assist.

Of course, having access to the fortress grants access to any special vendors (eg: for morphing designs) and the fortress instance. Defending it is still a tougher job than attacking it though, much of which is due to player's real schedules, so perhaps there should be greater incentives.

Skills- Various skills have been tweaked. Assassins and Clerics get a bit more damage, Templars get a bit more aggro, and so on.

Other - there are a number of small tweaks and fixes. One interesting change is to the broker. You can now search by keywords (see the trade broker post) and you can now post items to the Broker with a right click. There's a calculator pop-up (when you post items) which looks kinda cool, too.

6 Tips for Using the Aion Broker

2009-11-10T16:36:00.000-08:00

People call Aion's Trade Broker an Auction House, but it itsn't really. There are no bids, therefore there are no auctions. It's more like a consignment house, where goods are sold and the broker gets a (small) cut. (A real world consignment shop might take 50-70%.)

Now that that's out of the way... How do you find things? People complain that the search is broken. Actually it's quite good, you just have to do a couple of things differently.

1) Use initial caps when you search. Like This. If you want to search for a dagger, then worthy dagger will return nothing, while Worthy Dagger will return all the Worthy Titanium, Adamantine, etc. Daggers.

2) Use abbreviations: Wor Ti D will return all Worthy Titanium Daggers and Worthy Noble Titanium Daggers. It will also return the designs for those, as will #1.

3) Use the categories: Click the Weapons category and then search for Wor Ti Da and you will just see any available daggers, not designs. Click weapons, and then daggers and you only need to enter Wor Ti. Note that in this search I entered Wor Ti, selected the dagger category, and see all the Worthy Titanium Daggers available.

By the way, the blue dagger starts at 700,000 Kinah. It's probably cheaper to buy it rather than to buy the materials and try to make it. See the "Why Does It Cost So Much" post for details.

4) You don't need the first letters. Instead of searching for Worthy Titanium Dagger you can search for thy aniu gg and get the same result. Here's the pic:

Note the keyword (thy aniu gg,) the category (all,) and the results.

Want a Mana serum? Search for Gr S R M (Greater Secret Remedy of Mana) and get...

Note the keyword and category used.

5) Use the check boxes - At the top you have that series of check boxes.

Common = white titled items
Superior = green titled
Heroic = blue titled, and so on.

If the item you're searching for is a green titled item, then you can uncheck all the other boxes and only green items will show in the search. If you've earned (or bought) a ton of Kinah and want to buy the gold gear, then make sure only Fabled and better items are checked.

6) Restrict the search by level. Say you're level 30 and only want level 30 gold (or better) armor. You enter 30 into both level boxes, click the armor category, and you might get...

So there you go. With the above tips you should be able to find just about anything you want to find on the Broker. Invest some time and you'll probably learn to spot the hot deals, which will either save you a bunch of Kinah or earn you a bunch, but that's another post. Speaking of Kinah (and everything else Aion) you might take a look at the Kozen Guide.

Aion Easter Eggs

2009-11-02T14:38:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, it isn't Easter.

But this kind of Easter Egg is an in-game goodie, surprise, hidden bit, etc. Generally Easter Eggs refer to something outside of the game, such as a developer's name on a wall or a tombstone. Maybe a code unlocks a video or an image of something not in the game. Or it might be something interesting that is in a very hard to find location that's not in the quest chains or a hunting location. Just something cool for the heck of it. Another example is the Shugo broker in Eltnen, Gygaxinerk. Gary Gygax was one of the original creators of the tabletop Dungeons and Dragons game.

So let's look around the web and see what else can be found...

Legolas in Morheim near the obelisk around the Spriggs, but his name was changed to Lorando, in the 1.5 patch, in a reference to the actor's name: Orlando Bloom

New Kids on the Block

The Daru's by the witch in Ishalgen, (Asmodae) drop a quest that is a reference to the .hack// series. In .hack you throw a weapon in a pond, and something pops out asking "Did you drop the sillver axe, or did you drop the goolden axe?"

Here's a video with some of the interesting weapons that can be found in the game, the Korean version anyway. They aren't easter eggs, but they're interesting.

Here's the city under Sanctum, no he doesn't tell you how to get there, but I understand that others have done it.
Athos, Aramis, and Porthos, the three pigs in Eltnen, are the names of the The Three Musketeers
(Elyos) The Dye Merchant in Sanctum gives a quest called Dy’er Ma’ker (Led Zeppelin song.)
(Elyos) A quest in Theobomos requires you to fetch some spices, and is called, appropriately, The Spice Must Flow (Dune reference)
Eltnen is supposed to have a number of Dune references
.

