Streaming demo of Aion 2.0

Go. NOW! Live Stream has started.

http://eu.ncsoft.com/en-gb/events/gamescom.html#live-stream

Soon Jiho Lee & Seungwuk Baek, members of Aion's development team in Korea, will talk about Aion and answer questions. You can pose your questions by twitting to @aion_ayase, using #aion and #gc2010, join Aion on facebook, or just visit the expo :-)

NCSoft Live Stream from Gamescom 2010

Just a quick note - NCSoft West is transmitting live from Germany right now. It's the press release @GamesCom 2010.

NB Sound quality is low.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ncsoft-west

Faction Imbalance

I have heard many arguments why Elyos [or Asmodean] side is favored. Examples include:

Pro-Elyos:

• Elyos have Jeshuchi and Zapiel, dropping uber-weapons.

Pro-Asmodean:

• BB Stains (an item needed for miragent armor) are easier to farm.

Naively, I was imagining that life is fair, men are kind, and factions are balanced, no matter the arguments.

Click Pic To Enlarge

Comic from PvPonline

 
Recently I read a very interesting post on the subject, at yetanotheraionblog (check it, it's worth reading). In this post, Mojeaux first summarises the feelings we all have regarding server merges and free transfers:

There aren’t any Asmos left to fight!  Thanks NcSoft… once again you’ve managed to not only screw yourselves over, but also your dwindling die hard supporters.  

Then he goes on explaining that the two factions are not balanced, giving the entrance to FT requirements, as an example.

It’s pretty much a given fact that being Elyos is the way to go because the developers favor them. 

That made me think that no matter the pro or con arguments on the subject, truth is that given enough time, Elyos do dominate any server. That's the end result. According to statistics, even if we incorporate 'avalanche effect' in our calculations, this can not be a random outcome. Thus I will have to agree that Elyos are (so far) easier to play.

3 Good Excuses for 1 Bad Night

Yeap, it was bad. Being a healer is all about keeping the group alive, and when the group wipes, at the final boss, of a simple B-rank DB run.. well, probably you are having a bad day night (*).

You need a hug. A big hug. And a kiss.

(*) The explanation of "having a bad night" is only valid if you usually do better. In the unlike event of this being a regular night, then you are probably a bad healer. And under-geared. And you suck. Better stop gaming.

Still though, since this can happen, here are some ready-made excuses for you to use:


1. The dps was low.
Yeap, it does make sense.
Low dps => A long time fighting => No skill reuse, mana depletion.
It's only natural that your healing gets worse as time passes. You use all your "tricks" (skills) and so do all group members. So you can not repeat your DP skill, you can not do the 6m cooldown groovy heal, the ranger/sin can not escape any more attacks, the tank has no other armor to use. Thus the same healer, who does very well with a high dps group that kills in few minutes, might fail when the dps is not enough. Same goes for mana - sometimes all the pots of the world are not enough, you even get a crystal, and yet..



2. You (or the tank, or someone else) lagged.
Well that needs no explaining. Obviously if you lag, you are reacting late and probably wrong.


3. You had a pug/noob/new group member.
You can blame  him or her for everything! Examples include:
- No armor (e.g." the ranger took a lot of damage in each hit, he would die if you didnt spare him a heal")
- Bad gameplay (e.g. "the ranger did not know to avoid hits/reflects/*")
- No weapon (e.g. "the ranger did not do any damage, what the heck?")
- Lots of dying (e.g. "the ranger died 5 times - the sorc lost so much time rezing him and i had to heal at least once - we better leave him dead next time")

So there you go - you have some suitable, fit-all, ready-made excuses ;-)

I dont want to PvP! .. do I?

See, I'm no-use in PvP. I do suck bigtimes. And hating too. Especially if the other person is peacefully doing his quest. I have only killed in mass PvP (by mistake, probably) or defending myself (oh well, they did deserve that! trying to kill a cleric.. tsk tsk).

The CanadianRainwater comic describes it pretty well - I couldn't possibly kill a noob of the other faction!

Click on Picture to Enlarge

Still though, yesterday I found myself in Asmodae with a buddy. It was quite fun! Assaulting Asmos, trying to get them killed, devising strategies(*) to win. And these Asmos were expecting us (after the 2nd or 3rd time we attacked them, they ought to be expecting us!), so I dont consider it .. wrong. Just playful!

It has just been announced that Aion 2.0: Assault on Balaurea is on its way (coming on Sept 7th). Could this possibly mean a temporary truce in order to attack the Balaurs? And - equally important - will we get any stains? :) :)

(*) Wishful thinking.

Do you want to date my avatar?

