Subtitle: because PvE is oh-so-fun and serious business

(watch in 1080p to better understand the situations explained below)

Disclaimers:

*I copy and pasted this document to post on Gameforge’s forum but it did not let me for the reason “Your message is too long. The maximum length of a message is 10,000 characters.” Thus I post this guide as a Google document.

*Any constructive retort/criticism/input/suggestion/feedback are welcome.

*If you do not enjoy reading TL;DR, you can press on your browser’s back button now.

*The skill terms used within this guide would follow the Gameforge’s version of 4.0 in-game skill translation, not the North American NCWest version. I personally find it more natural as the translation is direct literal translation from Korean Aion. For example, the Sorcerer’s new 4.0 skill that replaces ‘Inferno’ is called ‘Fire of Magic Power’ which is a direct literal translation from Korean Aion, as opposed to North American NCWest’s translation of the skill ‘Balaur Seeker’, which befuddles my mind why someone would name it like this.

*Initially, this video was just a randomly recorded footage of the instance Runadium run as I wanted to start learning to use Sony Vegas video-editing program. This video was my very first Sony Vegas project. Then after I created the video, I thought to myself, “Hmm maybe I can write up a Gunner PvE guide based on this footage.” Thus here it is.

This introductory guide seeks to serve as a general guideline to novice (“noob”) Gunner players of Aion in providing some useful tips on how to optimally maximize damage output in PvE. The video provided of the instance Runadium run demonstrates the proper usage of skill rotation to maximize your Gunner class’ damage dealt over time.

In essence, regardless of what class, to maximize your damage output in PvE in Aion, you must; a) have ideal ping, gear, manastone and stigma build setup, b) have optimal skill rotation, and c) minimize deal loss (the term ‘deal loss’ meaning the time your character is basically “wasting time” not dealing damage, thus losing what could be potentially turned into time of dealing damage).

a) 

Gunner by the nature of class design benefits from having a high passive skill Magical Accuracy (MA), as opposed to other magic based classes such as Sorcerer or Spiritmaster. It is known to be that Gunner can overcome the MA : Magical Resist (MR) difference of ~300 in PvP and PvE. In comparison, a Sorcerer or a Spiritmaster would start to notice a “resist” even when the opponent has a higher MR value of 1 than his/her MA (disregarding random 1% magic skill resists of the game). An example could be the instance Runadium as demonstrated in the video provided. Sorcerer would require minimum MA of ~2150 to be successfully not get resisted by the addtional mobs (adds). Gunner, having higher passive MA, has almost no problem with being resisted with ~2050 MA (my own MA in the video being 2045 with Chanter’s Magic Matra; @00:48). As can be seen in the video, throughout the entire run I was resisted only one time by the adds and that was because of the lower MA in using cannon as compared to pistol. Therefore, Gunner must stack only Magic Boost (MB) for PvE to maximize damage dealt per skill to overcome the opponent’s Magic Suppression on top of the 2900 MB-cap. Stigma PvE-wise, I suggest full ‘Soul Cannon’ stigma tree with ‘Rapid Fire Posture’ for faster attack speed and ‘Load Magic Projectile’ to maximize pistol skill rotation. Some may prefer to use ‘Spirit Cannon’ (Katalam fortress siege rank 1 reward) for burst nuke damage but I believe its 3 minute cooldown is not so applicable in maximizing damage output over long run in PvE unless it is of short “DPS race” such as in sieges then it might come in handy.

b) and c) 

These two components are interrelated to each other. Having a b) proper skill rotation of your class lets you c) minimize deal loss in PvE of Aion by not having any gap in dealing damage. For example, melee classes such as Assassin, Ranger, Gladiator, Chanter and Templar achieve best damage output in PvE by weaving (or auto-attack-cancellation) to minimize deal loss. If a player solely spams skills in rapid succession, then the character runs out of skills to use because of skill cooldowns and the character has no choice but to stupidly auto-attack for next few while until the skill cooldowns come back. To solve this issue, melees mix in auto-attacks (weave) in between every 1-5 skills (depending on Attack Speed and skill animation) so that there is minimal loss of time in dealing damage (deal loss). Caster classes (rather magic based, as Gunner is not really a “caster”) are not as much concerned by weaving as opposed to melee classes. Although some weavings are recommended for magic classes as well, as demonstrated in the video. Mixing in weaves right before you initiate each skill chain is good for starter Gunners. For example, Sorcerer could deal much more damage by weaving in an auto-attack right after the skill ‘Freezing Wind’ as there is a small animation delay-gap between ‘Freezing Wind’ and the next skill anyway. By weaving as a magic class, you put in extra ~500-1500 PvE damage for free, with minimal deal loss (time wasted) and increase chance of “proccing” damage godstone. Essentially, proper skill rotation is of upmost importance and ultimately the determining factor in differentiating a good damage dealer and a bad damager dealer in PvE. One could have the same manastone, gear, and stigma as the other but there could be a whole world of difference in damage output differentiated by the skill rotation.

As an example, I am at many times the first Gunner “DPSer” in Katalam fortress sieges with 140-180 ms ping even when other Gunners out-gear me with their composite manastones and better weapons. As can be seen in the video (@00:49), my Gunner (which I play only for fun casually) has basic average stats which is 2790 MB and 2045 MA in PvE (2994 because of 204 free MB from Magic Mantra and Invincibility Mantra) as it only has full Bloodmark gear, accessories and weapons. I do have full mythical armor pieces comprised of mixture of Mad Grendal and Enraged/Angry Hyperion (can be seen @05:23) but due to the insufficiency of Kinah, I cannot be bothered to socket them with manastones, so I continue on using Bloodmark gear.

As can be observed from the video, the basic simple broken-down skill rotation of Gunner  in PvE is as follows:

Pistol chain 1 – Reload – Pistol chain 1 – Load Magic Projectile– Pistol chain 2 – Cannon nukes – Pistol chain 1 – Reload – Pistol chain 2 – Cannon nukes – repeat from start.

This basic skill rotation optimizes and takes the most advantage out of the 30 second ‘Reload’ and 1 minute ‘Load Magic Projectile’ skill cooldowns. Below explained are the seven keypoints to help you to successfully go through this skill rotation with minimal deal loss to maximize damage output in PvE.

First point to make in regarding having ideal skill rotation is that the Gunner benefits in not running out of mana in PvE (and in many cases in PvP as well) thanks to its ability to leech mana with its ‘Soul Shot’ pistol skill chain. Coming from a Sorcerer as my main class, this is indeed a blessing. For example, in Runadium run on my Sorcerer, I pride myself in having the best mana-management by; a) using the skill ‘Gain Mana’ and taking Abyss mana potion only right after stripping myself of gear using macro (10% mana to 90% mana with this method in 3 seconds), b) using ‘Exchange Vitality’ 2 times within the run, only using it after mana is almost completely depleted as well coupled with ‘Stone Skin’, c) proper and frequent usage of ‘Refracting Shard’, not implicating the whole skill rotation circle, d) Fine Recovery Potion at every 30 seconds, and e) having optimal skill rotation to maximize damage output with the same mana pool given. Even after all these, Sorcerer starves for more mana in Runadium with the help of Chanter’s ‘Recovery Mana’ and Spiritmaster’s ‘Transference’ skills. However this issue is like a laughable story from another universe for Gunner players. As can be seen in the video, I neither carry mana potions/serums in my inventory in the first place and I’m solely using life serum. Gunner is the only class out of ten classes in Aion whom does not need to worry about using mana postion/serum in PvE (Bard has to sacrifice time in healing mana as compared with Gunner still dealing damage while leeching mana). All this was explained to emphasize the fact that the pistol skill chain ‘Soul Shot’ must be used at every “Pistol chain 1” interval in the above basic simple broken-down skill rotation. This way, Gunner upkeeps full mana at every skill rotation cycle and minimizes deal loss.

Secondly, the “Pistol chain 2” must be composed of the pistol skill chain ‘Pistol Shot’. This  chain has a skill cooldown of 16 seconds as opposed to the skill cooldowns of 24 seconds of ‘Soul Shot’ and ‘Headshot’ chains. By using ‘Pistol Shot’ as your “Pistol chain 2”, your pistol skill chains will be back from cooldown after you go through your “Cannon nukes” interval even without having to use the skill ‘Reload’. Time fits in flawlessly to be emerged within your skill rotation cycle. The only variation I make in Runadium runs, as can be seen at 02:55 and 07:35, is using ‘Headshot’ chain instead of ‘Soul Shot’ or ‘Pistol Shot’ chain for the first target of the adds. I use ‘Headshot’ to knockback (“stun”) the mage mob to interrupt its initial attempt to nuke and/or Aether’s Hold.

