Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Crafting Guide in Aion

In Aion, there are six different crafting skills: Alchemy, Armorsmithing, Cooking, Handicrafting, Sewing, and Weaponsmithing. In order to learn a craft, you must find that craft’s expert from your race’s major city and pay ~3,500 Kinah.

The following table might help you choose a crafting profession depending on your class:

Cooking Make food or beverages that give buffs and purify contaminated materials.
* Recommended Class: All

Handicrafting Make precious metals, wooden weapons and small parts.
 * Recommended Class: Ranger and Chanter

Weapon Smith Make matel weapons
 * Recommended Class: Warrior series and Scout series

Armor Smith Make metal armors, helmets and shields
 * Recommended Class: Warrior series and Priest series

Sewing Make cloth armor and leather armor
 * Recommended Class: Scout series, Mage series and Priest series

Alchemy Make potions, magical weapons and items can upgrade the equipments
* Recommended Class: All

The following are the two gathering skills:

Extract Vitality Extracting various vitality on the earth – herb, meat, wood, ore and so on

Extract Aether Extract the Aether floating in the sky to get the Aether crystals

For Elyos, go to the Artisans’ Hall in Sanctum and find:

Alchemy: Diana

Armorsmithing: Vulcanus

Cooking: Hestia

Handicrafting: Utsida

Sewing: Daphnis

Weaponsmithing: Anteros

Each character can learn every craft and reach a skill of 399; however each character can only become a master at one craft.

The Basics

Now that you have learned a craft, there are a few important guidelines to follow. The first is accessing your craft window. To do this, open up your Skills window and select the Crafting tab, then Right-Click on your craft to bring up its window. At the top of the window, under the name of the craft, is your experience bar. If you just learned it, it will say ‘1/99′. As you get closer to 99, just like gaining regular experience, the bar will fill up. However, when you max out at 99, you will need to return to your craft’s expert (the names listed above) and pay to learn the next level.

The following are the prices to pay.

Lesser = ~3,500 Kinah
Regular = ~17,000 Kinah
Greater = ~115,000 Kinah
Expert = ~460,000 Kinah
Master = ~1,500,000 Kinah?

When you pay the price above to learn the next level, you will gain 1 skill point. For example, if you are at 99 and pay ~17,000 Kinah to become a Regular crafter, your skill will become 100.The large area below the experience bar in the crafting window is the list of your recipes. They are organized by category and you can hide or show each category by clicking the box to the left of the category name. When you accept a Work Order, they will automatically be the first category.

The two boxes on the right side, called Product and Required Materials, are just that. When you click a specific recipe, the end result will appear in the Product box and the required materials to make that recipe will appear in the Required Materials box.On the bottom right of the window are two buttons and a box in-between them. The right button is to craft the number in the box of the currently selected recipe. The left button is craft all, which places the maximum number you can craft of the currently selected recipe into that box.

When you are actually crafting, the success or fail rate is dependent on your skill compared to the recipe and chance. If your skill is equal to that of the recipe’s level, your chance of failing is around 33%. If your skill is 3 points higher than that of the recipe’s level, your chance of failing is around 15%. If your skill is between 5 and 10 points higher, your chance of failing is minimal. Once you are above 10, your chance of failing is incredibly low. Once the recipe turns grey, your chance of failing is 0.

Lastly, as you level up, visit the same merchant as you do for supplies to purchase some of your craft’s recipes. The rest of the recipes can be obtained through quests or are dropped.

If you just started a craft, go to your craft’s expert and accept the work order for ‘1P’ (stands for a skill level of 1 point) by clicking ‘Craft Request’. Now, find a workstation and Right-Click it to bring up your craft window. Select the recipe for the work order. Since the quest requires that you make 3 Gritty Clams, change the ‘1′ to a ‘3′ in the box and then hit the craft button. As you’re crafting, each time you fail, hit the > arrow to increase the amount you need to craft to fulfill the quest.

Once you are done, return to your craft’s expert and turn in the work order. Continue this process until you are at a skill of 10 and can receive your first real work order. When you accept the quest for the work order for ‘10P’, open your craft window and select the recipe for the work order you just accepted. Now look at the required materials.

As a general rule, multiple each material by however many finished products you need to complete the quest (if you have the work order for 10P, this number is 6), and then multiple that by a factor of 6 (that is around the least amount of attempts you can possibly do to raise your skill to the point where you can accept the next work order). Once you have calculated how many materials you will need, visit the merchant, who is also inside of the crafting room, and purchase those materials. As your skill becomes higher, it will require more than 6 work orders to raise your skill level by 10.

