Elyos Beta2: Enter the Mage

When Beta2 rolled around I had a lot more time to take my time and explore different aspects of the game. This time around I decided to make two new characters and try out two of the other base classes.

I made a Mage for my new Elyos and I decided to create a Scout to test out the Asmodian side on (More on that character later though.)

So first thing's first:



Meet Arathen.

If any of you saw me running around Israphel, yeah that was me. If a mage named Arathen stole any of your kills...that was some other guy, I swear!

From my experience so far with Mages, it's clear they have a number of cc abilities. This makes sense as you're not exactly too tough (ie: paper thin).



Your cc (crowd control) abilities are pretty much the only defense you're going to get. Luckily, you start out with two of them: Ice Chain 1 and Restraint 1. You'll also start out with Flame Arrow 1.

Ice Chain eventually chains into Cold Wave 1, which knocks your opponent back and stuns them for a moment. Flame Arrow chains into Blaze...which lives up to its name (instant cast burst damage spell).

Used correctly, these spells can easily kill an enemy before they get the chance to even touch you in melee range.

But enough about class skills, lets take a closer look at the Elyos starting area: Poeta.



This is your roadmap. Throughout this entry I'm going to be referring to different parts of Poeta and showing a few glimpses of them. Please look back to this map if you're wondering where they all fit in relation to each other.

Poeta is the zone you'll be exploring and adventuring in during levels 1-10. There are many different looking environments in this zone and you'll get a taste of each of them before you finally Ascend to Daeva-hood.



You'll start in Akarios Plains, where some farmers are being harassed by some miscreants. It's a pretty wide open area but you won't stay there too long.



One of the things in Aion I had the joy of experiencing while in this area was the game's weather effects (which like everything else in the game are simply gorgeous). Along with the rain, the sky will crack with lightning on occasion, bathing the players below in light.



Another pleasant surprise was that my character actually would react to the weather. Arathen didn't seem pleased. A few moments later he conjured a large leaf to hold over his head while he impatiently waited for me to stop taking pictures of the clouds.



Moving on, we reach Akarios Village. This is your main shop hub for Poeta. Your trainers and most of your merchants can be found here, as well as your main contact for your Campaign Quests.

Quests in Aion are split into different types. Campaign Quests are basically your main storyline. They're the quests that will chain you from one part of an area to another (and eventually one area to another). Each part of these Campaigns is often its own small questline. You do not have to do them in order, but you likely will anyway.



Another thing to note: In Aion (like many similar Korean MMO's) you can set up your own private shops. There's been some debate over the inclusion of these into the NA release of Aion. A number of players dislike them and feel they do little more than clutter the landscape. They also argue that the private stores are redundant with the game having an Auction House system in place.

Personally, I don't mind them too much. They can clutter a town a little, but they add a little bit of original flavor to the game. Honestly, the alternative is everyone simply standing around in the auction house room (and lets face it, they're going to anyway for most items crafting related).



From Akarios Village we move on to Cliona Lake.

You'll spend a bit of time here, and some quests will send you back to this area. There's some farmers that need help fending off the Kerubs, and a fisherman who needs some assistance.



I took a few pictures of the Mage's combat stance when wielding spellbooks. I should note you're only holding the book while attacking if you're using your default attack.



When you do this though, the pages of the book will flip in your hand and your character will toss an energy bolt.



I have to say I was really impressed with the level of detail that has gone into even texturing the pages of the spellbooks.



I also happened to notice something rather huge flying overhead. This thing isn't targetable, but it is utterly massive. I'm pretty sure that broken planet up in the sky behind it is the other half of Atriea; Admodae. Please correct me on that if I'm mistaken, but yeah that's essentially where the players from the other faction are.



Eventually, your quests will take you to Daminu Forest; home of the Elim, lead by Daminu.

Quests here will have you helping some fellow Elyos as well as assisting the Elim ready themselves to fight off a growing Kobald menace.



You'll earn a glimpse of your past here, as well as a taste of what some of your higher level gear will look like.






Sadly, like a good dream meeting an alarm bell, you've gotta wake up and get back to work.


You'll be sent to the Deforested Area next, where Kobalds are chopping down Daminu's trees for reasons yet unrevealed.



There's also a small camp here with flight point access back to Akarios Village. By this point it's a welcome addition to your transportation options.

I'd like to point out: You can bind yourself to Obelisks that allow you to use the Return skill to basically hearth back to your desired town point, but it's a one way trip. In Aion it also costs money to bind yourself.

A number of quests at the camp will send you to the next zone:


Kabarah Strip mine.



This area isn't too large, but it's densely populated with enemies (something which isn't really depicted well in that screenshot).



You'll also spend some time going back and forth between the mine and the hermit Pernos' camp. Pernos is located at the beginning of the Agaric Spore Road.