References:

AionSource forums

Care to add any that you've found?

Rift Locations for Elyos and Asmodean

2009-10-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Rifts are tears in the fabric of netherspace which connect the lands of the Elyos with those of the Asmodeans. When rifts appear they are one way only and have limits on how many and what level characters can leap through them.

The rifts TO the other side have stable positions, that is they will always appear in the same place, though when they appear is random. The rifts from the other side are not fixed in location, though they generally appear close to a particular area.

Naturally, rifts from the other side will be quickly camped if they're in a convenient location to do so. This insures a quick ganking when you pass through that rift.

For detailed maps of the rift locations and limitations, plus some code you can add to your in-game memo pad (menu > community > memo pad,) check out Aionology's post: Aion Rift Locations!

The Fire Sword Quest and Inferno!

2009-10-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

I have Inferno. Very nice. Let the hacking and chopping begin! By the way, the blade pop-up says "available for 37..., but I'm 32 and can use it.

It's a very nice sword for Assassins and maybe dual-wielding Gladiators? Ok, so here's how YOU go about getting your very own Inferno sword. Aionology covers the first part of the quest quite nicely: Aion Quest Help – Fire Sword (Elyos Only)

I'll recap here, but go there to get the pics. First off, there are three swords. First you find the white titled fire sword, then upgrade to the green, then (at 32) upgrade to the blue Inferno.

Step 1: Head to North Eiron Desert and kill Dried Gnarls and Mottled Basilisks until it drops. This might take awhile. A loooong while. It's not exactly a common drop. If you have a bit of cash, and hate looking at the idea of potentially grinding for hours, you might consider just buying the thing. It runs from 50,0000 on up.

Step 2: Take your shiney new fire sword and run up to Stataloca's Grave and find Garparos. He's on a little hill to the south-west of the priests. My assassin is looking SW in this pic, you'll see G on the far hill.

Step 3: Get the quest to collect the bits from the nearby fire spirits, do that. and bring the bits back to Garparos.

Step 4: He presents you with the shiney green fire sword.

Now you have to level to 32, if you're not already there.

You're Level 32, Off to Sanctum

Go to Sanctum and speak to Regmos. He's on the platform to the right of the Airship dock. He'll give you the quest and send you on your way. The quest has you collect some bits from flaming Barghests and Magma Spirits, as well as a feather from Griffonix.

Note: unequip your fire sword before you get, or hand in, the quest.

Note: You can solo the entire quest, I did, but it isn't easy and you should carry some nice life serums or potions. Or... you can take a friend or two.

Now you're back to Eltnen and you'll fly off to Agairon village and then run to Geroch Crater. You'll go deep inside to find Magma Spirits and Burning Barghests. Both are level 37.

Kill them until you have all the parts. They're pretty easy (for something that's +5 levels) and seem to have a 100% drop rate for those parts. The crater is located in southern Eltnen, southwest of the Agairon village (and not in the image, below.) By the way, this might be a killer grinding spot in a few levels.

Head north of the village to the Drake Habitat and pick up the two "Kill Vigaro" quests. I don't know if you need to have done the previous quests there to get those. You'll be killing them anyway, so it's more almost free XP

Head to the east side of Kuriullu mountain and look for Griffonix. If you do it in the daytime he's friendly and you can talk to him and get the feather quest. You can also grab a second quest (which is an escort for his baby) so get that one, too. It's almost free XP.

If you see him at night he'll be hostile. Wait for daylight or grab a couple of friends and kill him. (There's more XP if you chat with him, but what the heck.) I assume that if you kill him you'll get the feather, I waited until morning and talked to him.

He'll have you gather fur from Pretor looters, Vigaro hearts, and "Spirit of Wind." The looters come out at night, but there's a pod of four that spawn at the top of a massive rock stair that leads down into the chasm, marked with the red X.

Head down the main road, south, for Vigaros and spirits (my marker is at the top of the road. ) Kill any of the spirits in the area for the "spirit of wind," the Vigaros are a bit south of the spirits.

The looters, spirits, and Vigaro are all about 32-34.

The baby bird (you did get the escort quest, right?) is off to the left, as run down the road, at the northern end of the Vigaro area, inside one of the Vigaro TeePee things. You don't have to excort him all the way back, just to the bridge at the north end of the area.

Once you have all your bits go back to Griffonix and hand them in, along with the escort. Run back to the Drake habitat and hand those in.

Go back to Sanctum, find Regmos, and hand it in. Make sure the sword is not equipped when you hand it in. You'll get your shiney new sword just waiting for you to slot in three shiney new crit stones.