As a general rule, I usually purchase one extra the amount of work orders I think will raise my skill level by 10 since there are usually failures at the beginning. If you purchase exactly the right amount and fail just once, you won’t be able to finish your last work order and will have to buy more materials. However, purchasing one extra will give you the cushion to fail up to 6 times (more at higher skill levels).

If you need clarification on this, let’s take a look at an example. If you just learned Cooking, you would accept the work order for ‘Salted Pujery Supply 10P’. Open your craft window and select the recipe for ‘Salted Pujery’. The required materials are your given materials and 1 Salt. Now, the required amount of finished products for the quest is 6. Thus, multiple 1 Salt by 6, which is 6 Salts. Now, you need a skill of 20 to obtain the next work order, so multiple the 6 Salts by 7 (6 and 1 spare), which is 42 Salts. Now, visit the merchant and purchase 42 Salts.

The next part is a trick that you will love. Position yourself between your craft’s expert and the closest workstation. Then put yourself as far away from the workstation as possible, but still able to craft. You should be exactly in the middle between the workstation and your craft’s expert. As you finish each work order, simply Right-Click your craft’s expert, turn in the work order, accept the new one, chance the number from ‘1′ to ‘6′, then hit the craft button. You won’t even have to move! This can save massive amounts of time if you plan on crafting for a long time.

Now that you know the basics of crafting and how to craft work orders to raise your skill, the next part of the guide will go into detail of the benefits of each craft.

Detailed Overview of Crafts

This section is aimed at providing you what each craft can make, how difficult or expensive it is to craft, and who the craft itself is good for.

Alchemy
Alchemy is used for creating potions, scrolls, Manastones, orbs, and spellbooks. Other than orbs and spellbooks, all of the creations are considered commodities. Thus, they are not very difficult to craft and are not sold for a lot of Kinah. At all times, you can find lots of potions, scrolls, and Manastones through a Trade Broker. Furthermore, the materials required for crafting these items can be easily found as well. The main perks of Alchemy are having access to your own potions, scrolls, and Manastones (something we all use frequently and may not want to have to buy) and to create orbs and spellbooks if you are of the Mage class. I would not suggest picking Alchemy to simply craft orbs and spellbooks to sell, as there are better crafts for that.

I strongly suggest picking up Alchemy if you are of the Mage class, and simply suggest it for those who gather lots of herbs and want to use them for something. One negative for being an Alchemist is that it requires lots of inventory/bank space. There are lots of various materials (lots of herbs, basic materials, and Manastones) required to craft everything, which can fill up inventories fast.

Armorsmithing
Armorsmithing is used for creating shields, chain helmets, plate helmets, chain armor, and plate armor. Armorsmithing is very useful to have if you are of the Priest or Warrior classes, as you can fill 6 or 7 inventory slots with high quality crafted gear, making a big difference in your character’s statistics. Armorsmithing really only requires Aether, ore, and Kinah. If you are like me and want a full set of the best possible gear, you will spend 5 hours gathering hundreds of ore and Aether to craft 5 of one item in order to get a ‘proc’ out of it. This not only is a huge time sink, but it also becomes very expensive, as turning raw ore into usable ingots is very expensive. And if you do not ‘proc’, the failed item is barely worth as much as you spent on it.

However, it is very nice to be able to have a full set of great gear every 5 levels. Basically, if you are a Priest or Warrior, I’d suggest picking up Armorsmithing; even the basic recipes craft decent gear. If you get ‘proc’s, all the better. As far as using it to make money, it simply requires too much time to be of any real value, but occasionally you will have an extra ‘proc’d item that will sell for a lot.

Cooking
Cooking is only used for creating food. This, more or less, is used for temporarily boosting certain statistics. It is fairly inexpensive to cook and I would suggest it to anyone who uses food on a regular basis. However, there is little money to be made from it if you include the time it takes to gather and cook. Also, you can simply purchase food off of the Trade Broker or from a merchant with near the same benefits for a reasonably cheap price. If you plan on consuming lots of food, as in never being without a buff, then I’d suggest it. However, if you only plan on using food for groups or hard areas, I wouldn’t suggest spending the time raising it up.