Thirdly, switching between your pistols and cannon must be intertwined within your skill rotation cycle with minimal deal loss. In order to do this, you must at foremost have an easy-to-access “Change weapon” keybind. Aion (especially the European client for some odd reason, compared to Korean Aion) has a small delay in switching between weapons resulting in a gap of deal loss during that time. To minimize this deal loss, you must use an instant skill in quick succession right after swapping the weapons to “cancel” the animation of switching weapons. For example when going from pistol to cannon, I use the cannon skill ‘Fissure Cannon’ right after swapping. This serves two purposes: it instantly minimizes the deal loss gap of swapping weapons and as well reduces the target’s Magic Suppression by the value of 400, letting me do more damage. When going from cannon to pistol, I use the pistol skill ‘Promise of Magic Power’ right after swapping. Again, serving two purposes, it minimizes the deal loss gap and it lets me buff up for additional damage. Also, by buffing up this way constantly, I do not have to remind myself actively to use the buff skill in odd moments while going through skill rotation cycle, minimizing deal loss in that aspect as well.

Fourthly and debatably, your “Cannon nukes” skill rotation must be fluent and flawless. Ideally, it was tested that the best damage-over-time (DPS) by using cannon stigmas is by using the cannon charge skills at their second charge level (meaning your skill goes out right after the first charge). However, in my own PvE experience, this was somewhat unnatural in making my whole skill rotation cycle flow fluently. Thus, as can be seen in the video, I use my cannon charge skills to the max charge level (of course letting your skills go right after second charge is complete to minimize deal loss). The only variation regarding charging can be observed at 08:00 of the video, as I do no charge at all to do three of my AoE cannon skills in quick succession to burst the two Lapimila mobs. As well, importantly, make sure to use the buff ‘Gift of Magic Power’ on five cannon skills not pistol skills as this will grant you more gain in dealing damage as the additional 10% damage will be multiplied on top of the cannon nuke damage which deals more damage than pistol skill damage. Also, as mentioned in the third point, always start your “Cannon nuke” interval with using ‘Fisssure Cannon’ as the first skill to bring the target’s Magic Suppression by 400 for 18 seconds, letting you do much more damage with cannon (basically this is equal to having a free 400 MB boost).

Fifthly and importantly, make the most out of Aion’s game mechanic of giving you 10% more damage in forward movement momentum. Gunner has many pistol skills that are usable while moving, especially the three main basic chain skills are very ideal in using while moving. As can be seen in the video, I run around constantly in forward movement like a “mad monkey” (as my friend called me) within this small instance map that is an island. By running forward (around) constantly grants me extra free 10% damage boost and as well lets me kite adds/boss’ skills more fluently (Grendal’s Ice-Sheet thing for example). Personal tip would be that I run forward by holding down the left and right mouse buttons, rather than using your left hand for pressing down upon “W” key for example. This way, it lets me be entirely free with my left hand to make the most out of my keybinds for skills with ease and speed.

Sixth, utilize your non-chain skills such as ‘Disruptor Shot’, ‘Soulsucker Shot’, ‘Aimed Weakpoint Shot’, “Aimed Wing Shot’, ‘Aimed Shot’ and ‘Encircling Bomb’. As can be observed in  the video, I fit in these skills right after I use ‘Reload’ after going through “Pistol chain 1” interval. The reason for using these non-chain skills is again emphasized by minimizing deal loss. Mixing in these skills within the whole skill rotation cycle grants me constant damage dealing without a gap, minimizing deal loss. The reason for using these skills right after “Pistol chain 1” and ‘Reload’ is so that the skill ‘Reload’ ‘s skill cooldown 30 seconds comes back “faster” after having to go through these non-basic skills.

Finally, make good use of our 2,000 DP skill ‘Power of Magic’. It provides us with 1.1 Attack Speed and grants us free 150 MB. Use your DP skill accordingly so that you know you won’t die for the next two minutes of skill duration time. In this Runadium video example, I use my DP buff at the clone phase to burst them fast and because I know that I would not die for the next two minutes.

That is all I can think of for now. I’m sure I missed on many points and the points that I made may be quite profounding and confusing to comprehend due to my lack of solid writing skills.

I will keep editing this guide and adding points as I recall more information and get feedback.

Thanks for reading if you read that giant wall of text.

I hope this basic guide helps novice Gunner players in improving their PvE damage output.

This guide is from the NA forums and is by Forthyn

Hello everyone!

To help with your acclimation to Aion, here is a guide that forms a rundown on what you can do in Aion to make it easier for you, and what to look for in the game. Basically a crash course. This guide includes hints, tips, abbreviations, and general NPC knowledge. Any instance info would be subjected to the PVE forums. 

I will edit this as patches come, and I gather more information/opinions of input. 

**Aion Wiki is your religious text; read it for all Lore, class info, literally everything about Aion. This guide is to pinpoint quick things at a fast glance. Read Aion Wiki when you have several hours to spare.**

>>> http://aion.wikia.com/wiki/Aion_Wiki <<<

Index: (Ctrl+F, then search [letter] for section)

[a] – Race Balance

[b] – Classes

[c] – Chat

[d] – Fast Track Server (Instance Server)

[e] – Free Items NPC 

[f] – Questing 

[g] – Menu and Options Settings

[h] – Macros

[i] – Legion 

[j] – Groups and Alliances

[k] – Chat Commands

[l] – Mounts

[m] – Instance Abbreviations 

[n] – Increasing Inventory

[o] – Pets

[p] – Housing

[q] – Rifts

[r] – Easy Gear/Coin Gear

[s] – Manastones and What to Socket

[t] – Posting Locations in Chat

[u] – Chat Abbreviations

. Welcome! .

First, Welcome to the game! Aion’s been going since 2009, but still has a strong playerbase. The game is completely Free-To-Play, meaning you don’t have to spend one penny. NCSoft offers a “Prestige” pack, essentially, a $15/mo subscription for extra buffs and boosts. You can read up on the Prestige Pack by clicking this sentence. Link goes to the online store. 

A personal tip to the game: depending on the server, understand that there will be some “nasty” people who like to shout macros, “bad” “noob” etc…. don’t let these bother you. These people don’t make up the entirety of the server. Every game has them, but it’s up to you how many you see. 

. Black Cloud Market . 

The Black Cloud Market (BCM), is Aion’s online store where you spend real money (converted to NCoin), for skins, items, scrolls, etc. This is also the fastest, easiest way to earn kinah. 

Check broker listings for hot items. Each server will be different based off of inflation and supply/demand. 

[a]. Race Balance .

Asmodians have always been the lesser-picked race. People tend to choose the white wings over black… so if you choose to be an Asmodian on any server, you will be helping it. 

Servers in general, as of 10-29-15:

Siel – The most populated playerbase, Elyos currently dominating content. 

Tiamat – Smaller population compared to Siel, Asmo currently dominating content. Back and forth.

Kahrun – Another “smaller” server. Asmo currently dominating content; contains a high multitude of different languages. 

Israphel – Nearly entirely populated by Elyos. Asmodian hard mode. 

Beritra – Brand new server! Population is a clean slate. All new players are recommended to roll here. 

My opinionated generalization to each server. 

[b]. Classes .

As for classes; choose whichever you like to play. If you’re a natural tank, then pick tank. Currently, melee classes will be easier to gear up than magic classes, based on the cost of manastones (magic stones are more expensive currently). Or if you’re trying to choose based on group play, there are several support/dps/hybrid class selections. I recommend looking up PVP videos or similar gameplay to see what you would like to main as. There’s no real “unpopular” choice in classes, only people complaining about class imbalance or certain skills over others. 

Every class can be a DPS class. Short generalization of each:

Templar: Aion’s natural tank. Massive livability, group supportive buffs. Think Paladin. Melee physical. 

Gladiator: Powerhouse class. Less defense than the Templar for more offense. Focuses on AoE’s, bursts. Melee physical.

Chanter: Supportive class. Party buffs, mantras, and heals. Also a lethal DPS class with fast chains. Melee physical.

Cleric: Priority healer. AoE heals, cleansing, some party buffs. Melee/Ranged magic. 

Assassin: Burst damage class. Focuses on quick and deadly kills, hides, lockdowns. Massive self-buffs. Melee physical. 

Ranger: Burst class. Lethal from afar, but can sacrifice range for more power, hides, and specializes in traps. Ranged physical. 

Spiritmaster: DoT and Pet class. Locks down opponents with debuffs, CC, slows, and summons pets for support and damage. Ranged magic. 

Sorcerer: Burst class. High-digit nukes, AoE damage, self buffs, and CC. Ranged magic. 

Songweaver: Damage and supportive class. Fast debuffs and nuke chains, also has AoE heals and mana regen, CC. Ranged magic. 

Gunslinger: Medium burst class, focuses on burst damage with quick reloads and some evasive skills. Ranged magic.