You'll have to fight your way through the Agaric Spore Road in order to reach...


Timola Mine. I'll leave any descriptions of this area blank for now. Wouldn't want to spoil too much of the story.



You'll eventually save the day though. Saving Poeta from a growing menace...


...revealing more pieces from the mystery of your past...



...and ascending as a Daeva.


Ultimately, I chose to make Arathen a Sorcerer. However, as Beta2 didn't allow us to level our characters past level 10 I can't speak much for how the class change has affected the gameplay of the character...yet.

In the end he earned his wings, and gave me a chance to show you around Poeta.

I hope you enjoyed the brief tour. Next stop: Asmodae!

Stay tuned!

Character Creator

Okay, I wanted to take some time to go over the character creation system in Aion, as I rushed through it before.

The first step (obviously) is choosing your faction. In Aion there are two factions: The Elyos and the Asmodians.

Not to delve too deeply into the lore of Aion, but when the Tower of Eternity broke apart, the world of Atreia split in half. The upper half of the planet became known as Asmodae, home of the Asmodians. Bereft of much sunlight, they adapted to their cold, harsh environment; growing claws on their hands and feet, as well as manes on their back. The bottom half of the planet, renamed Elysea, was on the other hand bathed in the light of a nearby star. This lead to the lands of Elysea being much more lush and vibrant. The Elyos, in turn, took on a more angelic appearance.





Upon choosing your faction you'll be greeted with the class selection screen. As I mentioned last entry, there are four base classes that expand to eight advanced classes. Upon hitting level 10 you're given the choice (after an ingame event) of which of your base class's two advanced classes you wish to become. From then on you are that advanced class.





Each race has a distinctly different look to them in both character models and weapons/armor.



Once you choose your base class you'll find yourself looking at the Character Creation screen. Here's where the fun starts.

As you can see, the game isn't limited to fair faced prettyboys. You can make characters with a significant amount of grit to them if you desire.

On the left side of the screen are the preset creations for both body type and head. Mostly you'll be using them as a base, but they also give an easy option for people who do not want to delve into the full customization features. Even still, there are a couple dozen hairstyles and face shapes per sex; as well as a number of decorations and tattoos to help further customize the basic look of your character.

You also have free reign over your character's hair, lip, and skin color if you want.

These are just the basic tools.



Here's where the fun starts. By clicking on the "Customize Face" you'll find yourself faced with twenty-five different sliders allowing you to change the size and shape of nearly every aspect of your character's face.

Remember what Bethesda tried to do with Oblivion? Or EA with Skate? Or Activision with Guitar Hero World Tour?

Aion succeeds where those guys failed.

Simply put this is the most comprehensive face modeler I've seen to date. While playing the game during both weekend events I've yet to find any player made character in the game that looks like another character. The variety that is possible is simply astounding.

Here's a quick sample of some of the other character faces other players have designed:



And that's not even a fraction of what's possible.



You also have the ability to completely change the size of any part of your character's body as well as your character's height. As you can see, there are twelve sliders just for these adjustments.


Ultimately there's very little you can't do with the system.


You can make your character as large as an Orc...


...or as small as a Dwarf.


You can make something frighteningly familiar:







Or...something just frightening.



Next up, I'll start going over Beta2 with showcases of each faction's starting lands.

Aion Beta 1

Okay here's a bit of a walk through my Aion Beta1 experience.

"Beta1" is the nickname for the first Beta weekend for Aion. The Elyos faction was the only playable faction, and only levels 1-20 were unlocked.

Unfortunately, I only got my beta key on the last day of the beta. Thus, I only had from about 9pm est to 3am est to play before the beta weekend was finished and the servers shut down.

There are four base character classes in the game:

Warrior
Scout
Mage
Priest

These four split into eight advanced classes at level 10. The breakdown is as follows:

Warrior:
**Gladiator - Your classic plate dps class. Halberds, 2-Handers, upclose facesmashing.
**Templar - The tank class of Aion. A "Board and Sword" class that has a lot of damage mitigation and emnity generation.

Scout:
**Assassin - Typical sneak and stabby. Can wield two handed sword or daggers (possibly maces as well).
**Ranger - Hunters without the pet. Purely a ranged dps class. Lots of kiting. Lots of shooting.

Mage:
**Sorceror - Pretty much your typical spellcaster. Lots of elemental based magic and knockback/cc.
**Spirit Master - Spirit master is the pet class of the game. You raise up four elementals with you that can fill numerous roles from tanking to ranged dps.

Priest:
**Cleric - Healers/melee fighters. Mostly a healing class but can defend themselves with mace/shield if needed.
**Chanter - Buff class! Primarily this class is a Buffing/Healing class. It's said most of this class's DPS will come from fortifying its allies.