Handicrafting
Handicrafting is used for creating rings, earrings, necklaces, glasses (head slot), bows, and staffs. Handicrafting is both expensive and time consuming to craft, but also the best craft for making money. For jewelry, gems are the primary material. It is fairly uncommon throughout areas and can only be gathered once per node, unlike everything else that can be gathered 3 times. This increases the amount of time required to gather lots of materials for attempts. Also, it is pretty much required to ‘proc’ on the initial recipe to make anything of value, both to you or to someone else. Once you do proc, you can then use that for an even better recipe, which also has a chance to ‘proc’. Even if the second recipe doesn’t ‘proc’, you will still have a very valuable item to use or sell. If it does ‘proc’, the value triples.

Overall, Handicrafting is the best craft for making money. You can spend 2 hours gathering and create a few valuable pieces of jewelry that will sell for lots of money, let alone, good rings, earrings, and necklaces are hard to find other than from Handicrafting. If you choose Handicrafting as your main or secondary craft, you will not be disappointed. I would highly suggest Handicrafting for Rangers and Chanters, but really for anyone who is willing to craft, period, as it is very rewarding.

Sewing
Sewing is used for creating belts, cloth helmets, leather helmets, cloth armor, and leather armor. As the same for Armorsmithing, this craft is mainly designed to be used by the other two classes: Scouts and Mages. There is not a big market for making money from this craft and it is just as time consuming and costly as Armorsmithing. If you are a Scout or Mage, I would highly suggest using this craft, even if you do not want to invest the time to create full sets of ‘proc’d gear; as the basics are still useful. And the occasional extra ‘proc’d piece will sell for a pretty penny.

Weaponsmithing
Weaponsmithing is used for creating daggers, swords, maces, greatswords, and polearms. Weaponsmithing is both costly and time consuming to create, but fairly rewarding. If you are a class that uses any of the above weapons, I definitely suggest picking up this craft. However, you can go without it and purchase similar items from the Trade Broker for similar prices. For instance, if a 100 damage sword can be crafted for roughly 100,000 Kinah in materials and failed attempts, then there’s probably a 90 damage sword for sale through the Trade Broker at 90,000 Kinah.

The real benefit from Weaponsmithing is gathering lots of materials and attempting to get as many ‘proc’s as possible and then selling the ones you don’t use. Weaponsmithing works similar to Handicrafting where you need to ‘proc’ the regular recipe in order to use in another recipe and then ‘proc’ that to get the best result. Even if the second fails, you still will have a valuable item. If it succeeds, you will have a very valuable item. The best results can fetch prices in the millions, which is attractive at any level.

Overall, Weaponsmithing is not a bad craft for any class that uses the weapons listed above, but I definitely suggest it for Templars, Gladiators, and Assassins.

After reading this guide, you should have a good idea of how Aion’s crafting system works and the basics of each specific craft.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Aion PVP Advice

PVP Advice:

Things good to do:

1) Target coordination!!! The group's target caller should have his 'brand's' hotkeyed so that the primary DPS target is always marked. Likewise, the primary CC target needs to be marked as well. Groups I was in typically used '1' and the 'zzzz' for these functions. The group member MUST have their /select brand abilities hotkeyed!!! Absolutely essential. You do this by going into your spells (K button) > actions(?)> drag out your /select brand skills. You probably only need a couple, but make sure you have the one your target caller is using! Hitting this hotkey will instantly target the branded target.

2) Chat box radar!!! MUST HAVE...do not leave it to the other people, if you don't know how to do this here it is:
Use the chatbox options button (little round thing on top left of chatbox) to create a new tab. Name it Radar or whatever you want. Make sure every channel is unchecked!!! Go down to the Combat Enemy (think that is the name) and check every combat message for enemy players (NOT NPCs!!!) and make them a color you will instantly recognize (most use red). Then drag this tab to a place on your screen that you hardly ever mouse over (corners are good). If a player within 100M of you does anything (damage, heal, potion, whatever) you will get a message on that Tab and will know he is around!!

3) Auto-follow in flight. this is a personal preference thing but I can tell you that autofollow while flying in combat is a great help, especially to melee. If you select your target and hit your skill, you will fly the fastest route to your target and get to range for the skill. Be careful though, if the target is retreating to where his numbers are, you need to pull off, simply pressing your mouse buttons will stop autofollow. Autofollow on the ground is not as big a deal, but the 3rd dimension of flight can make target following a real bitch at first.

