AionFTW.com

First of all, thank you to Fatal Fool from over at the Aionsource.com forums! He’s a great member of the aion/assassin community and wrote this amazing guide, as well as gave us over here at AionFTW permission to use it. So thank you very much Fatal Fool! It’s thanks to members of the community that put the time and effort in to do stuff like this that makes the game overall more enjoyable for the rest of us.

Basic Overview

The Assassin class is the “Rogue” or “Thief” archetype found within Aion. Like the majority of games which have such a class, you will find that dual wielding, stealth, and large amounts of melee (physical) based damage make up the class’ basic utilities. They rely on their ability to “burst” (do large amounts of damage in a short period of time) and restrict their targets movements through the use of stuns.

The Assassin is one of two specialized classes you are able to choose upon reaching level 10 in the initial Scout school/subclass. The other being a Ranger.

Hide

Does the Assassin get some type of stealth skill?

Yes. The Scout class gets the skill Hide I (lvl. 5), which is the Aion equivalent of “stealth”, allowing both Assassins and Rangers to use the initial rank. Assassins however are the only ones which obtain Hide II (lvl. 34), which is much more difficult to detect, and lasts slightly longer.

Are there any abilities that can only be used while Hiding?:

NO. As of now there are no abilities that are performed exclusively while in Hide mode, or any special damage/crit or other bonus for attacking while in Hide mode. Furthermore any ability used while in hiding will take you out of hiding.

Signet Patterns

What are Signet Patterns? How do they work? How do they effect stuns?

Signet Patterns are often considered to be the Aion equivalent of a WoW Rogue’s “Combo Points”. Both of which can be stacked up to the maximum intensity of 5, and upon using a signet skill all engraved signet patterns on the target are consumed.

How are they used?:

- The more signet patterns engraved on a target, the greater effect the signet bursting ability will have on the target.

- Pain Rune is an example of a skill that utilizes signet patterns. As you can see from the tooltip, the more signet patterns erased/consumed, the higher the damage will be, and the higher chance you have of stunning the target.

- Signet Patterns are arguably the most difficult concept behind Assassins, as well the hardest thing to efficiently manage (next to rotation and cooldowns). Not every skill uses signet patterns, or applies patterns.

- Signet patterns compound with other Assassin’s engraving abilities. If you have two Assassin’s on one target, their signet pattern application and consumption will be from the same pool, and are still capped at 5 pattern levels. Therefore monitoring, coordinating, applying, and removing signet patterns is rather important when two or more Assassin’s are on a single target at the same time. Read on to find out more.

Signet Stun Mechanics: Coming soon.

(3.1) Pattern Engraving: Engraving is the method of applying a pattern to your target. Each skill that has the ability to apply a pattern can only do so up to a certain intensity, and that intensity can be found in the skill description. See the following skill for an example: Rune Carve

As you can see from the above tooltip the skill “Engrave Signet” can apply patterns “up to the level of 3″. The pattern level can only go up one level at a time, per skill used. There are skills that are capable of applying up to 3 signet pattern levels, as well as ones that are capable of applying up to 5 signet pattern levels. See the following skill for an example: Fang Strike

The skills that can apply up to the 3rd level means that upon reaching pattern level 3 it will not be capable of pushing the pattern level any higher without using a skill that can go to level 5. Skills that can apply pattern up to level 5 however can further the targets Signet level from 1, all the way up to 5. This limitation makes it more difficult to obtain the maximum 5 patterns, and forces you to choose which skill to use in order to further it rather than simply spamming random skills to achieve 5 patterns without effort.

Photos: The following photo is of an Assassin’s level 5 pattern graphic. At level 1 there is only one square, at level 2 there are two squares, and so on. This is different than the debuff icon found found on the targets buff/debuff bar. The graphic only lasts for roughly .5-1 second before fading.