I chose to make a Warrior, with the intent for him to become a Templar at lvl 10.




The Elyos starting zone is really nice looking. Despite there being a lot of people playing, the mob spawns seemed to be handled pretty well. I never found myself waiting for normal monsters or quest items to respawn despite having at least 10-20 people running around wherever I went doing the same quests I was.



Most of the quests were kill quota, fetch, or kill and retrieve quests with rare exceptions. There was one quest that required one of 3 different items from three different types of monster. The reward you got was a mystery, but the more difficult the monster, the better the reward.

As you can see from the image above, there is an option aside from the normal map screen for a map overlay to be put on the screen. You map in this game will automatically post markers for major objectives (such as people you need to talk to in order to turn in quests). Some items and monsters in the game also can be tracked by right-clicking on their names in the quest text and clicking "locate". If the target can be located, it will be marked on your map with an X to indicate where it can be found.

There is also a built in Quest Tracker (as seen on the screenshot) where you can have your progress on a number of quests shown on the right side of your screen.



Combat in the game is pretty interesting in the way it's handled. Some skills have specific chains that will unlock as you use them. For example: My Warrior had a primary melee attack ability. Upon using this ability, a second attack ability became immediately available for a short period of time.

This period of time was likely no longer than six seconds, and if you chose to use any other ability between the first and the second, you'd break the chain. If you look close you can also see there is a translucent icon in the screen NE of my character. If you use an ability that's part of a chain, the next part of the chain's icon(s) will pop up there. If the ability is ready, the icon will be solid. If it is not, you'll see part of the ability darkened in the usual clock fashion.

Now, I say "icon(s)" because some abilities can chain into multiple options. My warrior's primary strike could chain into a second strike, or an ability that would create a damage absorbing shield and increase my attack ability momentarily.

These abilities were on separate cooldowns, so finding the right rotation was key to survival.



Here's another combat image. Pay attention to the UI in this image. In the lower left hand is your HP/MP info. In the top left, you can see your buff icons/timers.
Directly below the enemy is where the enemy's castbar will appear. This is built into the combat engine and it will tell you what ability they are about to use as well. Combat text appears next to the creatures getting hit. Red text is typically damage you are taking, white is damage you are dealing. Critical hits are actually written with a *Critical* tag next to them.



Here's a quick picture of the Warrior's shield defense ability. Using any other abilities breaks the stance; but while you're using it the warrior takes a % less damage. It was a great ability for keeping myself alive between chain cooldowns.



As for travel, your flight ability is not intended for travel over long distances. You can only fly for a limited amount of time (60 seconds at level 10). Thus there are two primary ways to travel long distances: Flight paths and teleportation.

The image above is an example of the Elyos flight path in progress. A spell effect bird appears on your back and carries you as if it is a pair of temporary wings.



Magic items in the game can be bound upon equipping (and I assume acquiring). Binding must be done outside of combat and has a channeling spell effect during the binding. If you notice in this image there are white stones in my inventory. These are "Moonstones". They can have any number of abilities to them and act like gems for the most part. Almost every item in the game has at least one socket. The big difference is you have to pay to have one removed after it is socketed into an item (if you wish to replace it). The previously socketed moonstone is then destroyed.



Here's an image of my gear by the end of the night. The early gear available from merchants only really changes in hue, but there are magic items that drop and offer different looks. By the time I hit level 9 I had a set that pretty much matched from quest rewards.



The game's storyline is pushed forward with quests, and at pivotal moments you'll find yourself starring in generated in-game cutscenes. Considering these all feature your character with all of the fine tuning available in the character creation system (which I'll cover later), these really impressed me.



Here's another.



This image is a very brief taste of the Elyos capital city of Sanctum. It is a floating city in the sky that just utterly dwarfs Dalaran in size and scope. This place completely blew me away. I'll have more screenshots of this city later.

Unfortunately, at this point I had 5 minutes before the server was going to shut down on me and I was desperately looking for a place where I could stretch my newly attained wings.



Ta-da! Skyrider spreads his wings for the first time! God, this moment felt so good.



An image of one of the animations when you're ascending in the air. Default Flying controls are "R" for rising and "F" for falling. This can be a little awkward while maneuvering. I'm likely going to think about getting a mouse with more than 2 buttons to accommodate for this if I play live.



Oh and when you dive, you DIVE LIKE A HAWK. This simply looks amazing in game. The flying animations are really well done. There's those little glide animation segments too that just make it work so well.

Sadly at this point in time the servers went down and I couldn't test anything further.

I did confirm one thing though: If you run out of flight timer while you're flying (it's that circle of dots surrounded by the wing icons in the bottom right of the UI) you WILL fall to your death. It is not advised.

More to come in the future! I'll go over the character creation features and my Elyos/Asmodian experiences in Beta2.