Only 1 month (or so) until North America (NA) Aion launches. I’m looking forward to it.
I tried NA Closed Beta (CB) for about 10 hours total. I didn’t spend more time playing CB for the following reasons:
- Leveling via PVE is tedious. Kill x of y, deliver a to b, yada yada yada. It’s a shame players can’t level up starting from level 1 via PVP in Aion
- The Beta characters are throwaway
- From what I’ve read, the balance between classes at levels 20-30 is very different from 30-40 and 40-50. Players keep saying on the forums that classes that seem strong in the 20s (e.g. Chanter) don’t stack up as well in the 30s and 40s
- The version of the game that goes live would likely be a very different version from CB. That was confirmed in the past week, when NCSoft announced the NA Live version would be 1.5
- I’ve been enjoying PVP in WAR since Patch 1.3b went live
After reading the AionSource.com forums and watching videos of various classes, here’s the short list of classes I’m considering for my main character:
- Gladiator
- Templar
- Chanter
I’m not interested in playing a main healer (Cleric) or stealther (Assasin). I don’t like pet classes, so that rules out Spiritmaster. Sorcerer doesn’t appeal to me. Ranger looks like a micro-management class (e.g. jump casting to reduce animations, etc), and I’ve heard that they’re not popular for grouping since other classes bring more DPS to the table.
Chanter was my original top choice to play.
Chanter reminds me quite a bit of LOTRO Captain; both bring buffing, healing, and melee DPS to the table. Like Captain, Chanter relies on crit mechanics to be effective. Chanters rely on staff crits for knockdowns; Captains rely on Devastating Blow crits to open-up their on-defeat abilities. The main concern I have about Chanter is the class seems to tail off at mid to higher levels relative to other classes. Also, Chanter, like Captain, has limited crowd control capability; other classes can kite or run away from you. Chanter seems built for grouping, and I want to have reasonable soloing capability. I loved my Captain, but the endgame experience of Captain is making me hesitant toward playing a Chanter.
That leaves either Gladiator or Templar.
One of my guildees from Warhammer Online, Namaste the Witch Hunter, played Gladiator on C-Aion into the mid 30s and loved it. While I don’t like grinding PVE, as I find PVP to be much more of a rush and challenge, I do enjoy main tanking to make PVE instance runs go smoothly. Templars are the main raid tanks in Aion, but apparently Gladiators can AOE tank and off-tank effectively. Some folks say that Gladiators can tank a lot of the non-raid content, as long as the healer is competent. One issue with Templar is opponents tend to avoid attacking them, and many of the Templar ability chains require the use of a shield. I want the flexibility of using a 2h for burst.
So right now, Gladiator is my top choice. The class has a good blend of survivability, damage (including AOE), and seems desired for grouping for PVP and PVE.
P.S. you can customize an Aion character to look like almost anyone, including US President Obama:
Aion: Amazing Famous Face Collection
LOL :)
Taugrim's MMO Blog 
Hahaha, thats so sick! Amazing facials, thanks for brief class profiles. I agree with all of your choices for Narrowing down your options to Glad / Templar. I also was considering glad/Templar/or spirit-master, but after much video researching (watching lots of the Korean pvp vids) I decided to go with Templar. Simply because 1. Gladiators are very gear dependent, and although they do posses some anti-kitting skills a good kiter will will destroy them. But from your SM vids I’m sure you will propose to be a great threat for most classes. 2. Templar’s have 3 self heals that I know of, 2 of them are hots, and one is a direct heal, sort of like the paladins Lay of hands from world of warcraft. I may be wrong, so correct me if I am. But from all the videos I’ve seen Templars will will be a force to reckon with!
Yea, from the Korean tournament videos, Templars did well. Some people say that is because of the rules in the arena and it being a confined space.
Regardless, the general feedback from players is that Temps are very strong.
Taugrim, I was reading up on some of the different classes on Aionsource.com and it seems like most if not all the classes have very little in CC/stuns. With the exception of the Glad/Templar class. Surprisingly the spirit-master has the most pvp oriented CC’s in the game, followed closely to by the Sorc. Heres the tread.
http://www.aionsource.com/forum/spiritmaster/25022-spiritmaster-minifaq.html
and an excerpt: In a group setting the Spiritmaster is a sort of safety net, capable of fearing a target off of their allies, or using Silence/Body Root to halt an attack. The Spiritmaster further helps gain control through the use of an AoE fear and AoE slow, along with dispels and the ability to DoT multiple targets. The stress placed on the opponent’s healer is well worth the effort, and can cause even a formidable group to fumble. While the class isn’t required during PvP, as any class isn’t, after grouping with one who utilizes all of their skills, you will gain a respect for the class and hope to see them on your side and not the other.
Sorry for the long post!
Thanks for the link, that’s an excellent guide.
Spiritmaster sounds very similar to WoW Warlock in terms of the mechanics (fears, DoTs, and pets). I played a Warlock into the 40s or so. While some aspects of the Warlock class were entertaining (fear-DoT’ing people to death), I tend to enjoy melee classes over ranged classes.
Also, I am very wary of pet AI, and I heard that pets don’t scale currently in Aion. I’ve heard that Spiritmasters are not popular for PVE instances, because their DPS is low compared to other DPS classes. Not that I’m playing Aion for PVE, but it is a consideration.
Hey Taugrim I’ve enjoyed your PvP commentary in WAR even though my mains were different, and it’s encouraged me to get into doing a similar thing for Aion. I have also come to the Gladiator being the top choice personally, with Templar next, based on some of the things you’ve mentioned. Templar looks to be the stronger 1v1/X class IF enemies are fixated on taking you down, whereas the Gladiator seems more wanted in focused group setups(though Templar’s pull seems a must for large standoffs), and also I think better fits the protector rule with the cc they have access to. It’s a bit of a shame Templars don’t have access to some more of the sweet abilities tanks had in WAR – it’s going to be hard for a game to make a tank as fun as that, but the pull is a start. Templar does get a very nice 3s stun/8sec cooldown with greatsword though if the aionarmory is to be believed right now.
The way the casting and movement system is set up as you’ve pointed out, I think gives melee an edge by virtue of other classes not being able to kite as easily. Of course flying combat may be a different matter.
Here’s a thread I found immensely packed with good info from a Korean PvPer: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253/view/forums/thread/240629/page/1
[…] debating the all-important decision of which class to play as my main character. As I said in a post a few weeks ago, I was thinking of rolling one of these 3 […]
[…] debating the all-important decision of which class to play as my main character. As I said in a post a few weeks ago, I was thinking of rolling one of these 3 […]