Inferno
Character sheet
Grab A Killer Assassin Guide

Aion's Silver Coin Quests

2009-10-29T13:50:00.001-07:00

Well, it's actually about all the coin quests, but the silvers are what I'm poking around with at the moment.

All of the coin quests work like this:

Get the quest to kill X of this, Y of that, and maybe some other things.
Kill it all and hand it in
Get a bit of XP, some Kinah, and a coin
Collect enough coins and hand them in on a random piece of gear.

So I figure that if I'm going to be running back and forth through an area that has mobs to fill the coin quest, then what the heck. Do it along with the other quests that you're doing and hand it in when you're back by the quest giver.

The XP award isn't worth it if you're not going to be mashing those mobs anyway. Neither is the Kinah award, if there even is one for that quest. But is the gear worth anything?

I handed in 6 bronze coins in Eltnen and got a nice dagger, but the one I was using was nicer. I expect that will be the case with all the bronze coin awards. If you're keeping your gear up to date (green or better) then the award is better off sold or disenchanted.

I've heard that the higher level coin quests actually give you decent gear, so how about the silver coins?
AionForums has a post that basically says that you'll get a Rank X Soldier Weapon, which is Ok, but isn't as good as crafted or decent dropped items.

Care to add a comment if you've handed in coins or silver or better? What did you get as an award?

update: handed in 16 coins, got a blue Shield of Rank 6 Elysean Soldier. Nice. Can't use it, but still a nice reward. Guess I'll keep doing coin quests.

update 2: Sold that shield for 600,000 Kinah. I've turned in two more 32 coin sets and got two greens, neither of which was interesting or worth much. You can actually buy coins on the broker, I've seen silver coins for as low as 5k, each, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Legion Hopping in Aion

2009-10-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

Dominate Your Server is a cool WoW blog with some pretty solid tips for that game. Their latest post happens to also be 100% appropriate to Aion - Guild (Legion) Hoping.

We all know someone or we are someone that looks for that perfect guild to fit our personal definition of the perfect guild. For me, it has been a long road to where I am now in DYS. This is a sore topic for some and a joke to others, but, finding where you want to be is very important to your gaming fun.

This is a topic that I just had to write about. It is one that many players either struggle with at some emotional level or take far too casually. While not getting teary over the changing of guilds, it is something that I take very seriously and do not enter into lightly.

Your guild is your in game family and deserves some respect because of it. In general guilds help each other and jointly progress through the game. If you’re like me, you want to spend more time questing, adventuring and gearing up with these players than anyone else. If they are so important, why would you want to change?

Here's the rest: Time to switch guilds: Guild Hopping

The Abyss, Abyss Points, Ranks, Etc.

2009-10-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Impetusium has an excellent tutorial on how the abyss point system works, check it out: The Abyss: Access, Points, Ranks, Fortress Sieges & Artifacts

Then, when you get to a certain rank of soldier you can change...

About Those Voices in Aion

2009-10-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

Flying Bishounen has an excellent post on replacing the english voices in your Aion game with either the Korean or Japanese voices. I haven't heard the Korean (gonna load it now,) but the Japanese voice acting is FAR superior to the English voice acting, even though I can't understand any of it. It'll also helps with the endless screeching of your female characters.

Go here for the detail on how to change your voices => Kuhhheargit

Kiting and Massive XP

2009-10-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

Here a Spiritmaster is using his kiting abilities to take on critters well over his pay grade. He loads up on Magical Accuracy and collects XP at a good 3x the normal rate. So how are your kiting skills?

The Fragment of Memory Quest, Finding Lugbug

2009-10-24T23:03:00.000-07:00

Fragment of Memory is an Elyos quest that has you speak to one Lugbug, in the Abyss, in order to recover more of your fragmented memory.

The only problem with the quest is that ol' Luggy is on an unmarked island. You can do a /where lugbug to find his direction, but not how high or low in the abyss he is.

As it happens a video was made showing exactly how to get to him. There are spoilers at the end, so you might want to just watch the first half.

Make sure you take a Temporal Stone with you!

The Deavonian Armor Quests

2009-10-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

Got my Assassin to 30 the other day and did the Daevanion quest.

Once you hit 30 you open up that quest. It's pretty easy to accomplish, if you have about 100k and 4000 DP, and will award you with one piece of the Daevonion armor set. There are five pieces to this set and while they can't be traded they can be swapped between characters on the same account and server.

Basically this means that if you level five characters to 30 you can equip one of them with the full set.

Why would you want to do this? Since any one piece is only maybe as good as the better crafted greens at that level?