The picture below is of the Signet Engraving debuff icons that are greatly enlarged. In order of 1-5 (left-right):

*** MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE AFTER THE BREAK!

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Sadly I was not able to play as much as I wanted during the “Head Start” program due to unforeseen events. I did get a good taste of the excessive server queues though! I was able to finally get some play time in last night and was overjoyed. As some of you know the www.AionFTW.com crew have settled on the Triniel Server as Elyos. The quests at low level have not changed since the BETA so it was very easy to plough through a few levels.

One issue that needs to be addressed immediately is the bug (I assumed this is a bug) where when getting disconnected we are placed back in the queue. This was addressed very early with WoW (you had a grace period to log back in bypassing the queue) and I imagine it won’t be long before something to that effect is applied to Aion. I was playing in full screen mode and alt-tabbing to respond to MSN conversations… the game crashed and when I went to log back in I was placed at the end of a 2000+ player queue.

As frustrating as that was, I still enjoyed a few hours of gameplay and used this time to really understand the UI while grinding to level 7. For those of you actually reading this blog I have a piece of advice regarding skipping the server queue (this may be common knowledge): simply set up shop and AFK. There is no rule against this yet and for the moment it seems you can remain logged with an active private store for an excessive period of time. I’m sure this will be corrected soon (I hope they work harder to eliminate the queue itself) at which point I don’t doubt players will find other ways to stay logged.

Tune in for more!

This new official Aion trailer is in one word…”Delicious”.  It was released today (July 31st), and in all honesty – is one of the finest trailers I’ve seen to date. It gets the blood pumping, and has me more excited than ever for 3PM EST today when the servers open up and we can jump into beta weekend #5!

The trailer showcases mostly gameplay content, and gives a decent idea, albeit stylized, what fighting in groups in Aion will look like. All in all, the purpose of it seems to just tantilize those of us who are sitting on the edge of our seat waiting for the release of this amazing game.

Well, it seems Aion has reached a level of popularity (at least in it’s far-eastern markets) that megacorp Coca Cola has taken interest. In my opinion, this is a good thing…heck, who wants to play an unpopulated MMO? It’s nice when the game you play has reached a certain level of mainstream/pop-culture precedence.

I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen people walking down the street wearing t-shirts and hoodies splatted with the alliance, or horde symbols – it’s neat…knowing that person plays the same game as you.

There are the haters of course…that dislike the popularity. They like being a sub-culture, I suppose. Me personally – I couldn’t really care less either way to be honest…if the game is fun to play, then who cares if it’s a Coca Cola marketing tool?

What remains to be seen is if Aion’s reach into the North American market will be as successful as it’s counterpart in the far east. Will we be seeing Aion commercials alongside WoW commercials on the mainstream media powerhouses on this side of the pond? Will NCsoft’s marketing be able to penetrate our collective North American pshyce the way that Blizzard has?

The next few months is crucial for NCsoft. I believe the first few months of an MMO’s release dictate it’s failure, or it’s success. So – by december or so of 2009, I think we’ll have a good idea of what kind of reach Aion will be able to attain.

Dates, Times and all that Jazz.
The fifth beta will run from 31st July (12:00 PM PT, 9:00 PM CEST, 8:00 PM BST) till 3rd August (12:00 PM PT, 9:00 PM CEST, 8:00 PM BST) and a count down can be found here: http://kindred.aion.tv/status/ This beta is focusing on levels 1-30. To see recent client updates try here: http://eu.aiononline.com/uk/news/clo…-coming-1.html

How to get a key
It has been mentioned that there will be no more giveaways for closed beta keys so currently the only way to get on to the beta is to preorder Aion. Some previous giveaway keys (MMORPG.com, Fileplanet etc) were only for one beta event so your key may now be invalid!
You don’t have to commit to buying at this stage, (although some places ask for a deposit, its not much!) but by preordering you will get access to all the beta events coming up and an early access weekend (where you can play retail Aion before its released in the west) as well as a few fancy in game items.
For a list of what you get from pre-ordering see here: Pre-Order | Aion: The Tower of Eternity