AetherTech: Specializes in fast debuffs, self buffs, and counters. AoE damage as well as holding some tanking ability. Melee magic. 

Read this link to Aion Wiki over more in-depth Class explanations. 

[c]. Chat . 

If you haven’t already, organize your chat boxes to how you would like them to be. Some people opt for a single-chant box to keep their screen neater. I personally have multiple because I get distracted a lot and need more direct notices. 

This link will take you to a youtube video demonstrating how to set up chat. Your chat is completely customizable; change font size, color, and how you choose to keep it active or respond to other players.

[d]. Fast Track Server .

As a new player, you would have been placed instantly on the “Instance Server”, aka: Fast Track Server. 

The Standard server is your “home” server. It’s where your character really lives for everything post-level 55. The “Fast Track” server is an “instance” server. That means everyone from the other servers are playing on one. The term Instance Server will rule everything for cross-sever PVP and pre-made PVE groups, to select sieges, so be sure to remember the name and associate it with “playing with people not on your server.” The Fast Track server (FTS) is only for those under level 56. It has 2x XP for fast leveling. If you are on the Standard server in a group when you switch to FTS, your status will go “offline”. But people on your friends list can still whisper you. There is no PVP on the FTS, and no Abyss. 

[e]. Free Items NPC .

As you level on the FTS, make sure you remember to go back to the main Cities to receive free gifts from winged NPCs. They are located by pink quest markers. You want to stay on top of this, as all items are useful. Includes scrolls, consumables, armor, weapons, and somewhere around lv.45 you get free wings! 

Asmodian Edandos gives the free items. Elyos talk to Nebrith. 

The other NPC gives you quests to complete, for Asmodian her name is Erdat. Elyos talk to Luella. The quests are easy to complete and give good gear relating to each instance. 

As far as the free wings go, you get the free quest around lv.45~55. Here is what they’ll look like: 

[f]. Questing .

Focus on gold Campaign quests and dark blue assist quests. As I mentioned earlier, pink Growth quests give nice gear for easy amount of effort. You can take the normal blue quests as fillers between Campaigns, you’ll need them for buffer between XP. Aside from that, questing is pretty straightforward, so you can take time to enjoy the Lore as well. 

Don’t worry about going fast. Take your time and learn your class and how your playstyle works. 

[g]. Menu and Options Settings .

Menu (press “O”), familiarize yourself with the settings. Here you can change keybinds and place the extra skillbars. I recommend:

1. Turning off “Auto-Approach Target”.

2. Set up specific key to target “Enemy Player PC”. Right now the automatic key is nothing, with “Tab” being target nearest enemy, but that includes mobs. Have a special key that you can use in case of PVP, so you will only tab through players and not mobs too.

3. Can change what you see for names of people. Meaning, I would change player rank from “Title” to “Abyss Rank”. For me, if I see my Commander (ranked individual) out in the front lines about to die, I know to run up and save him.

Play around in here, as Aion’s keybinding system is very in-depth. 

Why turn off auto approach? For some classes, you may want to leave this on, but based on prior experience, I have found turning this function off to save my life on countless occasions, both PvE and PvP. What Auto-approach is, when you are too far from your target to cast a skill or initiate a move, your character will automatically start running to that enemy. During fights, sieges, or instances, you can fall off ledges, get pulled away from your group, or otherwise get baited. Watch the beginning of this video to see what I mean when a player has auto-approach on.. 

When auto-approach is turned off, your skill bars are greyed out, and even if your target is too far away, you will only get the alert that you cannot attack, and your character will remain in place. In sieges where you may suffer lag and slower reaction times, this is extremely helpful. 

[h]. Macros . 

Macros will be a part of your life, you can add skills, items, add delays, etc. Here is an example of an armor switch macro, followed by more complicated ones. To open the Macro screen, press “u”.

^ This shows you full “pro” level of macro management and utilizing your various skill bars.

Example on what you’re seeing: “/Quickbar 4 3 5” means “Skill set 4, row 2, slot 5”.

There is a character limit on macros, so using the above method allows maximum abilities/item usage. Once you’ve completed that, here is how it looks:

After you’ve done that, or gained a better understanding of Aion macros, you can go full-pro level, as seen in this video: 

[i]. Legions .

Here, “guilds” are called “legions”, and they vary based solely on their Brigade General (legion head). You would have to ask on your server for a supportive and active legion willing to take on newcomers, doing this will help you get a head start, especially if you have active lv.65’s willing to show you the ropes directly via in-game. They can mentor you in various quests and instances. (Mentors defined in-game is anyone over 10 levels than you). For level 5 legions and higher, they have Legion Tasks which you can accept and complete for rewards, namely legion coins, to turn in for supplies, gear (skins), mounts, and souvenirs. 

[j]. Groups .

These will comprise your Aion life within the first 20 levels, and there are several options available. You can type /RecruitGroupMember or /RecruitAllianceMember in chat to create links for others to click on. First, group setups:

Groups – 6man max. They appear as dark-blue names to you. Your AoE support skills and spell apply to them.

Alliances – 24man max, 7man minimum. Composed of 4 groups. You have your 6man group (dark blue names) and the extras are light blue names. Beside each person’s name you’ll see I, II, III, IV to signify the group they are in. So if you see a light blue name running beside you with a III beside their name, you know they are in group 3.

League – Total of 8 alliances, 192 people max. You have the league Captain who can lead everyone by /LeagueAlert (everyone sees this), and the alliance leads can micro-lead by /alert (only the 24 people in alliance see this). Whenever you siege a fortress, the captured fort goes under the league Captain’s legion. People in the league but not in your alliance show up as dark-blue-grey-names. 

[k]. Chat Commands . 

You’ll be exposed to this the second you start the game, here is how you can make each function and what they do. 

/1 = Region: Everyone in the same map/zone you are in sees this. 

/2 = Trade: Global, supposed to be used for trading, but not used anymore. 

/3 = Looking for Group (LFG): Global chat. Everyone on the server can see this. Used for recruitment, talking, and selling. 

/4 = Class Chat: Only players of the same class can see this. Good place to ask for class-advice.

/Say – Public, everyone to a certain distance sees what you say. 

/Shout – Public, has a farther range than shout. 

/Legion – All legionmates see what you type. 

/Group – All group members see, but alliance cannot. 

/Alliance – All alliance, including group, sees this. 

/Whisper username – You message a specific person. 

/League – When a leader in an Alliance, you can talk to the whole league through this. 

/Alert – Message appears across the screen to your alliance. 

/LeagueAlert – Message displayed to the whole league. 

To start a message:

> Enter

> type /3 (whatever you want) followed by [space]

> Chat direction will automatically assign itself

> Type your message

> Enter to send

The smiley icon on the right lets you add faces, icon, and emblems to spruce up your message.

You can short commands:

/s = say

/! = shout

/g = group

/a = alliance

/l = legion

/w [name][space] = whisper the person, name must be spelled correctly

/inspect = view what another person is wearing, only available if the person has Details open.

For characters, you can right-click another character to prompt several commands, including “Details” and other useful goods. 

[l]. Mounts .

You won’t get a mount until later levels in the game, but if you save up for it, you can easily get a 15-day Cirrus mount from other players for a relatively cheap price. On siel, they’re about 15mil (sounds like a lot, but honestly not that expensive). After that, there are various other ways to acquire in-game mounts, through instances, or a legion. 

[m]. Instance Abbreviations .

Here are all the instances currently in the game and their abbreviations, should you ever see it in LFG. 