4) Target priority. Rangers, Sorcs, Spiritmasters. If their group has these, you typically want them first. "Oh but KILL THE HEALER!!!". Not so much in this game unless the only healer they have is a chanter. Clerics take too much to bring down quickly and while you focus them their Ranger/Sorc can kill you in seconds. Target priority should be TARGET SQUISHIES--CC/SILENCE HEALERS!!! They will be doing the same thing, so it is imperative that clerics are ready to purge conditions on the rangers/sorcs. Most big battles we saw had the last people standing as clerics and templars, so whoever got their ranger/sorcs through the fight could nuke these guys into oblivion.

A Leveling guide for Asmodian's, and other tips!

I'm not even going to try and outdo or duplicate this great piece of work.  Visit this link, and bookmark it.  It's the best info I have ever seen for the Aion gamer.

http://www.aionsource.com/forum/general-guides/41506-leveling-asmodian-20-other-fun-tips.html

For your psychological health: How to avoid ragequit and burnout

This is an excellent post found on Aionsource.com forums, and I felt the need to post it here is anybody missed seeing it there.  I did not write this, and take no credit for doing so.  But I think it's awesome, and think it's a good idea for most all Aion gamers to read.  The link to the original posting is here.  http://www.aionsource.com/forum/general-guides/36110-your-psychological-health-how-avoid-ragequit-burnout.html

(This post may be outdated with version 1.5)


This thread is dedicated to those who may not have played a hardcore PvP or PvE MMO before.

Aion is both. Don't let the pretty graphics, the epic music, the cute fungy creatures, or the innocent asian-girl toons fool you. It is hardcore by Western standards. The definition of hardcore being that it isn't very forgiving to you. Hardcore DOES NOT mean "skill-based". I will leave debates of what is "skill-based" to other threads, as it is outside the scope of this post. Examples of hardcore games : AoC on a PvP server, EVE Online in 0.0 space or low-sec, Guild Wars or Lineage 2, etc.

First off, most of you who are not used to a hardcore game will end up ragequitting or burning out. Also, a great deal of you who think you are prepared for it, aren't... I'm not being snerty or mean, that's just how it is. It's like the saying: On average, most people think they are above-average in intelligence. However if you really do have experience in other hardcore MMOs, you can stop reading now.. this thread will be nothing new for you guys.

While many on this forum will laugh and say GO BACK TO WOW!!!LOLZ!!!11!, this thread will take the opposite approach. I say, "please don't leave! we need you!... much <3<3!!. Why? Every player counts. There is nothing wrong with being a "carebear" or a "noob", in fact they help the economy, in my humble opinion. Also, ghost servers are no fun! Even if the game can survive a dropoff due to burnout or ragequitting players, server merges are no fun. It really disrupts the communities that form on specific servers. I saw this firsthand with AoC and WaR.

Thus this thread is designed to try and psychologically mitigate ragequitting and burnout.

First, let's talk about PvP

1. Play in zones that fit your playstyle preferences.

Contrary to what people think, a lot of PvP "can" be avoidable. Many people are suggesting the idea of hardcore PvP servers or PvE only servers. I think these suggestions are a bit misguided. NCSoft has designed AION so that there are three levels of these "server-types" are inherently built into Aion. The PvE zone is unfinished as of 1.0 but in 1.5 most of the content will be added in. Let me give you an example.

Playing like a PvE Server for Asmodian:

Levels 1-10: Ishagen

Levels 10-20: Altgard

Levels 20-50: Brusthonin

(edit: Actually I'm a bit wrong on this. These zones will feature normal mobs 20-25 and then 40-50, but will include instances via 1.1 to 1.5 updates. Future versions will fill in the gap here with new zones as well as fill the level gaps in the abyss (lack of mobs mid30s-late 30s, 45+))

Playing like a PvP Server (PvE with periodic PvP ganking):

Levels 1-10: Ishagen

Levels 10-20: Altgard

Levels 20-30: Morheim

Levels 30-50: Morheim + Belusian

Playing like a RvR Server (e.g. warhammer pvp style):

Levels 1-10: Ishagen

Levels 10-20: Altgard

Levels 20-25: Morheim

Levels 25-30: Lower Abyss

Levels 30-50: Upper Abyss

Elyos has equivalent zones. So you see... if you don't like the threat of gank squads... level in the PvE zone of your level.

2. "I love PvP but it's not really pvp when it's not a fair fight" or "LOL @Aion PVP (insert screenshot of dead character next to 20 characters of the other faction).

