BloodhoofBert
07-21-2009, 08:39 PM
Hello,
I've been playing Warcraft for about a year and six months now. In that time the arena has been where I gained my enjoyment.
This was until a few weeks ago, I got to the point where I'd really had enough. The enjoyment had gone and all that remained to keep me playing was the notion of the loss of work I put in if I quit, not good. This is what lead me to click on the Aion section of these forums to see what it was all about. After reading up I thought that giving the next beta weekend ago would be a good idea. As I found Aion from this section and my previous enjoyment being arena, I thought posting my thoughts after playing closed beta 4 here might help others like me, who are looking for something new.
Now as far as arena goes I have only gained 1900 as shaman/feral in s5 then heartlessly re-rolled a DK for DK/druid in s6 which got me 2000-2100 at the highest. Thus I'm no gladiator, however I always put as much effort into pvp as I could. My keys were bound, i read the forums, watched streams and videos, learned other classes etc etc. What i'm trying to say is hopefully you will find what I say still credible =p.
Ok i'll start off by saying I really enjoyed the be it limited time I spent on the beta (3 days). The main things I was worried about were, combat and the flying being a gimmick which in turn ruined the combat. I had previously tested other korean made games and I know they tend to point towards huge RNG and lots of click to moves.
It seems my worries were wrong. The combat was very good, although the click to move exists it can be turned off and played very much like WoW.
By level 20 my Assassin already had more key binding then my level 60 rogue and I really had to think what I was doing. To try and put it into perspective, on Warcraft as my rogue to get combo points (as you know) you just use the move that your spec has enhanced the most. So for mine I press Mutilate until 5 combo's then choose a finisher. On Aion there are alway mulipule moves on different cooldowns that can be used to gain combo's. To make things more interesting some moves could only get you to 3 combo points, while others could go all the way to 5 (remember all on cooldowns, so you can't just spam one). This meant you really had to keep an eye on which abilities to use. The combo building moves were pretty much just made for that reason as well. Thus you had to balance using the moves that did lots of damage and the one which gained combo's.
The movement bonuses also added another level of depth. As others have posted moving sideways for instance gives you 300% extra evasion or moving back extra parry/block. This is a nice way to keep people from just standing still, however you also gain a 70% decrease to damage while doing this. This means you need to move when on the defence or while cooldowns refresh but make sure you move forward or stand still to do burst. I found this to be really nice as it stops people standing still, but also running around like headless chickens. You really have to think about your movement.
As for RNG It does exists and a lot more then warcraft, many of my stuns for instance only hit at a certain rate. This however did not seem to get in the way too much, as the combat lasted a lot longer and was based on groups fighting. There are also a lot more options for moves, like my Assassin at end game has 7-8 stuns depending on race, so if one RNG's you can still compensate. Still concerning tho.
Flying I found to be a great extra element to fighting. You can only fly for real in the Abyss (optional pvp areas for lvl 25+) and cities. The rest you have to glide, which is like it sounds and can be quite hard. It adds a nice bit of extra game play and can really helps getting away from gank squads. Where flying can be done for real you can only do so for a limited time (1 min to start with) which recharges when you land. Many classes get different bonuses while flying or on the ground so it can really mix things up. Anyway I was happy with the way flying works in Aion.
So the combat really did impress me, however next comes the pvp system itself. As many of you know the PvP is more along the lines of RvR with castles to captures in guilds or gaining ranks through the ranking system. I didn't really get chance to try any of the PvP other then the rift stuff which was really fun.
The rifts spawn connecting say the level 20-30 zones for both factions together. This means a number of people (there is a limit) can travel through for some world pvp. It worked well in my experiences, getting ganked is not really fun, but here at least you spawned back in the town and quickly get a group together to kill them. Death costs money (not much) and some time to run back to where you were. Overall it added an extra element of danger to leveling without the annoyance of getting repeatedly killed by capped characters, as they cannot use the rifts (they have level caps).
The rest of the pvp system I did not get to try out however I will write what I know. There's a ranking system, like the old school warcraft one. Yes that does sound bad I know, but there are more ways to get points (honor) then just BG's over and over. With this when you die you lose points so you can grind all you want, if you suck and die all the time you will not get far. For me this sounds like a good mixture however like i'm sure you are i'm worried that the balance will not be well done and without a spare 15 hours a day, top level ranks will never be gained. It will remain to be seen.
I'm also looking forward to the guild system as there are, as said before castles to capture and a leveling process for guilds, via pvp.
Anyway If you are thinking about Aion coming from playing Arena I hope this helps you decide if its right for you.