Abyssal Splinter = AS [group/alliance]

Adma Stronghold = Adma [group]

Aetherogenetics Lab = A-Lab [group]

Alquimia Research Center = ARC [group]

Anguished Dragon Lord’s Refuge = aDLR [alliance]

Asteria Chamber = same [group]

Aturam Sky Fortress = Sky Fortress [solo]

Azoturan Fortress = Azo 

Beshmundir Temple = Besh, BT, BTHM (hard mode) [group]

Chamber of Roah = same [group]

Chantra Dredgion = C-Dredge [group]

Danaur Reliquary = DR [group]

Danaur Sanctuary = DS [group]

Dark Poeta = DP [group]

Dragon Lord’s Refuge = DLR [alliance]

Drakenspire Depths = DD [alliance]

Draupnir Cave = DC [group]

Dredgion = B-Dredge [group]

Empyrean Crucible = EC [solo/group]

Engulfed Ophidan Bridge = EoB [group]

Esoterrace = Eso [group]

Fire Temple = FT [group]

Haramel = Hara, same [solo]

Idgel Dome = Idgel, ID, Dome [group]

Illuminary Obelisk = IO [group]

Indratu Fortress = Indratu [group]

Infernal Danaur Reliquary = iDR [group]

Infernal Illuminary Obelisk = iIO, Infernal IO [group]

Infinity Shard = IS [alliance]

Iron Wall Warfront = IWW [alliance]

Kamar Battlefield = KB, K-mart, Kamar [alliance]

Kromede’s Trial = Krom’s, KT [solo]

Krotan Barracks = Barracks, Raks [group]

Krotan Chamber = Chamber [group]

Kysis Barracks = Barracks, Raks [group]

Kysis Chamber = same [group]

Left Wing Chamber = same [group]

Link Gate Foundry = Link Gate, LGF [solo]

Lower Udas Temple = LUT, Lower Udas [group]

Lucky Danaur Reliquary = LDR [group]

Miren Barracks = Barracks, Raks [group]

Miren Chamber = same [group]

Noshana Training Camp = NTC [group]

Occupied Rentus Base = OCC, ORB, Occ-Rentus [group]

Ophidan Bridge = OB, Bridge [group]

Padmarishka Cave = Paddy, Padma [alliance]

Raksang Ruins = Raksang [solo]

Rentus Base = Rentus, RB [group]

Right Wing Chamber = same [group]

Sauro Supply Base = Sauro, SSB [group]

Seized Danaur Sanctuary = SDS, Seized Sanctuary [group]

Steel Rake = SR, same [group]

Steel Rake Cabin = SRC, [solo]

Stonespear Siege = Stonespear [alliance]

Sulfur Tree Nest = same [group]

Talocs Hallow = Talocs [solo]

Terath Dredgion = T-Dredge, Tea-Dredge [group]

The Eternal Bastion = EB, eBay [alliance]

The Hexway = Hex, Hexway [group]

Theobomos Lab = Theo, Theo-Lab, TL [group]

Tiamat’s Stronghold = TS [group]

Udas Temple = Udas, UT [group]

Unstable Abyssal Splinter = UAS [group/alliance]

[n]. Increasing Inventory .

If you have extra kinah, upgrade your inventory to carry more items. The first shugo you talk to is in the starting zone, and he will open your inventory by one row. Talk to the shugo in your capitol City to expand further; do it in either Pandamonium or Sanctum (both located in the broker area). For Asmodians, talk to the shugo in the center desk of the broker. Elyos, the shugo is located directly across from the broker, on the right as you enter the building. 

The final two in-game acquirable rows are through a quest. All other slots can only be opened by purchasing Cube Expansion Tickets from the BCM, or other players who buy it from the BCM for you. You can currently buy four Cube/Warehouse expansion tickets from the BCM. 

Current max inventory slots: 127

Guide to increasing slots VIA in-game.

Link to BCM Cube/Warehouse Tickets.

The other option is purchasing pack pets. These vary in what functions they do. Read below on more in-depth info. 

[o]. Pets .

Pets are portable helpers, vanity, enemy PC alerts, loot for you, buff you, and they can carry various items for you. 

When you get a pet, they come as an Egg, that you hatch from a Pet Minder in Pandemonium/Sanctum. And special info about the pet is listed beside the name, along with the open tab. If you have a pet that has a limited time usage, it will have a timer shown, counting down to the second. 

For buff/loot pets, there is a little icon on the third page that corresponds to the action. Once you activate it, little lights will rotate around the edge. You can drag this icon to your skillbar so you know the pet is always buffing/looting.

Types of Pets:

Loot = loots all mobs for you, except quest items. 

Buff = uses one food and drink, and select scrolls to constantly buff you.

Pouch = carries a specific number of items

Cheer = consumes aether cherries to give the buffs listed.

Pack Pets: Here is a list of the available slots of pouch pets. Pet’s with the same number of pouch slots share inventory. Example: a 12-slot pet Trico will have the same inventory as a 12-slot Ailu. However, this rule does not apply to the Tahabata pet. 

6-slot

12-slot

18-slot

24-slot

26-slot

30-slot Tahabata 

30-slot King Saam

[p]. Housing .

Housing is a special feature in Aion, and you can fully customize everything inside. Some even provide buffs for your character. From adding music scripts, resizing, wallpapers, flooring, outside (excludes Studios), etc. Every new player is entitled to a free home, called a Studio. This opens up access to the skill Homeward Bound (teleport to your home) and also opens access to house bidding. 

You can acquire the blue quest at level 21. 

Asmo = Give My Regards to Pernon

Elyos = The Living Is Easy

Housing Auctions happen between Monday through Sunday, Sunday being the last day for bidding. The typical bidding strategy is to wait until Sunday, as people begin to counter bid. Bidding ends at 12pm, but if a bid is placed when only 5 minutes or less remaining, the auction will be extended up to a maximum of 30 minutes. 

When you place a bid, the kinah is debited from your inventory until you win or out-bid, and in the event of being out-bid, the kinah is sent to your mailbox. As you can tell, this can make bidding hectic. You will want to bid at a house that has a mailbox outside, next to the info board. You can bid at each house’s info board, it will bring up the auction window, but you can’t bid on that particular house, so pay attention to locations! The house that is highlighted is the house you are bidding on.

Here are the list of each home:

Studio, free. 

House, cost varies, maintenance fee of 400,000 kinah a week. 

Mansion, removes the Soul Sickness debuff after dying. Fee of 2mil kinah a week. 

Estate, removes Soul Sickness debuff, and the chance of crafting proc combos increases by 5%. Fee of 4mil kinah a week.

Palace, no Soul Sickness, crafting 5% boost, and item drop rate increases by 5%. Fee of 20mil a week. 

Here is a more indepth guide to housing and what to expect. Read on!

Link to Aion Housing Wiki. Click this!

[q]. Rifts .

Rifts are a special element in Aion. A Rift is a corridor that sends you to the opposing faction’s map. When Rifts appear, an on-screen alert will be notified. If they are corridors you can use to infiltrate, they will appear as blue circles on the map. If they are incoming Rifts, they do not appear. Rifts happen on the Standard Server on the maps of Elysea and Asmodae, with set timers, but not on the Fast Track Server. Rifts are constantly active in Enshar and Cyngea. 

When you rift over, you are open to any and all forms of PVP. You will be ganked, you will be zerged, you will be outplayed. Do not let Rifters ruin your fun or leveling experience. Try to gather friends. High-ranks and people looking for PvP will notice if you post locations of the enemy faction, asking for help. How to post locations instructions are later in this guide.

Here is additional info to Rifts, leading to the Aion Wiki.

[r]. Easy Gear/Coin Gear .

The easiest gear to acquire in the game for a leveling character is what is called Coin gear. The earliest you can start is with Iron/Bronze coin, with lv.16 armor. I would recommend you don’t start collecting coins and turning in until you reach lv.26 Bronze; use what you acquire in Campaign and Quests in the meantime. This gear is very useful and excellently easy to acquire. 

Here is an in-depth guide to everything about Coin Gear. The only thing to note is that the cost variables have changed. They significantly reduced the amount of coins you need to purchase gear.

Click here for in-depth walkthrough and guide to Coin Gear.

[s]. Manastones and What to Socket .

Manastones are an essential element in your gearing process. At low levels, don’t worry too much about what you socket, you’ll out-level the gear and toss it. Around level 25+ you should become more self-conscious on what you’re socketing. 

Manastones come in grades: common, “greens”, composites, ancients. 

The higher the stone grade, the better the stats. Composite manastones are the only stones that feature two stats per stone. 

Here are stones each class uses. I will note when a class uses multiple sets if they acquire more than 3 sets. 

Templar: Multiple Sets. Crit Strike, Accuracy, Block, Magic Resist, Magic Suppression, HP, Attack. 

Gladiator: Multiple Sets. Crit Strike, Accuracy, Block, Magic Resist, Magic Suppression, HP, Attack.

Chanter: Multiple Sets. Crit Strike, Magical Accuracy, Block, Magic Resist, Magic Suppression, HP, Attack.

Cleric: Multiple Sets. Magic Boost, Block, Magic Resist, Magic Suppression, HP. 

Assassin: Crit Strike, Accuracy, Magical Accuracy, Attack, Magic Suppression.

Ranger: Crit Strike, Accuracy, Magical Accuracy, Attack, Magic Suppression. 

Spiritmaster: Magic Boost, Magical Accuracy, Magic Suppression. 

Sorcerer: Magic Boost, Magical Accuracy, Magic Suppression. 

Songweaver: Magic Boost, Magical Accuracy, Magic Suppression. 

Gunslinger: Magic Boost, Magical Accuracy, Magic Suppression. 

AetherTech: Magic Boost, Magical Accuracy, Magic Suppression. 

[t]. Posting Locations In Chat .

Learning this in imperative to a successful PvPvEr, and is extremely simple to do. 