The above statements are false. The best PvP games will come close to full-blown warfare. In most intelligent wargames, hardly anything is fair. In fact, most fights are decided before they start. It's hardly about the individual, it is about something greater. To master Aion PvP you need to not only master how your character fights, but when to fight.

(A) The RLSG maneuver. Those of you who played X3, recognize this term coined by NUKLEAR-SLUG. I will borrow it here, since DiD games are just hardcore. This move will be your characters most important move. RLSG stands for RUN LIKE A SCREAMING GIRL. That's all there is to it. If you are not 100% sure of the outcome of a fight. Run first, think later. You can always come back later if you decide your odds are good. But first you need to run. There is nothing wrong with running. You aren't less of a man because of it. You aren't a noob if you run from a fight. No one from AionSource is going to take a screenshot and then make a call-out thread (actually I'm not too sure on this one). But there is nothing to be ashamed of. The only time you shouldn't run is if you don't have many AP to lose, and you want a fast way back to your bind point (and your return is on cooldown).

(B) Set up your chat radar. In EVE Online, the chat window is the most important tool of recon in 0.0. You would watch the local window very carefully for the presence of hostile players. In Aion, you have to do the same thing to survive. Basically, create a new tab, and call it PvP. Pull it out to some location you can see, and check "third-party combat" in the tab options. Color all the squares red. When an enemy player uses any ability, drinks any pot, or takes any sort of damage in your vicinity, you will see them in this window. You can also see what level abilities they have, which is a good way to determine their class without a visual contact, and is also a good way to determine their level (since you can't see player character level, and only abyss rank).

(C) Watch your own radar! This thing is NOT a minimap, it's a radar, which is how NCSoft designers designed it. In 1.5 you can even zoom in and out. If you want to be very cautious, you can grind mobs that are neutral. They will show up as a white dot on your radar. So if you see a red dot zooming towards you.. that's your cue for the RLSG maneuver. Over time, as you get used to mob movements, you can even grind in hostile mob areas. Even though everything will show up as red dots, you will learn to instantly tell the movements of a player red dot as opposed to a mob red dot.

Update: With version 1.5, players now show up as diamonds on your radar, instead of circles. The catch is, the have to be within a 120 degree scope of vision of your character in front of you, so you still won't see them coming from behind.

(D) Grind/Hunt mobs in a group. You don't necessarily have to kill the same mob. Just be within the general vicinity in case a player shows up. This won't stop you from getting steam-rolled by a big group of players, but it will at least deter solo gankers.

(E) Join a good legion. Keep an extensive friends list. Social network. This helps with D.

(F) Set up intel channels. Your guild chat is a good place for this.. if you have a big guild. This is another feature being adopted from EVE, a game where even traveling from point A to point B is dangerous. Often huge alliances have intel channels where they report enemy movements (e.g. (player)(type)(numbers) spotted in (location).) Control right-click on your map to link a location into an intel channel. I hear in 1.5 with the slayer system, the game will do it for you. So you can even probably ignore F. There is no excuse to not pay attention to your environment or system messaging if this is the case.

(G) This one is the most important. If you get owned by a group of players. DO NOT MAKE A POST WITH A SCREENSHOT OF YOUR CORPSE WITH SOME CYNICAL OR SARCASTIC COMMENT ABOUT AION PVP. YOUR TEARS ARE DELICIOUS, YOU ARE ONLY GIVING SKULLS FOR THE SKULLTHRONE, AND SHOWING YOUR RLSG FAIL. (But if you do make a screenshot or video, end it with keyboard cat).

Okay, now on to PvE

First off, leveling take a long time.

(A) The most psychologically important thing you can do to prepare yourself is to convert Aion levels in your head to these other levels.. use the chart conversion chart below:

1 Aion Level =

5 WoW Levels.

4 AoC Levels.

1.6 WaR Levels.

HOW TO USE THE CHART: Suppose you only played WoW before. Each time you gain four bubbles (20%) in your leveling bar. Stop. In your head, make a mental "ding" sound. Imagine all your guildies saying "GRATS". Sit down in rest mode and wait until your health and mana bar is full to simulate the leveling-regeneration effect. Take a break or grab a soda. You just dinged, you deserve it.

(B) If all else fails, buy some removable duct tape and place just enough of it on the bottom part of your monitor to cover up your XP bar. I recommend 3M brand tapes.

