Taugrim's MMORPG Blog

I finally got back from a 3-week business trip overseas. I played Aion very sparsely in January, and the sad thing is I didn’t really miss it.

So after only 4.5 months of playing Aion, I’ve de-subbed.

The reasons are pretty simple:

1. the leveling was boring and very time-consuming. Fundamentally Aion felt like work to play based on its design
2. the main PVP zone, the Abyss, was largely empty. This was nothing like WAR, WoW, or LOTRO, where it was easy to find opponents to fight

The funny thing is my Chanter is only just over a level away from 42, which was my original target level for making PVP videos – Chanters get a ranged stun at 42. But the main thing is I simply don’t believe in Aion. I would not recommend Aion to a new player who is used to “Western” MMOs (e.g. WoW/LOTRO/WAR). So I figured it didn’t make sense for me to invest the time to level up and make videos.

I think some of the good qualities of WAR really set me up for disappointment with Aion. WAR was fun from level 1 all the way to 40, aside from the game instability issues. Aion was incredibly stable but consistently boring.

A YouTube subscriber sent me a PM back in September 2009 about Aion, and he was right about the game:

Not a big fan of aion, knowing the principle is Korean mentality based, it’s going to get old fast.

I myself been hooked in so many same type mentality game design and they all ending up a disappointment.

I work in the gaming industry, and I know how Aion is build as. [Aion] makes it more efficient for people who has time to waste, then instead of people who actually has the skills to show off. Quite imbalance approach, but then again, that’s their mentality of designing video games. (The american version is based off the asian version, same set of rules will apply.)

Hope you won’t spend too much time on Aion, you might setup yourself for a disappointment in the long run.

I’ve been following Keen’s posts about Allod’s Online so I might check that out.

The 3-man clearing of FT, as shown in my previous video, was surprisingly easy, so I decided to try duoing the instance with a Templar named Chalen.

We had no problems clearing the instance, and I was able to help DPS Kromede in between heals. Granted, we were both level 38 against Kromede. But the tank was using a 2h (so more damage taken), and I’m pretty confident we could have done this successfully at level 34.

The footage of this Kromede fight is fun to watch from a Chanter’s perspective because I am moving and shifting roles the entire fight, which is what Chanters do best.

Templar tips from Chalen:

• Use IJ to interrupt Kromede’s AOE. You have to back up a bit from Kromede for the interrupt to work
• You can switch between 1h and 2h weapons during pulls to rotate cooldowns to maximize DPS

Chanter tips

• the L37 skill Word of Quickness is incredible for burst healing. I should have used it when the tank’s health dropped to 25%
• Word of Protection is one stigma you’ll use from mid-game to end-game (unless you go heavy MC/DPS spec). It is a tremendous bailout ability in tight situations, because the extra avoidance and mitigation can be the difference between people dying or just surviving

Thanks Chalen for not just being willing but being interested in doing stuff like this. It breaks up the monotony of leveling.

It can be fun and educational to run instances with non-standard class compositions. Players sometimes have rigid perceptions of what will and won’t work, and in my experience, those (narrow) perceptions are often inaccurate. I enjoy trying different specs and group compositions to see how they perform.

Thankfully this morning I PUG’d with two very skilled and open-minded players and learned a lot in the process.

I joined a Templar’s Recruit Group for Fire Temple on the LFG channel very early this morning, so there weren’t many players online. After a Ranger and Sorceror joined, the Temp said “OK let’s go” and I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. I wasn’t sure whether my 35 Chanter could handle solo healing duties but I was certainly willing to try.

The Sorceror went LD on a pull when we had a couple adds and didn’t come back. From a cynical point of view, I don’t think that was an accident. The Sorc gave up instead of even trying. Fortunately, that didn’t affect our ability to clear the instance twice and get some nice blue mat drops in the process.

Here is footage of the 1st time we downed Kromede.

I went ultra-conservative on this attempt…I

1. didn’t melee
2. spammed Healing Light non-stop
3. chain MP potted most of the fight
4. stacked the deck in our favor by using the awesome group DP buff Word of Wind

Turns out it was a very easy and smooth fight. As you can tell from the footage, the tank (Inlove) used great positioning. He and the Ranger Maddux were very skilled players and it was awesome grouping with them. We handled some multi-mob pulls that I’ve seen wipe full groups.

Here is footage of my 33 Chanter and 33 Sorceror in PVE, fighting against the same 34-35 Klaw mobs.

This is as close to an apples-to-apples comparison that I could get between different classes, in terms of having the same level, comparable gear, and fighting the same mobs.