Note that the base stats of the Flash Jerkin are a bit less than the Worthy piece. The Daevanion set is actually intended to be worn as a set. Each additional piece of the set adds bonuses beyond just the basic armor stats. Now, when you get all five pieces of the Flash (leather) set then the bonus becomes rather nice:

+262 Maximum HP,
+236 Maximum MP,
+28 Evasion,
+48 Physical Crit
+12% Speed,
+28 Flight Time,
+125 Physical Def

Almost worth thinking about leveling those five characters...

Aion 1.5.0.11 Patch Notes and Comments

2009-10-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

So as all of you know by now Aion has released the latest mini-patch. NCsoft seems to be taking the spam (mail, whisper, and chat) issue pretty seriously.

I'm sure most of you have seen the groups of mail spammers parked near the mailbox in the starter towns of both Asmo and Ely sides. They're easy to recognize, since they don't move and have gibberish names, no title, and no legion.

This patch is intended to address this issue directly. Basically it means people have to hit level 10 (earn your wings) before communicating with everyone else. Here are the details (from Aion's update page:)

1.5.0.11 Client Update

All chat channels now have a level 10 restriction, both to join and participate
Whispering now has a level 10 restriction,
Players can receive whispers but cannot respond below level 10
Players cannot send in game mail until level 10
Players under 10 can still receive in game mail
Players cannot search for ’who’ in game until level 10
Players are now limited at the amount of in game mail you can send per hour
If players exceed this limit, they will not be able to send mail. There is currently no message saying players have exceeded your limit
Legion Abyss ranks have been fixed and will now display properly

I'll throw in my 1 Kinah's worth here ...

If you really know what you're doing, where everything is, and so on you can get your wings in as little as two hours. If you're brand new it's going to take awhile longer, but then again, if you're brand new you're probably not looking for patch notes. :)

If any spammers make level 10 then they can send you whispers and you can't reply (would you want to?) You can still block them, though. (R. click the name then click "block.")

You can no longer buy gear for your new alt (until she's 10) and mail it to her. If you have two accounts, or a willing friend, then you can get around that "problem." Still, that's a little inconvenient.

With no access to chat or "who" it will be harder to find teams, but I'm sure people will be able to get around that and form their teams.

Item #7 should put a dent in the mail spam that people get. NCsoft isn't announcing the limit, but it should be easy enough to find out. Mail stuff to an alt (over level 10) and take note of when the mails fail to get through.

Overall, probably a good idea that should make things a lot more inconvenient for the spammers and only a little more inconvenient for most players.

Cleric Builds for Aion

2009-10-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

This was posted in the Aion forums and I found it interesting because I have a 26 Cleric. It's reprinted in its entirety here. The original poster (OP) remarked that post aren't bumped in the forums so it will eventually fall off the front page and be lost. She plans to update it every Monday, but sometimes such things get missed. I figure if I post it here (with a back link) the chances are better than a really good post won't get lost.

The original post is here, and since she does plan to update it you should check it every now and then. Some of the comments are pretty good, too. Others are just trolls.

Seems to be that if you group all the time with a good group your need for defenses is a lot less than if you're solo PvPing. Which means there's lots of room for customizing your build and even going with Cloth over Chain (Heresy!!!)

That said, here's the post on Cleric builds:

Basic 1-MS Builds

Chain/Mace/Shield/HP

This build is the basic one that alot of people will tell you to go for. You socket nothing but HP mana stones and use chain mail armor, maces and shields.

Pro - More HP and high armor class = Very high survivability in pvp and pve situations
Con - Damage is lower than other builds.

Chain/Mace/Shield/MBoost

You maintain the high defense of the chain mail armor and mace/shield combo but by socketing Magic Boost manastone you get an increase in damage.

Pro - Higher armor class means take less damage
Pro - More damage on your spells = faster killing
Con - HP will be lower so you lose out on the ammount of hits you can take here

Cloth/Mace/shield/HP

By switching to cloth you gain damage through improved caster stats but lose the defense stats of the Chain mail, you still mintain a moderate defense by sticking with mace/sheild combo and by stacking HP you can take a fair number of hits before healing.

Pro - Cloth armor stats gives you more spell damage
Pro - Socketing HP allows you to take more hits
Con - Lower armor class means you take more damage from hits

Cloth/Mace/Shield/MBoost

By switching to cloth you gain damage through improved caster stats but lose the defense stats of the chain mail, you still mintain a moderate defense by sticking with mace/sheild combo and you increase your damage even further by stacking MBoost but lose out in the number of hits you can take before having to heal

Pro - Cloth armor stats gives you more spell damage
Pro - Socketing MBoost allows you to do more spell damage
Con - Lower armor class means you take more damage from hits
Con - Lower HP = able to take less hits

Chain/Staff/HP

You maintain the high defense of the chain mail armor, by using a staff instead of mace/shield you have the potential of doing more melee and spell damage but lose out in the defense and extra slots granted by a shield.