1. Open Map, “m”

2. Ctrl+Right Click any location on the map

3. A green X will appear, and will place a <Location> link in your chat bar.

3. You can link up to 10 locations.

4. Add any text, and Enter. 

[u]. Chat Abbreviations .

For any veteran MMO gamer, these are second nature, but here are some short-hands to look out for, and what they mean along with common terms. 

+ = “Plus up”, sign of being ready

2k = 2,000 Divine Point skill

4k = 4,000 Divine Point skill

acc = Accuracy

af = As f*ck

afk = Away From Keyboard

aoe = Area of Effect

at = AetherTech

bard = Songweaver

brb = Be Right Back

buff = Asking a Class to buff the party/themselves

burn = Focus on attacking the boss to kill it, ignore everything else. 

CC = Crowd Control

dp = Divine Points

hot = Heals Over Time

Ic = I see

kite = Action of running around to avoid attacks by players or mobs to stay alive 

ma = Magical Accuracy

mb = Magic Boost

mr = Magic Resist

ms = Magic Suppression

n = No

omw = On My Way

pop wings = Action of opening wings to fly, using the flight button to act in flying

port = Teleport, take the flight or instant teleportation to another area

r = Ready

rl = Real Life, also IRL

sin = Assassin

sm = Spiritmaster

strip = Act of removing buffs from a player or mob to make them weaker

sw = Songweaver

y = Yes

Healing hyperion is actually really easy as long as you’re in full heal chain at least the first time and your HP is over 16,500. You can do it with less – hell you can do it in Strife, but the more HP you have the easier the ride. Anything under 15,000 is going to cause you ouchies.

This is our guy, he looks all mean but don’t worry, you’re about to kick his ass! Yeah!

Here’s a Cleric POV video so you know what to expect – this is from the main cleric’s perspective.

Before you get there

Make sure you have:

• Full DP and everything cooled down
• Fine or premium mana serums and potions
• Cast speed and earth resist scrolls – if you have one stick these in your buff pet
• Good food – something with extra HP or elemental resist is good
• Abyss health and mana pots
• Some kind of HP refiller if you have it – King Saam Herbs or similar are good

Initial instructions are for the tanking cleric, second group cleric instructions are further down.

Inside the instance

The instance itself is really small – a central boss space with two twisting broken runways circling around the cylindrical walls of the instance (like the one in Haramel). When you get inside people will focus on taking mobs out on each of the two ramps, and these do quite high damage so be ready to heal as soon as you get in.

Initially, make sure you turn off the move to heal skill, or you will get pulled off platforms and die embarrassingly. Turn it back on for the boss. I fall off like 50% of the time so don’t feel bad if you do, someone will come get you before the bossfight starts.

Once you’ve cleared both sides, leaving the two last generators before the boss, everyone will stop and buff up. At this point you want to hit summer circle.

Positioning

For the boss fight you should stand at the corner of the bottom of the ramp a few steps back (not in front of the wall as the boss can move so you might have to and you don’t want that wall in the way) so that you can reach both the tank/ melee and the ranged dps, who should be further up the ramp to your left. They should not be right next to you and if they are you should ask them to move further up the ramp so that the boss’s big targetted aoe doesn’t blow you up if they get targeted. Don’t be afraid to tell them to move further from you.

The fight

Initially the tank will run in first and spend about 15 seconds generating agro. He will take big hits immediately so stack your heal over times, saving grace etc on him as he runs in. Do NOT get too close – stay back. Once I healed too close to the boss and almost screwed the whole instance because he went straight for me. Make sure you’re not in the main boss circle, a few steps back is fine. The range works out so you can use the boss’s position to make sure you’re long range without being too far away when the tank engages.

Then the DPS will run in, watch out for off tanks taking damage as the agro can switch around a bit sometimes.

Your main focus now is healing the tank. If someone else gets themselves killed it’s most likely not your fault and your chanter should get them up and buffed again. Keep your focus on the tank.

Every so often the boss will do a scream skill. Assuming everyone has the gear requirements for the instance, the entire lot will survive but with a group debuff which you should save ripple of purification for.

Adds

Every so often the boss will shield himself and release mobs, which will appear from the top of the ramp. The group tends to shift at this point, but the boss stops doing damage so that’s ok. These groups of mobs can be uneven and at times will hit hard. If the smaller trash mobs go for you and no one can get them off you dump all your dots on them and ignore, they won’t kill you. If an elite targets you fire off your enmity reducing skills and ask for help if that doesn’t work.

Towards the end, after the tank has called for WoW, there will be a point where everyone should be told to fire their DP skills. At this point if nothing has gone wrong and you still have full DP and unused jelly, fire off Word of Destruction. The last minute or so will be manic, just keep as many alive as you can and use your jelly to add big heal skills when needed. If people die at this point it’s ok.

The big Hyperion dps skill

Another thing to watch out for (both group 1 and 2 clerics) is that the boss can target you and do a big hit. The tank should be calling these targets. If you are called, move away from everyone, either to the other side of the boss or into the corner. Your DPS should have heard the call and moved away from you, because this particular skill basically blows up you and anyone near you, which is why you need to move away and also why you need that big HP pool. If someone in your group is called you need to get the heck away from them and be ready with a heal if they survive – if not your chanter or whoever your dedicated resser is should res them.

Group 2 cleric

This is kind of an easier job as you aren’t responsible for killing the tank.

Id killer

First off, figure out who the ID killer will be, then move them to the top of the group and ignore them, they will be permanently out of your range and not your problem, they’ve got to survive on their own.

The fight

As the second group cleric you can get away with more of a dps hybrid as if you have a good tank you should only need to heal for adds and you have the high dps group so they should go down fast, and if you get too many the off tank should come over and help you. You still need a group debuff skill, that is essential. Doesn’t have to be ripple, you can use the other group stigma one but if so you’ll need a group heal to follow it so it is kind of easier to have it as it is the perfect skill for that particular hit – fortunately the boss doesn’t do another hit after this skill so you have a few seconds to get everyone back to full HP. Make sure you have both group tabs up in case you need to cross heal, just in case the offtank comes across to your side to help or the first cleric goes down and the tank is in trouble.

The fight is of course the same, the difference is that you dps as much as you can in between heals, and you res instead of the chanter unless you actually have a second chanter or you know someone else is ressing. If you have melee DPS in your group stand near enough to reach them as they are more likely to get damage. Also try and put WoD on at the end if you can and try and do as much damage as possible overall without dropping anyone.

The main thing to remember

Above all stay calm, especially if you are the main healer, Kata is fine once you fall into the rhythm, just keep your cool and before long you can heal it after like a whole bottle of wine!

Good luck on the drops!

PLEASE PM AMONETTE2012 IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUGGEST AN EDIT. COMMENTS HAVE BEEN TURNED OFF BECAUSE SOME OF YOU APPARENTLY DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE A DOCUMENT…

Note – I’ve added some tips for Adma, Theo and Dark Poeta for first timers. Also weaving, PvP radar, and level 50 PvP accessories.

Choosing a version – the difference between NA and EU

The basic rule of thumb is to play your own region, as the ping will be better for most people. You can use ping reducing software but it only gets you so far.

North America

The NA version has the following advantages:

• Faster updates – NA is a version ahead of EU`
• No Gold Packs
•  Higher XP levelling server

Europe

The EU version has some disadvantages compared to NA, but the one advantage it has comes from the Gold Packs. These give you one month’s unlimited full access (so you can trade with other players via private store or broker, post in LFG and enjoy more frequent access to instances). It also gives you Veteran Rewards, some of which can be pretty great. You now need 40 Gold Packs to reach full veteran status, which gives you 

The EU version has some disadvantages compared to NA, but the one advantage it has comes from the Gold Packs. These give you one month’s unlimited full access (so you can trade with other players via private store or broker, post in LFG and enjoy more frequent access to instances). It also gives you Veteran Rewards, some of which can be pretty great. You now need 40 Gold Packs to reach full veteran status, which gives you almost enough AP and medals for a piece of 65 abyss gear, enough serums to enchant a feather and piles of useful consumables, dyes, candies, levelling amulets, wings, pets etc.

Other regions

It’s possible to play from some other parts of the world, but not all of them. China and many Asian countries are blocked (at least in the EU) to prevent goldselling. There is no really good server for Australians and New Zealanders – if you’re playing from that far away I’d try both versions with ping reducing software and pick a class like a chanter that isn’t too ping dependant. South Americans seem to play both sides, with many playing on the EU Spanish server, and if you’re in Africa you’ll probably find EU a better bet because of the closer time zone, but ping will be lousy either way. Please comment if you have more info on this!

Getting Gold Packs in game

It’s not hard to get a Gold Pack in game because a) they can be traded with other players, b) you will have close to enough money to buy one when you reach 65 (before that you can level without it), and c) it only takes a few hours of money making a month to buy one in game. You can buy Gold Packs from the broker even if you don’t have one active – just look for them under other items rather than searching.