I've been playing Warcraft for about a year and six months now. In that time the arena has been where I gained my enjoyment.
This was until a few weeks ago, I got to the point where I'd really had enough. The enjoyment had gone and all that remained to keep me playing was the notion of the loss of work I put in if I quit, not good. This is what lead me to click on the Aion section of these forums to see what it was all about. After reading up I thought that giving the next beta weekend ago would be a good idea. As I found Aion from this section and my previous enjoyment being arena, I thought posting my thoughts after playing closed beta 4 here might help others like me, who are looking for something new.
Now as far as arena goes I have only gained 1900 as shaman/feral in s5 then heartlessly re-rolled a DK for DK/druid in s6 which got me 2000-2100 at the highest. Thus I'm no gladiator, however I always put as much effort into pvp as I could. My keys were bound, i read the forums, watched streams and videos, learned other classes etc etc. What i'm trying to say is hopefully you will find what I say still credible =p.
Ok i'll start off by saying I really enjoyed the be it limited time I spent on the beta (3 days). The main things I was worried about were, combat and the flying being a gimmick which in turn ruined the combat. I had previously tested other korean made games and I know they tend to point towards huge RNG and lots of click to moves.
It seems my worries were wrong. The combat was very good, although the click to move exists it can be turned off and played very much like WoW.
By level 20 my Assassin already had more key binding then my level 60 rogue and I really had to think what I was doing. To try and put it into perspective, on Warcraft as my rogue to get combo points (as you know) you just use the move that your spec has enhanced the most. So for mine I press Mutilate until 5 combo's then choose a finisher. On Aion there are alway mulipule moves on different cooldowns that can be used to gain combo's. To make things more interesting some moves could only get you to 3 combo points, while others could go all the way to 5 (remember all on cooldowns, so you can't just spam one). This meant you really had to keep an eye on which abilities to use. The combo building moves were pretty much just made for that reason as well. Thus you had to balance using the moves that did lots of damage and the one which gained combo's.
The movement bonuses also added another level of depth. As others have posted moving sideways for instance gives you 300% extra evasion or moving back extra parry/block. This is a nice way to keep people from just standing still, however you also gain a 70% decrease to damage while doing this. This means you need to move when on the defence or while cooldowns refresh but make sure you move forward or stand still to do burst. I found this to be really nice as it stops people standing still, but also running around like headless chickens. You really have to think about your movement.
As for RNG It does exists and a lot more then warcraft, many of my stuns for instance only hit at a certain rate. This however did not seem to get in the way too much, as the combat lasted a lot longer and was based on groups fighting. There are also a lot more options for moves, like my Assassin at end game has 7-8 stuns depending on race, so if one RNG's you can still compensate. Still concerning tho.
Flying I found to be a great extra element to fighting. You can only fly for real in the Abyss (optional pvp areas for lvl 25+) and cities. The rest you have to glide, which is like it sounds and can be quite hard. It adds a nice bit of extra game play and can really helps getting away from gank squads. Where flying can be done for real you can only do so for a limited time (1 min to start with) which recharges when you land. Many classes get different bonuses while flying or on the ground so it can really mix things up. Anyway I was happy with the way flying works in Aion.
So the combat really did impress me, however next comes the pvp system itself. As many of you know the PvP is more along the lines of RvR with castles to captures in guilds or gaining ranks through the ranking system. I didn't really get chance to try any of the PvP other then the rift stuff which was really fun.
The rifts spawn connecting say the level 20-30 zones for both factions together. This means a number of people (there is a limit) can travel through for some world pvp. It worked well in my experiences, getting ganked is not really fun, but here at least you spawned back in the town and quickly get a group together to kill them. Death costs money (not much) and some time to run back to where you were. Overall it added an extra element of danger to leveling without the annoyance of getting repeatedly killed by capped characters, as they cannot use the rifts (they have level caps).
The rest of the pvp system I did not get to try out however I will write what I know. There's a ranking system, like the old school warcraft one. Yes that does sound bad I know, but there are more ways to get points (honor) then just BG's over and over. With this when you die you lose points so you can grind all you want, if you suck and die all the time you will not get far. For me this sounds like a good mixture however like i'm sure you are i'm worried that the balance will not be well done and without a spare 15 hours a day, top level ranks will never be gained. It will remain to be seen.
I'm also looking forward to the guild system as there are, as said before castles to capture and a leveling process for guilds, via pvp.
Anyway If you are thinking about Aion coming from playing Arena I hope this helps you decide if its right for you.