Pro - Higher armor class means you take less damage
Pro - Higher HP means you can take more hits before healing
Pro/Con - Potentially more damage overall
Con - Lose defense and Manastone slots of the shield

Chain/Staff/MBoost

Pro - Higher armor class means you take less damage
Pro - Higher MBoost means you do more spell damage
Pro/Con - Potentially more damage overall
Con - Lose defense and Manastone slots of the shield

Cloth/Staff/HP

By switching to cloth you gain damage through improved caster stats but lose the defense stats of the Chain mail, by using a staff instead of mace/shield you have the potential of doing more melee and spell damage but lose out in the defense and extra slots granted by a shield.

Pro - Cloth armor stats gives you more spell damage
Pro - Socketing HP means you can take more hits before healing
Pro/Con - Potentially more damage overall
Con - Lose defense and Manastone slots of the shield
Con - Lower armor class means you take more damage form hits

Cloth/Staff/MBoost

Pro - Cloth armor stats gives you more spell damage
Pro - Socketing MBoost allows you to do more spell damage
Pro/Con - Potentially more damage overall
Con - Lose defense and Manastone slots of the shield
Con - Lower armor class means you take more damage from hits

Non-Standard/Multi-MS Builds

There are alot of combinations you can use when you start looking into using multiple Manastones instead of just socketing 1 type. While I could go through and list every combination; that would end up making the post about 4 pages long by it's self. So to avoid this I'll just post the ones that players have come up with and let me know about.

Chain/Mace/Shield/HP/MAccuracy

This is the one I use personally. It keeps the high survivability of the Chain/Mace/Shield/HP build while providing a small ammount of MAccuracy to help with the resists when your casting at mobs and other players. It doesn't take much to push a cleric up high enough to notice a difference so I just socket my weapon with MAccuracy stones and use the Fluent in Balaur title and call it good (+23 atm). There are foods you can use instead though if you'd rather stick with all HP.

Pro - High armor class for higher defense stats
Pro - High HP allows you to take more hits in pvp/pve
Pro - Extra MAccuracy drops the resist chance of mobs and players to your spells
Con - Lose a couple Manastones to MAccuracy meaning a little less HP
Con - Less damage than MBoost builds = slower kills

Chain/Mace/Shield/HP/MBoost - Diria

High defense from the chain mail and mace/shield and by socketing both HP and Mboost you can increase your damage whille maintaining a good sized health pool. This would require a bit of experimentation on a per player basis to determine the ratio of HP to Mboost manastones that would put the 2 stats a place that they are happy with.

Pro - High Armor class for higher defense stats
Pro - High concentration = less spell interrupts
Pro - Increased HP to allow for more hits to be taken
Pro - Higher MBoost to increase damage
Pro/Con - May be difficult to find a balance that the player is happy with between the 2 stats.
Con - HP will be lower per MBoost stone used
Con - Damage will be lower per HP stone used

Chain/Staff/HP/MBoost - Ouka

High defense from the chain mail and by socketing both HP and Mboost you can increase your damage whille maintaining a good sized health pool. Using a staff rather than mace/shield allows for potentially higher damage while you lose the defense and sockets of the shield. This would require a bit of experimentation on a per player basis to determine the ratio of HP to Mboost manastones that would put the 2 stats a place that they are happy with.

Pro - High Armor class for higher defense stats
Pro - High concentration = less spell interrupts
Pro - Increased HP to allow for more hits to be taken
Pro - Higher MBoost to increase damage
Pro/Con - May be difficult to find a balance that the player is happy with between the 2 stats.
Pro/Con - Potentially higher damage overall
Con - HP will be lower per MBoost stone used
Con - Damage will be lower per HP stone used
Con - Lose the defense and sockets of the shield

Again, click here for the original and all the comments.

Training Grounds with Three People

2009-10-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

So here we are, about 25 1/2, my Cleric, my wife's Spiritmaster, and my son's Templar, kicking back and forth ideas of where to go. Asmos have the Sulfur fortress and 35s are camping the western shard portal, making the prospect of the trip to the Sulfer Archepelago look more like a trip to the obelisk rather than anything interesting.

Just for the heck of it we decided to look around the Training Grounds. I've been there a couple of times for a full clear, but they never had before. So we pop in and look around and I point out a few bits of scenery and we decide, ya know... we can take these things.

