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Aion News
Aion: Holiday Ascension Pack Announced!
Nov 10th
In order to reward those who purchase Aion this holiday season NCsoft will be launching a "Holiday Ascension Pack" that will be available at participating retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart. In addition to the game itself, the "Holiday Ascension Pack" will include a number of exclusive in-game items.
Details below:
• Special Dyes for customizing your character’s appearance o Amazon – Hot Orange Dye o Best Buy – Mustard Dye o Game Stop – True Black Dye o Target – True Red Dye o Walmart – True White Dye • Lesser Life Potions (20) • Lodas’s Amulet (15) • Lesser Running Scroll (15)
We’ve got screenshots of all the exclusive dye’s in our Aion gallery, check them out!
Aion: Combined American & Euro Sales Near 1M
Nov 9th
Things are looking pretty good for NCsoft according to their Q3 earnings announcement released today. Combined sales of the company’s recently released MMOG, Aion, in North American and European markets total near one million units, with 500,000 units sold in North American territories, and 470,000 units sold in Europe.
Aion is now responsible for 52% of NCsoft’s total sales, and overall sales have more than doubled for the company. All in all, a pretty good year for NCsoft!
For more information on Aion, visit the game’s official website here.
Aion: Veteran Rewards System Details
Nov 2nd
Details for the Aion Veteran Rewards system to be introduced this month have surfaced on the official Aion website. Each month a player is subscribed to the game will qualify them for new rewards, with each reward redeemable for every character on the player’s account. The rewards will be received through in-game mail, with the first batch to be delivered on November 4th, 2009.
The current list of rewards spans months one through six, with the list of items available below:
Veteran Rewards Items Month 1: Pop Daeva
- Expand Cube Ticket
- Pop Legend emote
- 4 Lodas Amulets
- 4 Revival Stones
You jumped into Aion and are off exploring the visually stunning world of Atreia. To help you along in your travels, we will give you four Lodas Amulets, four Revival Stones, an exclusive Pop Legend emote, and an Expand Cube Ticket.
Month 2: Honored Daeva
- 4 Lodas Amulets
- 4 Revival Stones
This month, we will give you four more Lodas Amulets and Revival Stones to fortify you against the challenges ahead. Good luck! Atreia is counting on you.
Month 3: Dance Daeva
- Adept of Aion title
- Forbidden Dance emote
- 4 Lodas Amulets
- 4 Revival Stones
Your commitment has earned you the title "Adept of Aion" and another exclusive emote: Forbidden Dance! In addition, we will More >
Aion Assassin PvP
Nov 1st
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Aion Assassin PvP is highly suited to the solo player, as they are the least reliable on being in a group to be effective in PvP. Aion Assassin, like many rouge type classes in mmorpgs can sneak around without being seen, and striking the victim when they least expect it. So running around in a group, announcing your presence is not very beneficial to the style of gameplay of Assassins. Most Assassins who do group, tend to form groups with other Assassins.
If done correctly, Assassins can obliterate some classes very quickly, especially Clerics and Chanters. So if Assassins are in a large scale battle, these are the classes they should be killing first. Clerics taken out early on, can turn the tide of battles, since after losing the healers, the remaining enemy classes will fall very quickly.
To be a great at Assassin PvP, you need to know the three main advantages of Assassins. These are stealth, stuns and damage. Stealth is somewhat obvious capability, though it’s is not as overpowered as in other games, since it can only last up to 50s and has a 1 minute cooldown. But is it still good enough to orchestrate a well planned ambush. More >
Aion: Looking at the Chanter
Oct 29th
MMORPG.com Aion Correspondent Joshua Price writes this look at the Chanter class in NCsoft’s newest MMORPG.
As you no doubt already know if you’ve been at least following Aion a little bit, the MMORPG uses a more traditional class system as opposed to a more dynamic method of determining your role.
When you start, you can pick between four basic, archetypical classes: the Scout, the Warrior, the Mage, and the Priest. Upon reaching level nine and completing a mandatory quest that will be automatically given to you, each of those classes will have the option to go one of two paths. The class of interest today is the Chanter, a Priest who’d rather get in the thick of things as opposed to watching the combat from afar.