See my tips on earning the kinah for your first Gold Pack here

So which should you choose?

With a few exceptions, you’re better off playing in your area because of the ping. Most people find the ping a bit too high for certain classes playing in a different region. You can fix not having a Gold Pack, you can’t fix shitty ping. 

Choosing a server

EU server populations can be seen here http://aioninfo.com/online/

Generally the most active servers are actually the French and German ones, but if you’re looking for an English speaking server Spatalos is currently leading the pack in terms of numbers, and Anuhart and Nexus are still reasonably healthy.  Perento is very PvP heavy however so it’s worth considering. Thor and Urtem are also good choices as they are the largest servers, and both have English speaking communities.

NOTE: EU SERVERS ARE BEING MERGED LATER THIS YEAR – MORE INFO HERE (this has now happened and I need to update this)

NA server balance can be seen here chttp://na.aiononli

ne.com/livestatus/server/

Unfortunately this doesn’t give population numbers but does show numbers of legions. Siel is generally recommended for new players.

Choosing a faction 

Really it’s down to what position you want to be in on your server and which side looks more appealing to you. If you just want to PvE choose the side that is stronwger on the server that you pick, if you like PvP the underdog side will give you more PvP encounters. It’s really all just a matter of preference though, and my advice is to play both at some point in your time in AION.

Choosing a class

First of all, don’t be too worried about changing class. AION is very fast to level and you can easily get to 30 in a day, so roll a couple and see which you like. Alts are useful for warehouse space after level 10 and extra event items at level 30, so having a spare is never a waste.

Summary of each class 

This is just my opinion – if you’re interested in a class search reddit.com/r/aion and you’ll find a lot more info!

Aethertech

Aethertechs are the newest class. They’re capable of tanking end game instances and they’re tough in PvP. As with all the newer classes, they have a less diverse stigma selection than older classes. Combat is a mix of ranged and melee and they’re a fun class to bounce around.

Songweaver (bard)

Bards are prized in instances for their high DPS and ability to refill other people’s mana. They’re also powerful in PvP. They are cloth wearers, so they are a bit squishy, but they can often kill you before you get anywhere near them. They also have CC capabilities (they turn people into dancing penguins). They can steal your mana, which  get anywhere near them. They also have is bloody annoying.

Gunner

Gunners are commonly seen as the easiest class. They’re powerful, quick to level and good for both PvP and PvE, but not much skill is required to play them. They’re a good class to start with but if you want a challenge, they’re not your best bet. If you just want to see the game and not worry too much about getting the most out of your class, try a gunner.

Assassin

Sins are powerful, stun heavy melee fighters, and they’re the most ping dependant class, so if you want to play a sin choose your local server. Sins can do insane amounts of damage in the hands of a good player, and they can kill you in PvP without you ever coming out of stun. However they are quite gear dependant, and if that initial stun chain is broken other classes have a good chance against them. If you like sneaking around in hide and stabbing unsuspecting enemies, the assassin is for you.

Ranger

Rangers are one of the harder classes to master and require you to learn several advanced techniques such as jumpshotting and slideshooting if you’re going to be any good at it. Good rangers can be amazing, but mediocre rangers are just ok. They’re a bit on the squishy side, but very high DPS. If you like ranged combat and you’re committed to getting the best out of the class, play a ranger.

Chanter

Rangers are one of the harder classes to master and require you to learn several advanced techniques such as jumpshotting and slideshooting if you’re going to be any good at it. Good rangers can be amazing, but mediocre rangers are just ok. They’re a bit on the squishy side, but very high DPS. If you like ranged combat and you’re committed to getting the best out of the class, play a ranger.

Chanter

Chanters are a melee support class. They can be 0played as full DPS, but it’s kind of a waste of a chanter as they have some of the lowest DPS overall. Chanters are great for soloing, as they can heal, stun, do reasonable damage (for levelling and soloing) and they’re one of the hardest classes to kill. Where chanters really shine is in group support. They can increase a party’s DPS by around 20% (more with some buffs), have a range of protective shields and DPS boosts, can do some decent healing and place debuffs on mobs that make them easier to kill. In PvP, they’re very stunning heavy and their buffs and shields are great for group PvP and sieges. One on one they’re pretty hard to kill. Generally, it’s a good idea to have one on your team. If you like the idea of being the ‘oh shit’ button of the group and don’t mind doing both DPS and support, try a chanter. Don’t forget to learn to weave.

Cleric

Clerics are AION’s primary healer. They also do great DPS and have a fun DPS tree. They’re great for soloing and essential to both PvP and PvE groups. In PvP they’re deadly, as they can do a lot to keep themselves alive while raining down more dots than you can remove and doing some high damage. They’re not the easiest class to play, but they’re not the hardest either. (If you’re already playing cleric, there’s a link to a guide to one of the end game instances for you at the bottom of this guide).

Gladiator

Gladiators are a powerful plate melee class that can also tank most end game instances (gear and skill dependent). They can choose between single or dual-wielding, do lots of AOE damage and can be formidable in PvP. It’s an easy class to play but a hard one to master, but they’re a useful class to have around.

Templar

Templars take a while to get going, but they’re a lot of fun at end game and are designed to tank the end game instances. They are also beasts in PvP and very hard to kill. They can do ok DPS on a DPS build, more than a chanter but less than everyone else, so you can tweak them this way a bit for leveling, but generally, they’re the tanky tank of the game.

Sorcerer

Sorcerers are powerful glass cannons with lots of crowd control capability. They’re ranged and put out very high DPS. Again they’re an easy class to play and a hard one to master, they’re also pretty gear dependant, but if you like a classic mage and don’t mind putting the time in you’ll have a powerful character. In PvP they’re mixed – a good sorc won’t even let you get a skill off before you disappear in a haze of ‘owowowitburns’. A bad one can be ripped apart in seconds by most ranged classes.

Spiritmaster

Spirit masters are particularly popular in instances because they are able to remove buffs from bosses and increase drop rates. A classic ‘beastmaster’ mage, they have different magical servants for different purposes, as well as an arsenal of damage over time and ranged skills. They can also Fear. In PvP they’re generally considered to be bloody annoying because no matter how you look at it, bouncing off walls in fear while dots and pets eat you is really irritating. If you want to be popular in instance groups and you like making people swear at their screens, try an SM.

Leveling

AION leveling is fast compared to most games and compared to the early versions of the game. You can easily reach 20-30 on your first day, and getting to 65 takes around two weeks on average. It can be done in three days or less if you really go for it.

Some leveling guides can be found here.

Leveling advice

• Use the Rookie Server. Even if you’re playing EU and don’t get the xp bonuses, you’ll still find more people to group with at your level as it’s cross-server.
•  Look out for pink quests, they give you stuff!
• Follow the dark blue quests for easy level look out for pink quests, they give you stuff!
• ling.
• Save the high xp quests from 45+ for when you run out of stuff to do later on – they’ll be super fast and easy xp
• Do your campaigns. However the first two areas can be skipped, and if you don’t want to do them at all it won’t affect you at end game.
• Save any elemental stones you drop. Most servers are short on them and the crafters on your server will thank you.  Learn to aethertap. In AION, different levels of aether can be used to morph almost all pre-65 gatherable items. This excludes end game items however.
• Save any unlimited stigmas you drop. They are worth cashmonies on the broker.
• Try and do the instances – they’ve all been nerfed, so they’re mostly easy, and you can get some nice loot and xp from them.
• SAVE ALL WHITE HP, MAGIC BOOST or CRIT MANASTONES! They can be upgraded with alchemy or sold.

This is one example of a levelling process (see link above for other options):

1-9 quest and grind in the starting area. Once you hit level 9 take the Ascension quest, which will level you to 10.

10-16 quest in Ishalgen/ Verteron

16-22 grind the solo instance Haramel and do quest at L20.

22-25 dark blue quests in Morheim/ Eltnen then take the abyss entry quests.

22-25 More campaigns and dark blue quests in Morheim/ Eltnen

27-33 Fire Temple anwd dark blue quests (note you will need carrying through FT at 27)

33-35 Beluslan/ Heiron dark blue quests

35 – 38 –  and Belu/ Heiron campaigns – Kromede’s Trial at 37 with repeatable blue quests

38-45 This is one of the slow parts. Finish campaigns and do quests in Belu/ Heiron and try and get a couple of Draupnir cave runs in. Bring greater healing potions for the chicken curse. You’ll know it when you see it.

45-46 Start Fenris or Miragent if you want the gear set (not essential, google it before you start, note recommended for first time players on EU due to the cost). Start Brusthonin/ Theobomos campaigns.  Also do your stigma quests. You can do these by taking a daily quest from one of the shugos from steel rake. Google has lots of info on this.