By the way, I think having a TG is a great idea and that series of quests that show the "how to assault a fortress" videos is brilliant. That's definitely something that a lot of MMOs can use. Anyway...

My kid knows his way around instances in general and plays a good tank. I'm Ok as a Cleric and my wife is kinda new to all this, especially instances. As it turned out she did a great job of laying down the hurt on the various mobs there.

Obviously the normal riffraff is no issue, but it turned out that the standard elites weren't an issue either, one at a time, anyway. Two at a time made my cleric pay close attention, though.

It was necessary, of course, to pay attention to everything around us and do some careful pulling here and there. Still, it worked out well.

We were able to handle three of the Instructor bosses, but the teleporter dude near the general wiped the floor with us. He summoned too many adds and... squish.

But we all thought it was a blast. Mobs were good for over 30k Xp each and the bosses 100k or so. We all hit 26 and then some and yeah, had to get our souls healed.

So what's the point? If you want to enter the TG, but don't have a full team go for it anyway. You'll learn a lot (if you're new to this,) have a blast, get a lot of XP, and won't have to worry about Asmos (10 levels higher than you) sending you back to rez.

I assume the Asmo side has a similar instance, but our Asmos (Glad and Chant) are only 11 so that's a long ways off. If you want to add your 2 cents about the Asmo TG thing then just hit the comment box.

Bah, TG is too easy... Well, for the WoW raider who could clean the map, naked ... you're right. :) But then, TG isn't made for you. We understand that you could do the thing solo with a pen knife and a diaper for armor. Aion has a ton of ways to make the game much more difficult (even WoW does,) and they're all open to you.

TG is for those of us who'd like to learn how to do this stuff without needing uber gear and/or getting slaughtered over and over again. For the experienced raider it's probably a yawner and the loot isn't so hot. For those of us who are new to this stuff it's a blast and if the loot isn't great, well, that's Ok.

Hop over to YouTube or your favorite video site for a number of TG videos.

Hitler and Aion Nerfs...

2009-10-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

Hitler gets a bit upset regarding the Spiritmaster nerf in Aion 1.5...

What's the APR?

2009-10-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

The Recherche blog has an interesting post on Aion's APR. What's that, you ask? Heh, you'll just have to read it to find out, but it has to do with how we interact with each other in the game.

I’m consistently disappointed by reading any player-generated dialogue from just about anywhere in the game. Half of my own legion’s discussions and comments are either rude or offensive to various cultures. Reading anything in the region chat is like asking to jab burning pokers into my eyes. Maybe all the sensible people (like myself) just refrain from typing anything at all. That doesn’t really fix the problem, though: the apparent APR is what will hurt the game, even if it’s not an accurate representation.

I found it to be pretty interesting reading and I think he's dead on, especially with his conclusions. Here's the rest: The Social Threat to Aion’s Survival

So Why Does it Cost So Much?

2009-10-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

Every now and then there's a thread in the general (or LFG) chat where someone is whining about the costs of items on the broker. "Oh, woe is me, this costs WAY too much, all the sellers are horribad capitalist scum profit mongers ripping lil' ol me off all to pieces..."

Aside from the fact that profit-mongering is a good thing, here's why it costs so much: Because people have to pay for stuff. I find a blue item and I'm going to post it for a high price because I'd like to buy MY high priced stuff. That's the way it is.

Now, to be a bit more serious here. I'll use the crafting notes previously posted as my example.

Here's what I have to do (and I haven't succeeded, yet) to make the blue Worthy Noble Titanium Dagger (or sword or mace or greatsword:)

Start by making a titanium dagger.
Hope it procs to a noble dagger
Take the noble and feed it into the Worth Titanium Dagger recipe
Hope that procs to a worthy noble.

Word has it that there's a 30% chance of proccing happening, which is rumored to be better if you have full DP. (So grind in the abyss for awhile first.)

So if I make 10 of the titanium daggers then chances are I might get three nobles (30% of 10) out of the deal.
Let's say that one of those nobles becomes a blue. Here's what it cost for the 10 daggers/swords/maces/greatswords, based off Lumiel broker prices this morning:

180 Aether Crystal, averaging 600 a pop, 108,000 kinah
60 Weapon Flux, 2,700 each, 81,000 total
360 Titanium Ore, 180 each, 64,800k
360 Charcoal, 363 each, 130,680
100 Titanium Acid, 605 each, 60,500 total

Ok, so 10 daggers costs me 444,980 Kinah to create and I don't necessarily want to gather/grind up all that stuff each time I try for a blue, so let's pretend that I buy it all.