Since we are all waiting for the servers to come up again, here's a suggestion for you!

Have a look at the latest episode of The Guild, a webseries about all us MMORPG players. For those of you who don't know what The Guild is (omg!), better start with the first episode of the first series (noobs!). For a detailed explanation of characters and plot, check The Guild at wikipedia.

The same people have produced "Do You Want To Date My Avatar?" a super awesome videoclip :)

What's in a name?

Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze

I'm a sensitive soul though I seem thick-skinned
And it hurt that my friends never stood downwind
And oh, the shame {Timon: He was ashamed}
Thought of changin' my name {Timon: Oh! What's in a name?}
And I got downhearted {Timon: How did ya feel?}

That's from Hakuna Matata, the main song of Lion King. Remember?

Well yes, i thought of changin' my name! No, not MY name, just one of my alts.. Let me explain the reasoning:

1. Our server will soon (14/7) merge with another server.
2. I hate this @*($WR(*(@R* tank called Nodar.

thus...

I will create a character named Nodar on the server which

will be merged with ours (an Elyos actually, as is Nodar).

Can you imagine what will happen?

When the servers merge, there will be a name conflict (ofc). Thus both "Nodar"s will be renamed, and we will both get a name change ticket. Whoever manages to change his name back to Nodar first, wins. Guess who this will be :-)

There are evil-ier scenaria! Note a pri-existing conflict (mm tell me, is there an "Ayase"?) and use the name ticket to change your name to that. LoL. All that thanx to the brilliant elf who pointed the hole to NC's algorithm.

Let me get my plan to work.. The last days have been pretty awful, I'd better do that than commit suicide.

Rifting and Rescuing

Yesterday we went to Draupnir Cave. It's an awsome instance in Beluslan, available to both Asmodians and Elyos.


The Rifting Part

1. We use the Indratu rift (= no 7) to infliltrate, which ports you some distance from the instance entrance.

 

2. We avoid and dodge the mobs, which works pretty well until there are some spike lags.  

 

2. It was a matter of seconds to have my screen frozen, loose control of my toon, die miserably and dc. And you know what happens when you dc? You are revived back to your bind point - for crying out loud! 

3. So scroll to Heiron, use waterfall, run from bridge to rift (shields, heals, prays and scrolls) and ta-dam back to Beluslan. Meanwhile my friends have started on the instance - after all it's much safer *inside* Draupnir Cave for an Elyos. 

4. Running like hell (shields, heals and scrolls)(no time for prays this time), I come close to the entrance, but there is a 50 Asmodian with full Abyss 50 gear, looking at me with a sardonic smile. And lots of damage. I am lucky to have all my shielding up, still though my hp is dropping fast as I run.

 

The Rescuing Part

1. That's when you need a hero, isnt it? When you are run down, hit and about to die. 

He has to be strong and he has to be fast,  

and he has to be fresh from the fight!

2. Here comes my savior, running from Draupnir Cave, towards the Asmo, passing by me and taking the aggro. It's the British and dearest tank - and boy was I glad to see him! Rescued! I owe him bigtimes!!

3. The rest of the group appears, my friends, hunting down the enemy, who now flys away wounded.


Thank you!

An acceptable decision

Well, there is the blog back to "acceptable" design, no more color-spree.

I still think the happy orange lunime petals were better though.

Jeshuchi, Zapiel and some invisible bridges

You know about the invisible bridges, hanging in the empty space, going from one island to the other? Well you need to climb on those if you want to kill some pretty-awesome RBs like Jeshuchi and Zapiel.

To get there:

1. Port to Heiron
2. Either run to Kishar Camp or fly directly from heiron
3. Use the waterfall (need Hokuna Matata for that)
4. Appear on rock bridge
5. Glide to the rock opposite
6. Get out of the hole -grrr
7. Walk around the rock that looks like a bone (that's a left turn)
8. Walk forward to get to the chain
9. Walk upwards on the chain, till the n-1 point (on the last one, you fall down).

10. Take a deep breath.

11. Aim to the [right of the] tree you can see towards the islands (on your right).
12. Land on the hill
13. Walk to the cliff that is closer to the 2 mobs guarding the (invisible) bridge
14. Glide towards the 2 mobs
15. While you glide, the moment you get an updraft, do a 90 degrees turn to the right, and aim between the pillars sticking out from Jeshuchi island against you
16. You should land on the bridge to Jesuchi.


Well, i cann't really do that. I want to help my friends, the few times i have time, but I rarely make it. Usually i fall in any of these steps. And as if that's not enough, usually half the legion plus some more people are there, watching you fail miserably.

I really really need to improve my gliding and flying skills! 
Click to Enlarge Pic