(C) Grinding solo mobs is for losers. Really. Get a group and grind elites. It's less boring in a group. Better yet, get attuned for instances and run them for loot. It really boggles my mind that people can spend 18 hours per weeks for weeks and weeks to earn enough DKP to get a piece of raiding gear, that gives them only a marginal upgrade. All that gear is going to be outdated in the next expansion pack anyways. Imagine if raids gave experience... It would be way more grind than getting to max level in AION would be. When you hit 25 (enough for the new instance in 1.5), or when you hit 28 for Fire Temple, pretend that you have already achieved end-game in Aion. Actually this is not far from the truth, as you have abyss access. Treat levels 30-50 AS ENDGAME. When you run Fire Temple, think in your head that you're not grinding an instance like Deadmines or Gnomeregan, but pretend the place IS a end-game instance. It pretty much is, because you have to get "attuned" for it (abyss key quest). The gear upgrades you get are non-trivial. And because bosses don't always drop loot, it kind of simulates an endgame raid-- at the end of the day you are more likely to walk away empty-handed har har. Since the levels are much longer, you have a lot of time of use for that gear before it goes out of date. Equipment drops are also rare, so if you aren't gathering or crafting much, it may be your only source of upgrades. Even the quests are pretty stingy on their equipment rewards.

(D) Speaking of which... gather and craft! The xp from both gathering and crafting is non-trivial. Crafting is a great way to gain experience while being semi-afk. You can start up a work order, take a bite from your Jose Ole's 1 dollar microwaved burrito, and then turn it in and fire up another work order. You can make good money from the broker system if you gather and craft stuff that is in demand and play the market correctly.

(E) Play it safe! If you aren't twinked out, or uber-leet, there is no shame in killing mobs that are 2 levels below you. The costs from death are quite expensive, and will take a big chunk out of your pocketbook. Everything in the game costs money, and the novice player may quickly find themselves more broke than AoC's memory management system at release.

(F) Travel. There is a lot of traveling by foot in this game, unless you live in the Abyss. ALOT of traveling by foot. You may ragequit at the fact that there are no mounts, or if you FAIL at gliding. In this case, I suggest creating a small character, and then zooming in very close while traveling to give the illusion that you are running very fast and are on a mount. Also another tip: Trains are bad for you mmkay. If you get mob aggro while traveling, most of the time, it is smart to STOP and then kill the mob before running forward. With 70% of your level EXP coming from non-quest exp, you will have to kill random mobs anyways. Some say the best first piece of PvP gear to get are the golden boots, which add 20% run speed. Infiltration quests for both sides will also give you a title with 4% bonus to speed (in the mid 20's). Finally, run scrolls can boost your run speed by various amounts, and scout classes can run, or turn into karnifs that run.

(G) Manastones. One property of other hardcore Asian games is that item enhancements have a chance of failing, and when they fail, something bad happens. In some cases the entire item is destroyed. In other games, the items and previous enchantments don't get destroyed, but an enchantment slot is taken up, effectively ruining the future potential of the item. Aion is more forgiving than these games, as items neither get destroyed nor have their potential ruined. However, the fact that there is a penalty associated with random failure will no doubt be a prime source of ragequit and burnout for players unaccustomed to a hardcore mmo mechanic. Here are some ways to deal with it, psychologically speaking.

First off, a table showing manastone estimated worth.

Manastones worth a damn: +HP, +Physical Crit, +Magic Boost, +Magic Resist (high level/lategame)

Manastones sorta worth a damn: +Phys Attack, +Shield Block

Manastones worth diddly squat: Everything else.

The strategy that will likely burn out casual players is trying to socket all of their items while leveling up with Manastones worth a damn. Manastones drop like cupcakes, and they'll be tons of them in your bag after a bit of grinding, but you may not have enough of the Manastones worth a damn to fill all of your vacant manastone slots on your item. Some players will buy manastones off the market for thousands of kinah to compensate. This is where the danger of ragequit comes in. Sure, you will be end up better geared if you fill all your slots with Manastones worth a damn, but if a manastone fails in slotting... you must be prepared for that. You would think people would accept the risk, but do a search of Manastone and QQ on this forum and see how many people weren't prepared or were uninformed of that risk.

Here are my recommendations (again, nothing special here, just common sense):

Option 1) Bad one in first approach. For all of your gear (no matter what quality), slot your Manastones sorta worth a damn or Manastones worth diddly squat first. On the last slot, slot your Manastones worth a damn. This way if it fails, you lose a bunch of crappy manastones and just 1 good one.

