Aion

[Che]

I know, I play a rogue. But if you vanish a blind and then blind someone you either draw a trinket or kill someone. Also, you can vanish deathcoils and other spells without it dropping vanish. Or at least you could before this last patch. (I quit before it came out)

[Sean]

I was never really good with the timing of it, but at the beginning of BC when PoM Pyro mages were everywhere I used to be able to vanish-negate the Pyro. I'd see PoM activated and just wait for the split second before it hit me. Poof, no damage taken and they wasted a cooldown. Like Che said though, I have no idea if it's still feasible, I haven't PvPed on a rogue very much since, all my re-rolled Horde rogue ever did was Wintergrasp.

@ Ryu: I'm sure WoW is a lot more appealing to players who have just picked it up. Those of us that played from Vanilla have just watched the game decline and fall more and more into a care-bear game that appeals to young players who don't want a challenge.

WoW launched with end-game content. There was plenty to keep you active until BWL, AQ, and Naxx were finished and released into the game. AoC launched with no content beyond level 50 (of it level 80 cap) and only had one group dungeon implemented and working, for the mid 30s, and even it was bugged to shit.

I have no clue if Aion has group dungeons (instances) or not. My Elyos priest is 12, I spent all her money dicking around with crafting. I love it, by far the best crafting system I've seen in an MMO to date, I just hope that it doesn't suffer from what WoW's did and actually allows you to use that time and effort to craft usable, wanted items.

I leveled a scout to 10 and went Assassin. It was a massive chore. Mages seem to have it somewhat easy since they can kill things from a large distance, Priests (Cleric in my case) have a range of castable spells and melee attacks, but the scout-assassin was a total pain to level. After I ascended and moved on the second zone I had to bandage after every fight, as I'd lose over half my HP every time I killed a mob my level or 1 lower.

AoC had the same flaw... melee classes took way too much damage from mobs and it made them a lot more difficult to level than a class that could heal it's self. That's why in AoC I saw a TON of Bear Shamans, Priests of Mitra, or whatever those snake priests were.

I actually enjoy my cleric, though. I also have a long-standing history of healing in MMOs. Priest was my main as of a year and a half ago in WoW, and I'd healed MC as a Pally preBC, and did all of TBC except Sunwell and all of Wrath up to ToC as a Holy Priest.

I enjoy healing, but I also enjoy getting to melt faces. AoC and Aion both did a great job of making the healing classes more fun to play leveling wise. WoW was a chore to level an in-spec healer.

I'm broke as hell atm, and if I ever get the money from selling my WoW account to a website, I'll probably buy Aion at launch. I really think I want to go Asmodian, though. As I previously said, I just get the feeling, after so much WoW, that the "dark" or "evil" race will attract more serious/intelligent/mature people and less care-bear players.

[Quistis]

There are instances/dungeons later in the game. They actually added a lot more in the 1.5 patch.

I am currently playing a Chanter and it's like a ret pally that heals (as a backup for clerics in groups). Pretty good at soloing at least.

Oh and here's some screenshots. (bought her a fancy dress lol)

[LokentheWolf]

Hehe, Wow, this really became Active. Thanks Quistis for taking a serious interest in Aion, and posting stuff. My life has been sucked up by Runes of Magic which is down till 3 am my time for the release of its second chapter.

Whatever time I had on Aion was enjoyable. Personally speaking from a hard core addict of WoW's stand point, this is not a WoW clone. You want a WoW clone? Go check out Runes, which graphicly and UI speaking has it copied minus a frontal bar that you can change. The only thing that Runes hasnt done is stream lined its combat which can be abit agrevating and clunky when you go to attack Everything (minus maybe one ability) hits a global cool down. This includes those life saving potions. The main idea that I've followed in runes is "Dont bite off more then you can chew.".

Now, as far as Aion and WoW are conserned. UI's are simple because nobody wants 3000 pictures cluttering their screen, having to access a spellbook to cast, or clunky objects in the way so when your fighting you cant see that enemy sneaking up from behind. Seriously you want to say the User's Innerface is coined by WoW and dig on a game for that then maybe you should dig on PEZ for tasting like Smarties, or likewise dig on WoW for taking and streamlining EQ's UI system.

