The starting classes available are warrior, scout, mage and preist. In general MMO fashion these classes will allow two other class trees to travel down.
Warriors > Gladiators (DPS) or Templars (Tank)
Scouts > Rangers (DPS) or Assassins (One-shots)
Rangers > Sorcerers (Nukers) and Spiritmasters (Summoners)
Priests > Clerics (Super Healers) and Chanters (Group Buffs)
Choosing a class shows the characters in full armorI started with the character customization which immediately fascinated me with the number of hairstyles and face options alone. If I remember correctly the count for the female hairstyles was around forty something and the male was twenty something. The possibilities were endless, not only were the faces different enough from each numbered selection, but you could then tweak them right down to their specific characteristics.
You can literally spend hours tweaking a character if you wanted
The sliders shown are solely for the face, the body had its own sliders
The difference in customization is staggering, I saw small Asmodians....
and large ones.
Finally I was ready to take Diablos out for our first crusade. We spoke with NPCs and smashed bugs and raided enemy camps to retrieve our supplies. The grind didn't feel so difficult since the bulk of the experience was coming primarily from quests. It also seems that for the people who do prefer grinding kills instead of questing could choose to do so. I saw a good amount of people killing the Spriggs instead of taking back our supplies.
Your basic starting armor
Spriggs didn't stand a chanceAttacking was done with a simple click of the mouse. While it has the same 'ol auto-attacking mechanic that MMOs are known for, Aion throws an added feature that reminds me of Age of Conan. Upon reaching level 5, my second ability actually became a follow-up skill to my first skill, Ferocious Strike. After unleashing my attack on the enemy the second skill, Robust Blow, popped up on both the screen and in place of my Ferocious Strike on the skill bar, letting me know I could chain them together. I explored this further and even checked out the skill tree which showed that you may be able to chain many skills together. All you had to do was click on the second skill wherever it was available (3 spots, I counted) and you were on your way to doing some pretty sweet combos.
On the subject of combat I also acquired a skill called Shield Defense which literally changed my stance until I used another skill or deactivated it. This helped to block lots of incoming damage while the cooldown to my skills refreshed. It was a welcome change and I think it definitely works for Aion.
Aion has 2 opposing factions, the Asmodians and the Elyos. Both live on different continents of the world, and they are separated into three zones; Elysea, Asmodae and The Abyss which is a neutral zone where the factions will clash. Lets also not forget that the game has a third server-controlled faction, the Balaur which are a race of dragons that will randomly attack either side. Some videos have captured these beasts flying through the air and it seems like they may also be used to balance the game if one side is overpowering too much, too often. That is just a guess but I can see this having some major changes for both sides.
Since you play alongside your Asmodians or Elyos, you can duel with other characters who choose to accept. This was introduced to Lineage II late in the game but that didn't stop everyone from PVPing with friends or curious players. I challenged a fellow Asmodian to a duel and he humbly accepted. We were both at level 6 so it seemed fair to ask. 3 seconds later we were crossing swords. I stuck to my 2 big hits and switching to block strategy while the challenger flailed his sword on me. I kept using my debuff which lowered his defense and followed up by chaining my 2 skills together and switching to my block stance afterwards. Within moments he was defeated and I had more than half my health. Maybe I had better gear, but it seemed apparent; using your character's skills and stances correctly can significantly make a difference.
As for flight, I didn't reach level 10 in the limited time I had to play. The betas last about 3 to 4 days every time they are up so I should be able to see more of it when the beta reopens. I did get to use their fancy teleport which zips you across the land in realtime. You can't control where you fly to but the view was pretty great.
This cinematic was off of a completed quest
In Lineage II fashion, people could set up personal stores wherever they pleased, selling anything they wanted to get rid of. Some were bargains and some rip offs, so keeping an eye on the items and what they cost is going to be helpful. Essentially people can leave their character online overnight selling their old gear (unless its character bound) for profit; the seller wins, and in many instances, so does the buyer.
Binding items provides a sweet animation
Getting around was surprisingly easy. Even though the map only cleared the places you visited, the minimap and world map were pretty helpful. I was killing and collecting things with ease and this might have been largely due to the fact that the interface was pretty easy to read. When you received quests, names , locations and key items were clickable and contained all the information you needed to know about them. There was even a 'Locate' option that made it easy to know where things were. I was flying through quests rather quickly. I even found a cleric to party with which made leveling that much easier.
Aion is scheduled to go into closed beta #3 on July 2nd. I also looked up to see if Aion would be available through Steam, now that they have a decdicated PlayNC section and that is an affirmative. No prices yet as to what the digtal copy will go for. If you haven't reserved your physical copy, I would suggest doing so to get an early preview of this epic MMO.
-Frank