46-50 – Adma Stronghold, Theo Labs and Dredgion, plus quests in Theo/ Brus and Belu/Heiron.

50-55 Gelkmaros/ Inggison campaigns and quests. You can also do Beshmundir Temple from 53, which is a really good levelling instance.

56 – 60 Do campaigns, then either grind BT until you get sick of it or go back to lower level areas and pick up the high xp light blue quests you skipped.

60+ I can’t cover as I haven’t played 4.8 yet, but you can get a lot of xp still from the point above. Pick up campaigns and blue quests from Enshar/Cygnea. There’s also solo instances: Steel Rose Quarters/Cargo (61+). And these to farm items once you’re 65: Sealed Danuar Mysticarium, Sealed Argent Manor, and Linkgate Foundry.

Instance tips

Theo Labs

One boss causes some confusion in Theo Labs – the Silikor of Memory. People tend to fuck this one up and it’s very annoying.

To kill the Silkor, first you have to kill the two guardians behind her (do not agro the boss until these two guardians are dead or you will have a bad time). Note that there is a floating thing bobbing around the room casting a faint circle on the floor.

You have to kill the guardian WHILE IT IS INSIDE THE CIRCLE ON THE FLOOR or it will reset. Once both are down you can tackle the Silcor.

Admad

Again, Adma is pretty straightforward but there are two tactics to be aware of:

If you fight the princess, clear the room. Note that there is a teddy bear on one side of the room and an incense burner on the other. The princess casts two annoying buffs, one red one blue. The bear removes the red buff, the burner removes the blue buff. Just remember Red Bear Blue Burner. Taking the buffs off is worth doing and makes the fight easier if you don’t have a mentor or your group is a bit shit.

The other thing to watch out for in Adma is on Lannock – he casts a debuff that can oneshot even a 65 sometimes. Clerics should be cleansing it off but if they fail to do so, hit a greater healing potion.

Dark Poeta

Dark Poeta is good for leveling… but only if you know what you’re doing. It’s the first instance that introduces real boss tactics that hasn’t been totally nerfed (although it has been nerfed a lot), and newbie groups who don’t read a guide will probably waste a lot of time and piss the healer off a lot. It’s not hard to do any more but you can still end up wiping through just not expecting stuff to happen. If you’re going to do DP note the following:

1. Don’t follow the path to the village, go off to the right and approach via the river.
2. Note that many of the mobs in the first village (and in general) are linked.
3. First boss (in the ruined church) is easy, but ranged should still be back at the door anyway. Note the quest item on the floor just inside the door.
4. After the first boss dies several elites will come looking for you, if you loot fast and run down to the water you don’t have to fight them all, but they spawn slower than you think and will chase you.
5. The lake bosses have a ridiculous agro radius. Click one, you’ll see what I mean.
6. If you want to take the lake bosses you need to clear around the edge of the lake pretty thoroughly. Otherwise a bunch of mobs come get you while you’re on the boss and it’s really easy to wipe.
7. The controllers around the boss are there for a reason. Take down attack and defence (property is optional) and the boss is a shitload easier to kill. Stay on the inside of them when taking them down or your healer won’t be able to cover you all. When I heal it I usually stand just behind the boss. It’s surprisingly easy to die on these ones so be aware of heal distances.
8. There are two invisible tree bosses in the forest and you will need someone who can see through Hide 1 to find them (although there are other ways to find them, but they take longer). Stay against the left wall when you enter the forest and clear a patch about two thirds of the way down to fight the boss in. Then if you have someone who can see through hide get them to go get the boss and run it back to you. Someone may need to go with them in case they attract extra company but if you can just do it with one person in hide it’s better.
9. Tree bosses are easy, but you do need to clear a good sized battle space because they will send you running into other mobs. They do a pretty hefty AOE but it’s been nerfed a lot so even newbie clerics should be able to handle it.
10. When you get to the drana fields try and drop a drana bomb if you want to take the Professor for the quest – you’ll need it to get through the wall to him. All the little slave dudes have a chance to drop them.
11. Drana bugs are tank and spank, but if you get them actually on a drana crystal it will paralyze them. Fight each one in its own pit or have a mentor go grab them.
12. Don’t waste time grinding for drana related crap – you can get it all from doing groggie dailies, the groggie vendor sells the stuff you need to turn the quests in and it’s a lot easier than spending another twenty minutes in bloody DP.
13. I think there might still be a quest item in the raised up camp area in there – sword of transcendence, part of the level 50 campaign quest started at when all other campaign quests are done and used to be a preQ for miragent http://aiondatabase.net/en/quest/1097/
14. In the next bit, those little spore things will blow you up if they explode next to you, so aoe them down. Also loot them – I got a silence godstone off one once.
15. The tunnels and professor are pretty straightforward, just use your drana bomb to get to the professor and don’t forget the quest item.
16. The teleporter is the first place where it gets a bit nasty (assuming you didn’t totally screw up the lake bosses). When you run in the room, stay off the crap on the floor. There is a little raised platform on the other side of the boss where ranged should stand.
17. The teleporter spawns mobs, it also picks you up and smacks you on the ground. This is annoying.
18. At the end of the fight the healer needs to get everyone’s health up fast as there will be a final aftershock that does some damage.
19. The final room has three generators. As soon as you hit these generators, they will spawn chaos. Clear the entire room without touching them. If you set one off, reset it.
20. Let the ranged deal with the generators – they spawn orbs that release mobs, fear you or do damage if they hit you and it can get a bit crazy. Start at the door to the cave and take out the one in the middle opposite the entrance. Then edge around to the right and onto the bottom of the ramp to take out the one to the right of the entrance. Then up and over to the other side of the ramp to take out the last one. If you do it this way nothing ever goes wrong.
21. Anuhart is easy. Put the ranged on the circle behind him. He spawns some mobs but they’re not hard to deal with.
22. The portal to the final boss disappears after five minutes. You have one shot.
23. Tahabata is not so easy. Buff up before you go in (fire scrolls are good) as moving will agro her. The tank needs to turn her away from the group and get agro before anyone else moves, then it’s pretty tank and spank, but you’ve got limited space to work with and she really needs to not turn around and flame you all. Someone should be assigned to ressing anyone who dies. Taha drops some very nice level 50 eternal weapons with beautiful skins so it’s worth trying to get her down.

 Mentor boosting

If you’re lucky enough to have a high level mentor who’s prepared to boost you (I only recommend this for people who’ve already leveled Wone character of the same class and know the game a bit, otherwise you won’t know what you’re doing at end game), this is what I usually do:

1-5 Lake mobs 

5-7 running towards the graveyard where Munin is killing stuff on the way

7-9 graveyard mobs

Once ascended, grab a morheim scroll 

10-16 Grind the Morheim ice lake mobs in a circle.

16 – 24ish start at Kellin’s Cabin and work your way up towards the klaw cave, killing stuff as you go. Move on a bit every time you level.

25-27 Besfar Ghost village

27- 35 Fire temple plus a couple of campaigns, back to the ghost village if you get sick of FT.

35 – Alquimia research centre (not as good as it used to be but there’s a quest you can pick up that’s worth a few mil for the hand in – look for a book on the shelf to the left of the final door before the last room.

After this do your campaigns and hit KT a couple of times, then grab all the quests from Red Mane Cavern and get your mentor to run around and kill all the stuff you need plus anything else that’s vaguely in the way. Almost all the quests there are fast to do, give xp, and the quests are concentrated into not too large an area, so it’s actually more effective to just tick them all off than it is to grind mobs for two hours. Plus you get stuff from the quests.

46 -53  Adma and Theo

53-56 – BT until you turn 56 and can no longer be mentored. After that, you’re on your own!

Weaving

Weaving is the art of inserting an autoattack between each regular skill, but cancelling its animation by hitting the next skill at the right time. ALL classes can weave. additional chances for gs procs in between casts.. Granted, it becomes easier with attack speed and mostly melee/physical classes that gain any dps increase from it. (templar, gladiator, assassin, ranger and chanter is the most obvious ones)s. It increases damage per second because the autoattacks take very little time to add in between skills (as you’re cancelling the animation) and reduce your mana usage. This means it’s worth learning early – partly because it will help you do more damage with fewer skills and have less downtime between mobs to restore mana, and partly because it’s a core game skill and you can never start too soon!

The easiest way to learn to weave, and to monitor the accuracy of your weaving, is to set up a special chat window. Set this window to pick up only the following from the Combat: Self menu and untick all others:

• My Attack (your autoattack)
• My Critical Hit
• My Attack Skills

Now make each one a noticeable different colour so that you can easily see which colour has come up out of the corner of your eye. Like this:

Next, go find a training dummy. Try it first without attack speed buffs or scrolls to get the hang of it, then add them when you’ve got it down.