However not all sites and shops are aware of the Aion preorder beta codes (not all of them are taking part in the promotion) and Ncsoft have released an official list of retailers supporting the keys (The EU one is here: Retail | Aion: The Tower of Eternity ). Be warned though that even these sites aren’t reliably informed! For more info try here: http://www.aionsource.com/forum/ques…order-faq.html
It is important you get a code for your area i.e. EU code for EU, NA code for NA because there are now IP blocks on the accounts and currently you cannot use an account not in your area.
(Although this is being looked into by Ncsoft so may change in the future.)
Much More after the break… (more…)

Assassin:

Some say rogue/assassin classes are only played by douchebags who only want to gank other players and make badass pvp videos. I’m not going to argue against that! The assassin is the burst melee damage you expect him to be, along with the obvious ability to stealthily approach his target. Now combine this with Aion’s flight system and you have a fantastic killer who can nearly always get away. Their unique abilities and damage capabilities will always encourage groups to bring them to encounters along with Gladiators for melee.

The PVP potential of the class is very obvious; it appeals to those who enjoy stalking a prey and finishing them off quickly before others can intervene. They have the ability to keep a target stunned for a very long time through chaining skills and are hard to hit do to their agility.

Important Statistics: Agility, Accuracy, Strength – Watch the video after the break… (more…)

With the release of Aion so near I can only imagine most of us who intend to play are wondering which class we will be rolling. Many of us are or were WoW players and this may influence us on which class seems most comfortable. One thing to keep in mind is the truly defined classes found in Aion. Several WoW players became frustrated with the lack of specialization (especially in the recent year) between classes, namely due to the hybrids. Tanks who had been so since release became furious when hybrid classes excelled at this role while easily being able to accommodate the raids other needs. Pure DPS players were enraged when a simple talent switch could make a healer class outdo them in damage.

Aion will feature a total of 8 classes when breaking down each primary class to their 2 specializations which are set at level 10. Here are the classes available (the brief descriptions mostly focus on their PVE roles): (more…)

A few classes have the ability to heal other players in Aion; however only the Cleric has the restoration power needed for a main healer role. They also have a significant amount of survivability by use of a shield. In Aion, both the Priest subclasses (Cleric and Chanter) can actually deal a reasonable amount of melee damage when needed. Leveling solo as a Cleric is not as painful as one would have expected. 48furamdv3

In PVP the Cleric’s survivability is even more powerful through the use of stuns and roots. This allows them to kite any would be attackers while still keeping heals on their teammates.

Important Statistics: Will, Knowledge, Health…Watch the Video after the break… (more…)

Aion only features 2 playable races; however the ability to fully customize your character’s features (to the smallest detail) will ensure a significant variety. Many RPG players enjoy playing exotic, unorthodox races (hello gnomes); these players will most likely be disappointed that the playable characters in Aion all look “normal” and are not very distinguished from each other.

The two playable races are the Elyos and Asmodian; neither of which seems to be the “bad guys” (like the Horde). The lore of the game states that their world was split in two during a massive war and that after several years the two races finally met again in the center only to renew their ancient conflict. The lore and intonation surrounding the races will most likely be what drives each player to their choice. Although there are abilities and equipment available only to each race, this does not seem to affect the choice players have been making since the differences are so balanced. (more…)

I understand purchase limits. I run an online business (won’t say what industry!) and I’ve been nailed by fraud. The reason being, as a business owner processing online transactions, if one of those purchases turns out to be fraud (stolen credit card for example) – I have to refund the person their money PLUS give the bank a 30$ “chargeback” fee. It’s thoroughly annoying.

When a company is making as many online sales as NCsoft currently is with Aion – I completely understand that they are taking precautions against being nailed by fraud.

HOWEVER…

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