Option 2) Good one in first approach. Don't slot any manastones until you get a good piece of gear. Then slot all of your Manastones worth a damn into them. If you are unlucky, you will lose some, but you should have enough good ones to refill up that 1 or 2 pieces of special equipment. With your left over manastones and gear, switch to Option 1.

Option 3) Forego slotting Manastones worth a damn, and sell them on the market, making $$$. Use this $$ to buy food or drinks that will buff your stats much like Manastones would. Sure these food buffs gives temporary effects, but your gear while leveling is temporary too. It's like having manastones in your items, only that you can't fail in eating or drinking.

(H) You aren't a failure if you have trouble killing 2 dot mobs your level. It's pretty hard to solo after 40 for some classes. Again, groups, friends, legions are your friend.



I hope this thread has been helpful, and I hope your experience in Aion is enjoyable.

Aion Spirit Master / Guide

First and foremost: I do not take full credit for this post. The majorly of it has been collected by TwilightAngel of the Legion Xen of Onslaught in their Aion(NA) Division.


This thread is for anything and everything for the Spirit Master Class.


Quick summery: As everyone should know, Spirit Masters aren't a meant to be a true DPS class - they are more of a crowd control class, as some will say. Spirit Masters use DOTS and have some nifty debuffs that can make us a real threat - especially towards Sorcerers and Clerics.
The reason I say this, is because we can lock them down for a few seconds. In other words, you "silence" the target for a short amount of time. The spell is known as the Sigil of Silence I.Keep in mind that this is a Stigma skill! It doesn't come from your trainer like any other spell!
Also, we have a cool skill that reduces players flight time over time (basically, a DOT). So in other words, you apply this on your enemy and forces the player to descent to ground level. In return, this means you can now summon your spirit, and make him wish he didn't ran into you.

Spirit Masters in PvE

Solo playThe Spirit Master probably is the most efficient grinder in Aion. By using the Earth Spirit to tank, you can chain-kill mob after mob, without taking damage aside from using Replenish Element III. (you will learn this skill at the following levels: 16, 28 and 40.)
What this basically does is transfer x% of your HP to your spirit.This damage can easily be compensated by using Vitality Absorption, a potion, or Herbal Remedy.

In a DungeonDuring an instance the Command: Erosion becomes a favorite, given it raises a monsters drop rate by 20%. This increase is multiplicative though - not additive. So, the smaller the drop rate, the less of an increase (Ex - a 1% drop rate * 20% increase = 1.2% drop rate).
This added with the cooldown makes it most useful for bosses only, so be sure to land it right before they die and if something drops, gloat that it was because of you!
Interesting fact: the spirits can also buff the group with a spell called "Spirit Wall of Protection". This is a level 34 spell and the effect's powers vary on levels. I will only put down the final version of the effects.

The following buffs will apply, depending on which spirit you use. Use it wisely!

- Spirit Wall of Protection III - Fire SpiritFor 1 min, enables your allies within a 15m radius of the spirit to reflect 40 damage to the target who attacks them, and increases Physical Attack by 14%.

- Spirit Wall of Protection III Water Increases Magical Accuracy and Magical Res of your allies within a 15m radius of the spirit by 100 and 240 respectively for 30 sec.

- Spirit Wall of Protection IV Wind Increases Accuracy and Evasion of your allies within a 15m radius of the spirit by 100 and 260 respectively for 30 sec.

- Spirit Wall of Protection III Earth Recovers the HP of your allies within a 15m radius of the spirit by 467, and removes one abnormal condition effect.

- Spirit Wall of Protection I Tempest* ELYOS ONLYIncreases Accuracy, Evasion, Magical Accuracy and Magical Res of your allies within a 15m radius of the spirit by 100, 200, 100 and 200 respectively for 30 sec.

- Spirit Wall of Protection I Lava* ASMODIAN ONLYRecovers the HP of your allies within a 15m radius of the spirit by 760, and also increases Physical Attack by 16% for 30 sec.

*These spirit is a level 50 DP summon. It has a one-hour Cooldown and will last for 20 minutes. It costs you 2000 DP to summon it! This means you should only use this specific summon when it is *really* needed. Use it wisely!

In a group setting, the Spirit Master fulfills the DPS role - given their lack of PvE environment CC. The Earth pet is capable of holding an add well enough until a tank can pick it up if required, but you should not be expected to tank an entire instance.