Read Looking at the Chanter.
Aion: More on the Ranger
Oct 27th
MMORPG.com’s Josh Price takes continues this look at his early experiences playing a Ranger in NCsoft’s Aion.
Assuming that you’ve stuck with the class through its terrible teens, your ranger and you should be having a pretty swell time by 25 (though, in the grand scheme of things, this is still pretty early in the game). Here are some ideas of what’s to come or what you should already (maybe) have a pretty good idea about.
Obviously, at 20, you received your first stigma, Arrow Deluge, which leaves you with one stigma slot to go for now. The best option for this second slot is–yeah, you guessed it, Sleep Arrow. This stigma is pivotal in both PvE and small scale PvP (if it’s Zerg Vs Zerg like fortress battles, chances are it will just get broken). Here’s a decent tip: You can actually sleep an enemy without aggroing it, though it will still attack if you’re too close when the sleep wears off. In instances this is especially useful, since you can play hero and sleep a patrol before it comes within range of the group, making for a pretty neat little pause button on their path. At 25 you get access More >
Aion: The Fire Temple
Oct 23rd
MMORPG.com Aion Correspondent Josh Price writes this look at the Fire Temple dungeon in NCsoft’s newest release, Aion.
As you and your Asmodian wings approach the level 30 milestone, a new quest will pop up in your journal: [Group] The Three Keys. This little gem, once completed, will grant you access to the Fire Temple. This instance, in western Mt. Musphel near the Sky Temple of Arkanis, is sort of misleadingly named, as it has more in common with a hole in the ground (commonly referred to as cave) than it does with a temple. Although, there are some ruins strewn about the place which would lead one to believe it may at some point in its history been a temple. Now, though, it is home to fiery fire elementals, rocky rock elementals, gargy gargoyles, and one sexy lady by the name of Kromede.
Read The Fire Temple.
Aion: Curse Founder’s Open Letter to NCsoft
Oct 21st
Curse.com founder "Netcurse" has posted an open letter to NCsoft Korea on AionSource pleading with the company to move fast in addressing a number of key issues he feels will be a detriment to Aion’s long term success here in the West.
In the letter, Netcurse says, "…there are three issues I want to bring to the front page today that need to be addressed or this game will end up being a 300k subscriber game within 6 months, not the one-million+ subscriber game it should be." And then proceeds to go through a laundry list of the game’s most glaring issues, but also provides what he feels would be appropriate solutions.
Read Netcurse’s letter here.
Via Massively.
Aion: One Month in Q&A
Oct 21st
MMORPG.com’s Jon Wood had the opportunity to ask a few questions of Aion’s Producer Brian Knox as we approach the game’s one-month anniversary.
MMORPG.com:
Can you explain what led to the decision to allow what many considered to be outrageous queue times directly after launch rather than to add more servers or take some other measure to be sure that all who paid for the game could play when they wanted to?
Brian Knox:
We tried to walk a very fine line and we strayed a bit in the beginning. Our goal was to always ensure there was a playable server for that language or region. Most players didn’t use this option and continued to stay with their original server, but the option was there. That said, today we’re seeing much more reasonable queue times today and continue to monitor this closely.
Read the One Month in Q&A.
Aion: Harvest Revel Event
Oct 19th
The developers of Aion are getting into the holiday spirit with the announcement of their own "Harvest Revel" event. The Harvest Revel is a time during the Fall harvest where the residents of Atreia celebrate the bounty of the land. However, for several days during the Harvest Revel the skies darken under a mysterious eclipse.
To pass the time during the eclipse, the Asmodians chase the Wild Kurthanir leader during the Wild Hunt and prepare traditional dishes. The Elyos on the other hand, don’t have such a great time, and are instead plagued with the rise of restless undead. As a result, the Elyos must join "Dark Night" bands in an effort to eradicate the undead lest they invade Elyos villages.
The developers at NCsoft promise tasty treats daily for players who login during the event. The original announcement can be viewed here.