Ok, assuming we get three noble daggers out of the deal... we need to get enough stuff to make three worthy daggers, hoping for that blue proc.

3 Noble titanium daggers (already have them)
18 Worthy Weapon flux, 2000 each, 36,000 total
12 High Grade Aether Crystal, 2,500 each, 30,000 total
12 High Grade Titanium ore, 1900 each, 22,800

So we add the 88,800 to the 444,980 above and we have 533, 780 kinah to make three Worthy Titanium weapons. Let's pretend one is a blue, which you then use.

We're left with 7 (white) titanium weapons and two (green) worthy titanium weapons. We sell the whites back to the supply dude for about 16,500 each, recovering 115k of our costs. That leaves us with two worthy Titanium Weapons and 418,000 in costs.

Assuming of course that we bought everything and didn't grind for or collect them ourselves or have someone hand us the mats. Then there's a certain amount of time involved. Ore needs to be made into ingots then into rods and nails then into the weapons.

At this moment there are four Worthy Titanium Daggers up for 140-175,000 each and one Worthy Noble dagger for 800,000. Swords are about the same, great swords are cheap at only 80-100,000, maces are 200,000.

Of course, you could get lucky and make one dagger, have that one proc to a nobble, make a worthy out of it and then have that one proc to the worthy noble. In which case you might say my numbers are about as valuable as Balaur droppings. Or, you could have made 17 blades, like I have, and gotten no blue procs, in which case you might say, hmmm....

And now you know why they cost that much. Not that I think it'll end the QQing in chat, or that anyone is reading this, but at least I got it down on electronic paper, so I'm happy. :)

Hey Noob! Be a man! Grind it out!

No thanks. I'll take the incidental pieces I find (ore, some fluxes) and happily use them, but there are more fun things to do than grind for the number of hours that it'll take to get those fluxes and crystals. Blech. I figure about flux one per hour of grinding, your mileage may differ. Aether crystals have their own, not fun, issues (and my thanks to those people who ARE farming those, since I don't want to do it.)

You want to grind it out? Go for it. If that's what you enjoy then more power to you. You want to put your crafted weapons up for a lot less? Someone will buy them very quickly.

You want all the tricks to making enough Kinah so that you don't have to farm all the time? Get a guide.

Getting More Cube Space

2009-10-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

There's never enough room, is there? The cube always needs expanding and it's very expensive to do so, but it can be expanded to a total of ten rows (90 slots.)

Here's how to expand your cube, on AionInsider.

Aion Harvest Festival

2009-10-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

It's harvest time in Aion and the peoples, on both sides, celebrate. Here's the scoop (reprinted from the email sent out by NCsoft:)

During the fall harvest, from time immemorial, the people of Atreia have celebrated the bounty of the land. Years ago, the joy of the annual revels was troubled by an eclipse - a peculiar and magical eclipse that brought darkness to Asmodae and Elysea. Ever since, for days during Harvest Revel, the sky goes dark and the peoples of Atreia join the hunt.

Asmodians find soothing peace during the dark days of the Harvest Revel. They celebrate by racing after the Wild Kurthanir hunt leader during the Wild Hunt and cooking special traditional dishes.

Elyos endure the dark days because during them the dead of Elysea are restless. Undead creatures rise from the grave every few hours, pulled back into a semblance of life by the power of the eclipse. Elyos must join roving Dark Night bands to hunt and destroy the undead before they invade Elyos villages.

Log in each day during Harvest Revel. Celebrate with us and every day rewards your investment with new Aion lore and tasty treats!

Harvest Revel
Begin: October 25, 2009
End: October 31, 2009

The Aion Update Patch 1.5.0.10

2009-10-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

This is kinda cool. Most MMOs release patches shortly after release. Their patches are intended to fix major bugs and make the game somewhat playable. Aion releases patches shortly after release to fix thing like tool tip typos, since the game is already very playable.

So here's the extensive list of repairs made with the 1.5.0.10 patch:

Gender Tag Fix for French and German languages
Updated Chat Spam Filter

Yep, that's it. See for yourself in the forum.

By the way, is it just me is is there a lot less chat spam (from gold/Kinah spammers) these days?

Where's Tutty?

2009-10-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

Where's Tutty?
Where's the Ancient Cube?
Where's the Odium?

All of these are quests in the Ely starter area and they're asked over and over and over again. So with that in mind Aionology has posted a YouTube video answering all those questions. Enjoy.

More Weaponsmithing

2009-10-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

Some more work on the weaponsmithng front, trying to make a Worthy Titanium Greatsword. The mats and the procs are exactly the same as for the worthy titanium dagger, written up in the last post.