Another fun fact, as already mentioned, WoW is loosing people. I left because the game got stale and I was tired of 30 people arguing over who gets that dagger/sword/mace ect. Aside from that I really am disapointed that when I started getting re-interested in WoW for WotLK, I found out that Blizzard already has plans on releasing a new expansion. I found it quite sad that Arthas plays really no part in WotLK, and that he's just an npc that sits ontop of a mountain. I have a feeling that they prolly already have plans on releasing an instance or something for Arthas to go into similar to BT, but I find it cheap that you can see and interact (or atleast could) with Arthas before the release of his new zone. I'm much like Sheena when it comes to playing the game not for loot, or pvp, but for Lore.

Yes I like PvP, I find it fun. Yes, I like Loot, it makes killing easier. But these things are possessions that after two hours of working hard may or may not drop, and when they do, YOU ARE NOT PREPARED! for the amount of whiny little maggots that tell you repeatedly that you dont know how to play your class and that you shouldnt have rolled on the item, and how they are seven ways from tomarrow better then you in every way. These problems have made WoW Developers go, "HOW DO WE MAKE THE GAME BETTER!?" their solition? Buy a new 40 dollar game, spend another 15 bucks a month and smile because we know you want to play SC 2, and D3, and thats going to cost you 5-10 bucks a month so that we can "make the games better.".

New zones, races, classes, and loot to make your headspin yes. But really, what is that 15 $ going to really? 11 million people make Blizzard one of the biggest game makers out there, and you mean to tell me we cant keep BattleNet free? I personally was waiting for them to shuck out the new D3 and wanted to pass my time with WoW. A few years later their still in beta for D3, but cant focus on anything other then WoW, and to make the game play more enjoyable? We'll make more and more and more expansions to keep you distracted from the fact that we dont have anything to really offer you other then another hill to climb, and on that climb we'll make it so that the 300 other people who want your loot will do anything to step on your face and make you yearn and keep climbing until we release a new game so you can do it all over again.

Honestly why do we delude ourselves in beliving that WoW's a super-power when it's so bloated and disfigured that a Boomer would reject it as kin? Why? Because we focus on the adventure. And this is why games like Aion, Runes of Magic, Champions online, WAR, and Conan, have the possibility of over throwing WoW. We're tired of WoW's adventure. We've gone down that rabbit hole, and we've defeated the Burning Crusade, Arthas, and I ask you, What now? There's not much room for WoW to move now seeing as its exploited its two largest plot lines.

I played WAR online, I loved its system. Had my friends continued playing I'd be there with a sub in one hand playing Warhammer, because I love Warhammer's storyline. WoW stole its uniqueness and put it into its game because WAR's titles and the ability to smash the enemy's own homes threatened to take away from its subscribers.

How many people fell in love with Lord of the Rings? How many people would love to face the same enemys as the Fellowship? The game is still rolling, though not as fast as WoW, but people didnt give that game 6 months. Look where it is now.

(wow, I kinda got derailed there, sorry for the WoW rant.)

Visually speaking Aion is wonderful. And it has things that WoW never thought of putting in there. I remeber getting up to take a pee, leaving my charater in ankle-deep water, when I returned I checked my bag, and noticed a fish swimming in the water. Finding it interesting I watched it, and then noticed that I wasnt alone in watching the fish. My charater was watching it too. He then bent down, plucked it from the water, and took a bite. Now, Im not a sushi lover. BUT THAT WAS AWESOME! A graphic's engen that makes you want to splash through the water just to see it ripple is one thing, an engen that says "Hey, Your in water, theres a fish ten feet from you, lets make him eat it." is vastly different. And mind you, you've just gotten your feet wet at this point, speaking from the story's perspective.