First off, just autoattack the dummy. You will notice that, if you set the colours up that I used, you will see mostly red attack skills plus a few yellows when you get a critical. So red is your autoattack colour here:

Next, it’s time to start weaving. What you’re going to do is use a skill, which will be green, then wait for the red autoattack or yellow critical attack to appear, then use another skill. Your chat log will then look something like this:

As you can see, some of those red and yellow numbers are quite big (this is a 50 chanter so it’s not high overall, but some are doing almost as much damage as actual skills). You’ll find the rate of skill use quite a bit slower at low level, but at end game with scrolls, buffs and attack speed weapons it goes much faster.

It’s important to note here that the reason this is so good for learning is because the chat log actually shows the damage a few fractions of a second before it hits, which means that if you’re watching it, you’ll get your weave right every time. 

Note: if you’re a ranger, head to YouTube and look for tutorials on slideshotting and jumpshotting. You will need to master this if you want to get the most out of the class.

PvP Radar

A very useful little way of avoiding pesky PvP enemies is to set up a radar tab. To make a radar tab, drag a new chat tab to the top of your screen (doesn’t need to be huge) and set it to pick up only enemy skills under Combat – others:

When a member of the other faction uses skills near you, they will show up as white text in this window. The range of detection is greater than both the minimap and pets.

Level 50 PvP accessories

One set that’s really worth getting is the level 50 PvP ac

One set that’s really worth getting is the level 50 PvP accessory set. This will give you a bit of extra PvP attack while you level, and it’s a pretty good set for 50-60. It’s also got a shitload of flight time so it makes a great aether gathering set. Also they are account shareable so you can use them on more than one character. To get this set, take a large pile of platinum coins to the higher level garrison in Heiron or Beluslan. You will need to make sure it belongs to your faction, but if it does there is a vendor there who sells boxes that may or may not contain a random PvP accessory.

Note: These cannot be accessed once you hit 51, but as they are account shareable you can always grab them on another character if you have one in range.

cessory set. This will give you a bit of extra PvP attack while you level, and it’s a pretty good set for 50-60. It’s also got a shitload of flight time so it makes a great aether gathering set. Also they are account shareable so you can use them on more than one character. To get this set, take a large pile of platinum coins to the higher level garrison in Heiron or Beluslan. You will need to make sure it belongs to your faction, but if it does there is a vendor there who sells boxes that may or may not contain a random PvP accessory.

Note: These cannot be accessed once you hit 51, but as they are account shareable you can always grab them on another character if you have one in range.

Note: These cannot be accessed once you hit 51, but as they are account shareable you can always grab them on another character if you have one in range.

Bloodmarks/ Battle Medallions

These can be used to buy the basic level 65 PvP gearset. They can be obtained from:

• Levinshor/Akaron have camps that give a total of 45 bloodmarks.
• Panesterra/Pangea have camps that give 16 bloodmarks per map and reset daily.
• The Upper Abyss has camps that give random bloodmarks/bloodmedals on EU and a standard 160 blood marks / 32 blood medals on NA.
• Linkgate Foundry/Baruna Research Lab’s final boss drops 12 blood marks.
• Occupied Rentus/Heroic Rentus base gives 17 per run (12 from bosses, 5 from quest at the end)
• Ophidian Bridge/Jormungand’s Bridge gives ~20 per run.
• PVP quests, arenas, pvp instances, etc can also give them.

Thanks to /u/apostles for this one!

Crafting

The best crafts for usefulness and money making are Alchemy and Cooking, and it’s a good idea to have Aethertapping too, as Aether can be morphed into other ingredients. Leave the other ones until end game, and even then, only peruse them if you’re extremely bloody minded. Crafting gear is expensive and rather unnecessary unless you’re going for the really  high end stuff. See my crafting reddit post here.

Crafting database

Here is /u/skratemurkindmd’s crafting database, which will help you make your crafting more profitable. 

Making money

Making money is easy in AION and can be done in several ways:

• Crafting food, scrolls and potions and selling them.
•  Grinding mobs that drop good stuff
• Running instances and killing bosses
• Buying foolishly priced things and re-selling for more. NOTE: This can be damaging to your server if you take it too far. Push elemental stones too high and pots and scrolls go up. Making essential items inaccessible to all but the richest players can gain you money, but in the long run you’re just making it harder for people to get established on your server.
• Stockpiling necessary ingredients can be worth a lot – many ingredients such as Greater Elemental Stones are only ever cheap because of bots. After banwaves, these often raise in price by 1000%, making you a tidy sum if you have a lot of storage to hold these for a long time.

Gear

At low level there is no need to buy anything. You’ll get plenty from quests (especially those pink ones). Don’t spend at low level (especially in the EU as you need to save for your first Gold Pack). If you really want to save cash don’t even socket.

At 65 you can grind bloodmarks/ battle medallions for the Strife set, which will give you some reasonable PvP defence/ attack and is fine for the easier instances.

If you like to PvE, get the Ancient Coin set, especially if you’re a tank or cleric. Strife gear will not be enough for instances like Rundiniam.

If you plan to twink, arena or 50AP is good. Also check out the Tahabata weapons from Dark Poeta.

At around 50 you can get an extendable weapon from Adma or Theo Labs. Also look out for the easy to get Daevanion sets which turn up at 46 and 56 (I think).

Hierarchy of items can be easily seen by looking at the broker window.

A wide variety of gearsets is available from end game instances. Many of these can be done in Strife gear, but some will require at least Ancient Coin.

Abyss PvP gear takes a while to get, but there is a variety available for different ranks and it’s much easier than it used to be. Working on a full set still takes a few months however. You can ru““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““`n daily quests for ceranium medals (300 total).

Manastones

Socket manastones in your gear to improve stats.

Stats

A full guide to the stats found in Aion is here.

Finding a guild

 If you want to get the most out of Aion, being in a good guild is the best way to go. The harder parts of the end game content require good groups, and trying to pug the harder instances can be a bit frustrating, Also if you want to get the most out of sieges and PvP, guilds are great. 

It’s actually best not to look for a long term guild straight out of the gate. For one thing you’re going to be spending the first 55 levels on the starter server playing with people from other servers. Also most good guilds don’t really recruit people who don’t have the gear to fit into at least the bottom end of their roster, so trying to find a competitive guild when you don’t have enough gear to do mid range end game content will be hard. Smaller guilds can be nice, but if you want to really play the shit out of the game and see all the content you might find some smaller guilds can’t get the numbers together for the larger group content.

So until you’re geared, I recommend looking for an xp legion. If a legion has 10 or more people online you get a 10% leveling buff, so there are lots of legions that are literally just there to try and keep that buff running. Some might do some stuff together as well, but as you can basically solo to 65 and pug all the leveling content it works out pretty well.

Maximizing your warehouse space if you’re EU and don’t have a goldpack yet

Things to save:

Crafting:

Elemental stones, aether. Chuck everything else.

Manastones:

If you’re doing alchemy, save white crit and magic stones – you can craft them up to higher levels. Never save parry, mana, low level attack (save green ones), low level block or low level accuracy – they’re cheap and worthless. Save any stones useful to your own class or expensive ones for other classes. At end game, the most expensive stones are generally (in descending order) magic boost, crit strike, magical accuracy, block, HP (depending on server, the last three vary a bit but mb and crit are usually high). Most other stuff isn’t that valuable but again that does depend on server.

Gear:

Sell to the general trader – just check skins before you sell them in case you come across something you personally like as some lower level skins are kinda pretty. Don’t save anything you’ve leveled out of UNLESS it’s account tradeable PvP gear that you might use for an alt.

Gatherables:

If you can save these it’s sometimes worth it as people buy random stuff to level crafting or make furniture.

Stigmas

Save all non limited stigmas, some are really valuable.

Event items

Save them till you can sell them

Event tokens

Events do repeat but most of them do so rarely. Save anything for rukibuki circus or shugo tomb, most other event tokens (like the things you trade to event npcs) can be thrown away if you don’t have endless space.

Also if you don’t already have one, start an alt. Then you have access to their warehouse via the account warehouse.

Once you have a goldpack, mailing yourself things is a great way to store them. Your mailbox is basically a 100 item warehouse

 Running faster

Several things can make you run faster. These are:

• Running scrolls
• Boots with an added run speed sat
• Certain candies, usually from events
• Titles
• In NA, you can purchase a 5% buff in the shop

Titles

Titles can be accessed from the character tab, they give a variety of different stats, You can get them from quests, from the store, from veteran rewards in the EU. They may also be purchasable from NPCs in game if they didn’t take those out. Can’t remember. Anyway, it’s worth checking out the titles you accumulate and using appropriate ones. You can find different types of titles here.

Other guides:

Newbie cleric guide to healing Infinity Shard/ Kata