The Worthy Titanium Greatsword requires weaponsmithing 140, so the first thing was to get my skill to 175 to eliminate the failure chance and increase the chance of the desired procs.

The process is to create the TG and hope for a noble TG proc.
Use the Noble TG to create the Worthy TG, and hope for a Worthy Noble TG.

End result?

Three TGs, one noble proc, and one Worthy Titanium Greatsword.

Cost? An arm, a leg, a draft choice...

Making Worthy Titanium Daggers

2009-10-12T18:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've worked my weaponsmithing up to a mighty 143. Let me tell you, work orders are the only way to go when leveling skills in this game.

My goal was to make a Worthy Noble Titanium Dagger. This requires a fair share of luck. It "procs" off the creation of the Worthy Titanium Dagger and requires the following:

6 Worthy Weapon Flux
4 High Grade Aether Crystals
4 High Grade Titanium Ore, and ....
1 Noble Titanium Dagger.

Now, the Noble Titanium Dagger is itself a proc (random chance to occur) from the creation of a normal Titanium dagger. So first it was to proc into a noble, then the worthy has to proc into a worthy noble.

What I did was make five of the titanium daggers, hoping for procs. I got lucky and three of them turned into nobles.

So to make five titanium daggers you need:

80 Aether Crystals
30 Weapon Flux
180 Titanium Ore
180 Charcoal
50 Titanium Acid

The latter three ingredients go into the making of titanium ingots, then the ingots are made into 40 titanium nails and 25 titanium rods.

So now we have created five titanium daggers and gotten lucky: three procced into the noble titanium dagger. Adding to the above materials list we have:

3 Noble titanium daggers
18 Worthy Weapon Flux
12 High Grade Aether Crystal
12 High Grade Titanium Ore,
plus... (for the five titanium daggers => three nobles...)
80 Aether Crystals
30 Weapon Flux
180 Titanium Ore
180 Charcoal
50 Titanium Acid

Kinda pricey. Of course, your mileage may differ.

End result was three Worthy titanium daggers, none of which procced into the Worthy Noble Titanium Dagger, oh well. Two of the Worthies I sold for 165,000 Kinah each. The regular titanium daggers sell to the vendor for over 16,000 each, so all my costs were made up and then some.

Gathering More Kinah

2009-10-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

One of the nice things about Aion is that money (Kinah) is much easier to come by than in most other MMOs. The quests pay well and there's lots of stuff to sell to someone. There's also lots of stuff to buy, from clothes to the various crafting skills to misc. items and so on.

Upgrade your gear every level and your cash will run out.

Naturally, the #1 tip to having a larger Kinah staf is to put a lid on all your spending. Don't upgrade every level, for one.

Make sure you expand your cube at least one level. You might also want to do that to your warehouse. The first level of expansion is cheap enough.

Vendor junk - all that grey titled junk you're picking up from various mobs sells for a surprisingly high price to the vendors. Don't check it, sell it. Also, check the Vendor's "Sell Misc" button. After a long looting session you just hit the button and all the junk lands in the "sell screen."
Grinding - I'm finding a certain amount of grinding to actually be fun, since mobs here drop interesting stuff. Just mash mobs until your cube is filled, hit the "return" button to get back to town, sell, and then repeat if you're not bored out of your mind. :)
White stuff - All that nice white titled armor and such that you're grabbing sells to the vendor at a very nice price. If fact, the vendor price frequently matches what you'd get off the Broker. Hmm... there's a hint in there... ;)
Greens - Not all green items sell well on the Broker, though many do. Try grabbing some "Extraction Tools" from the General Goods vendor and "disenchanting" those greens. The enchantment stone you get may be worth far more than the green item and, at the least, you can use it to upgrade your own weapons and such.
Check the broker prices on any unusual items you find, such as stigmas, blues, etc.
Manastones sell well, at least some of them do. You can sell them to the vendor for almost nothing or you can check the broker prices. Especially if you have Physical Crit stones that you won't be using (I'll take them.)
Crafting materials sell well, if they're not outrageously priced. Especially mats that lead to interesting recipes. Especially uncommon mats that lead to interesting recipes. Aria/Azpha will never sell for a high price, but Pluma or Kurin Meat sells better and leads to more interesting recipes.
Some crafting items sell well, but it'll cost you upwards of 100k Kinah to get your craft skill to 110 or so, and quite a bit to get the mats to make the more interesting items.
If you're grinding a group of mobs and if there's a repeatable "kill that mob" quest then you might as well do it. Some of them pay well in Kinah, if not XP.

Of course, there's a Killer Kinah guide you can grab if you want all the tips. Check it out, here.