The only thing I didnt like? Wanting to play a ranger, getting my charater up there and finding out that while it is a dps class it wasnt the autoshooting hunter I expected. But I stuck with it, using the abilitys and coming to realise that even as my skills progress my charater wont just rely on arrows and traps alone. Yes if I got a tank I'm a ranged DPS, but alone I learn how to deal with enemys that have gotten into my face with what abilitys I have. It made me think for a moment that maybe I should have rolled an assassin, but I realised that the game was finally making me think that as an archer 500 years ago, I couldnt just sit back and shoot arrows without getting into an occational melee on the battlefeild. Likewise in pvp, they give Rangers another option for taking on enemys that have left the feild of fire by allowing them to have traps, and melee moves that will not only hinder but if you use them correctly kill your enemy.

Yes this all sounds complicated. But its expanding the whole realm beyond what WoW's done. Flight is another aspect that makes the game go from a 2d plane to a 3d. You now have to worry as a melee charater that an archer may have taken a cozy little spot up in the rocks and rain death down on you. Likewise he could have just done the lazy and/or WoW thing to do and just set up in the trees. Planes of attack now come from more directions then just left and right, but also add up and down. All you have to do, is play your class intelegently. And most of all, it opens up a brand new adventure to us all. New abilitys, classes, and storyline. Its just the stigma of having to have spent so much time on WoW that makes us loath to leave it.

Personally speaking I think I'd play Aion if I got a job. For now however, I'll stick to runes.

[Quistis]

So! It's been a couple of weeks since release, anyone here who actually ended up playing the game? Cos I do

Got a level 31 Templar and a level 27 Sorcerer. I might level my Sorcerer first.

[cbchick]

i've heard about Aion and it surprisingly interests me but WoW also interested me at first too. i really wanna try it out tho and see if i like it or not.

[Djinn]

So! It's been a couple of weeks since release, anyone here who actually ended up playing the game? Cos I do

Got a level 31 Templar and a level 27 Sorcerer. I might level my Sorcerer first.

Just started playing it last week, pretty enjoyable so far. Only have temporary internet at the moment, so i can only manage 1 and a bit hours a day... bit different from my WoW playtime haha.

Started an Assassin and ****ing love it, backstabs for the win haha. Thinking of trying a plate wearing class soon with a friend who's just started. I'm on Eu servers so its doubtful i'll be seeing any of you on it XD

[Quistis]

Yeah I am enjoying my sorcerer so far. Been sucking at pvp though lol, need to get used to it again. I retired from WoW doing mainly raiding.

[OnOneRyder]

I can't comment on Aion sorry, but I'd like to add to the WoW bashing. I started up a WOW thread a few years ago...and sadly I still play fulltime. Since then I've basically done everything in game except clear totgc, still haven't done 25 anub hardmode yet....and I gotta say it's getting stale. In an attempt to please the masses they've done nothing but hand out gear. I remember in vanilla wow there would be a few select people on the server who gear up in non-set stuff and there were adored in the cities. People were like "holy shit, whats that and where'd it drop". Now, everyone and their dog has top quality gear that they've gotten from either tokens, pugs or rewards. I'm all for pugging....but when a pug is capable of going after loot very similar to that which the top guilds in the world are working with is terrible.

Another thing I hate about this game now is the lack of in depth instances. Lets look at what wraith has given us so far, EoE, OS, VoA, ToTC....all walk in and meet the boss raids. No more spending 5 or 6 hours in a raid pushing through trash to earn the kill...you simply go in and boom you're at the boss. I for one liked 40 man raids of trash clearing, it made the boss fights that much more enjoyable. And hell, they're BOSSES....how the **** can someone be a boss without anyone to boss around?!

Blizzard is slipping big time and this next xpack is proof of that. Completely change up lore in an attempt to add something new...it's going downhill from here.....and yes, my subscription will remain active....*takesanotherhitofWoW*

[Djinn]

Can we have less WoW posts please, i don't mind if you're comparing the games or something... but i'm seeing an awful lot of posts with nothing but WoW, WoW, WoW in them. Granted most of the posts have valid points in them, its still a topic about Aion