For Chanters, there are a couple things to be aware of in terms of our CC:

1. you can’t knockdown a mob already on the ground, but you can knockdown the mob as it starts to get back up
2. if you stun a target and re-stun it while the previous stun effect was still in effect, the 2nd stun will overwrite the 1st stun. An example of this is getting a stun with Infernal Blaze, then stunning with Parrying Strike. Depending on the situation, you may want to allow the 1st stun effect to complete before trying another stun (e.g. so that you can interrupt your opponent when they start casting after the 1st stun wears off)

Here are a few Chanter tips that I didn’t mention in the video:

• In PVE, you can tell that I allow auto-attacks (AAs)to weave in during abilities for my Chanter. Even at level 31, I don’t have enough melee abilities to spam non-stop without having to wait for either Meteor Strike (MS) or Hallowed Strike (HS) to come off cooldown. So I basically time abilities with some AAs so that I can use MS and HS whenever they are up. I tend to favor opening with MS over HS, because I want to get as many Pentacle Shock procs as possible and MS-IB do better damage than HS-BS. One could argue though that it makes more sense to open with HS to use Infernal Blaze as early as possible. You say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-toe. In PVP I would spam abilities, because you have to get as much damage in bursts as possible (and before you get CC’d)
• For PVE, do not use Booming Assault, the 4th skill in the HS chain. It is an evil MP hog and does not debuff the target or have any useful effects
• It’s important to get used to watching the chain / reactive icons to the right of your character in the middle of the screen, instead of looking down at the skill bar. You want to keep your eyes on the action as much as possible, and having to look down can be a distraction

Here are a few Sorceror tips that I didn’t mention in the video:

• The Curse of Roots stigma ain’t cheap, but it’s worth it’s weight in gold, for solo and group play. You will save yourself a lot of deaths by investing in it, so over the long haul, it will more than pay for itself.  It’s always sad to see Sorcerors who haven’t purchased it yet; not having CoR severely affects a Sorc’s ability to CC, especially when pulls get messy
• Did I mention how great Wind Cut Down is? Oh, of course I did, but heck, it’s worth saying again. And the 16s cooldown is short enough that you’ll use the ability every pull. So go out and buy it, if you haven’t already

I forgot to record flying; I wanted to mention that the easiest method I’ve found for steering while flying is holding both mouse buttons down. This allows you to make very fast turns mid-flight, which can cause problems for keyboard turners trying to keep up with you.

I’ll be traveling for work and holiday for most of this month, so my leveling will slow down quite a bit in December. I’m hoping to get my Chanter to 42 in January.

It’s been fascinating to watch the increasing level of real-time visibility of MMORPG content outside of the game.

One of the first advances made by game developers in this regard was to provide player and guild profiles on the web. Most of the major MMO’s (e.g. WoW, WAR, etc) provide profiles for each character, where you can see things such as their current gear.

Aion includes this; it’s “table stakes” in my opinion to have parity with competitors. E.g. here is a screenshot of my Chanter’s profile on aionline.com.

There are many reasons why this kind of information is very helpful, e.g.

• to figure out when forum posters can credibly back up their claims in terms of progression or gear
• to see how other experienced and skilled players enchant/socket their gear and which gear pieces they go after (crafted vs PVE)
• to share your character’s progression with your friends
• to find out how strong players of the other faction are
• etc

However, Aion has gone further than just player and guild profiles. When you login to aiononline.com, you can see the status of your current Auction House (AH) items and how many of your friends and guild mates are online:

Aion limits a character to 10 items on sale on the AH. However, I can tell at any time which, if any, of my AH items have sold with a web browser. Even when I don’t have much time to login and play, this visibility has enabled me to keep my AH “stocked.” I’ll login simply to post new sale items when I know some items have sold.

We’re in the nascent stages of increased MMORPG access across “channels.” The market is evolving, and the question becomes, where is it evolving to?

Let’s consider social games. For many popular social games, you have a flexibility of playing the same game on Facebook, on a game site, and on your handheld (e.g. iPhone app) or on your PC. Social games create a strong “pull” for players by enabling them to experience the game regardless of their location; you can play via a web browser at home, at the office, while traveling, etc. On top of this, social game developers have learned how to create a sense of urgency that makes players feel the need to login and play. We see this phenomenon with “time management” games, such as Mafia Wars, where players have energy that is expended on missions and regenerates even when a player is “offline.” So players have a sense of urgency to login and spend energy after they are full, so that they can maximize the progression of their character. I feel that same sense of urgency with Aion when my AH items have sold – I want to log in, collect the sale proceeds, and put more items up for action.

So how far will cross-channel integration affect MMORPGs? That is, what will the experience be when we are not logged in to the game client? That’s the big question.

Several years ago, the question was which platforms (PC, console, or Mac) a game would be supported on. But the rise of social media and social gaming, coupled with the evolution of mobile devices with high-speed wireless Internet access, is causing structural shifts in the gaming industry. The question is no longer which platforms a player can play on (PC, Mac, console), but rather how does a customer experience the game, regardless of their location. The MMORPG market must innovate, as it did earlier this decade when MMORPGs created new social meaning (playing games with other people in a rich environment), to remain relevant and attractive to consumers.

My hope is that MMORPG game developers will be creative and open-minded in terms of how they approach cross-channel integration. There are the obvious concerns for MMORPG players. E.g. increased out-of-game access (e.g. being able to buy/sell on the AH) could be vulnerable to exploitation by “gold farming” companies. However, at least in the short term, there are mechanics that companies can implement, as NCSoft has done, to allow players to still feel connected to and see what is happening with their characters, even with they are not logged in to the game client.