PvPSpirit Masters enjoy dragging out their enemies' pain while throwing a myriad of spells their way. They specialize in killing over time (DOT), as opposed to bursting someone down. Through the use of the many DOTS the class gets, as well as the pet itself and the PvP-oriented CC the class attains, you will have plenty of fun keeping a person busy and watching their HP bar drop steadily.

The Spirit Master is also the dispeller of the classes, with four different dispels. The first is a single target, single buff dispel. Then there are two single target, three buff dispels which also do damage (and one adds a DoT) and are stigmas, as well as one multi-target three buff dispel which costs 3k DP. This along with our Dots and lesser debuffs make us a sort of anti-chanter class.

In a group setting the Spirit Master is a sort of safety net, capable of fearing a target off of their allies, or using Silence/Body Root to halt an attack (Stigma skills). The Spirit Master further helps gain control through the use of an AoE fear and AoE slow, along with dispels and the ability to DoT multiple targets. The stress placed on the opponent's healer is well worth the effort, and can cause even a formidable group to fumble. While the class isn't required during PvP, as any class isn't, after grouping with one who utilizes all of their skills, you will gain a respect for the class and hope to see them on your side and not the other.

PVP: Spirit Master - How do they stack against other classes?

Spirit Master versus ClericThe Cleric is the main healer class of Aion, but does have its offensive abilities. The Spirit Master class is one of few who can effectively shut down a Cleric and kill them, due to our long CC chain. You must perfect chaining fears and silence in order to kill a Cleric, or else they will throw up an instant heal and make your efforts mute. With all cooldowns up you should have no problem against a Cleric, but if you are fighting one without fear it will be a harder effort. Because of this and the length of our cooldowns, during a 1-on-1 duel you can expect to win 50/50, because it is that much harder to kill one without fears and silence.

Spirit Master versus Assassin The Assassin class is burst as Sorcerer is. The Assassin class is the #1 DPS class, but that comes at a price. Assassins have no actual CC beyond stuns, and are melee which mean they must be on their target to damage them. During a 1-on-1 duel you can expect a 50-50 win rate, depending if you can survive the Assassins first burst of damage. As soon as you start the fear chain you should be able to stay in control and win, but if they catch you a second time you're pretty much a goner.

Spirit Master versus Chanter The Chanter class uses a mix of damage between spells and melee, but mostly depend on melee. They have a 3sec stun, but their overall damage is weak at high level. They can't dispel slow like a cleric which makes them easy to kite after they've used their stun. Chanter's heal is weaker than a Cleric as well. During a 1-on-1 duel you can expect to win the majority, since disenchantment burst and your CC work so well on them. Chanter becomes weak against Spirit Masters when they acquire fear.

Spirit Master versus Ranger Both Ranger and Spirit Master are ranged classes, but the Ranger is a physical source while Spirit Master is magical. The Ranger utilizes traps, a slowing shot, as well as a silencing shot for CC, but overall the Spirit Master is better for PvP CC. During a 1-on-1 duel you can expect to win the majority, with it depending if they land their silencing shot on you and then unload. Rangers can be tricky since you can't really kite them, so you have to maintain control at all times. If your cooldowns are gone, you're pretty much done for.

Spirit Master versus Sorcerer The Sorcerer is a burst class, and will be able to kill faster than a Spirit Master in a short time frame. The difference lessens during lengthy battles where the Spirit Masters Dots are able to come to full. This along with a DP buffed pet makes the DPS gap between Sorcerer and Spirit Master negligible. The other main difference is in CC. The Sorcerer focuses on PvE-oriented CC with spells such as Sleep and Curse: Tree, which stop the enemy in their track and break upon damage; meanwhile the Spirit Master focuses on PvP-oriented CC with multiple slows and fears, which can receive damage without breaking. During a 1-on-1 duel you can expect a 50-50 win rate, depending who gets their CC off first and is capable of maintaining control of the battle.

Spirit Master versus Templar Templars have large HP pools and defensive skills, as well as regeneration (HoT) skills. This makes mana potion use in duels necessary; without the mana potion you would run out of mana before the Templar will exhaust his cooldowns and die. Templar damage is decently weak. They have a CC skill which pulls you toward the Templar, but most of the time it gets resisted. During a 1-on-1 duel you can expect to win the majority, as long as you are capable of using a mana potion.

Spirit Master versus Gladiator The Gladiator is an AoE DPS class, which wears plate and uses 2-handers. The Gladiators and Spirit Masters DPS are comparative over time, but the Gladiator maintains a larger burst than Spirit Master. The Gladiator also has basically no CC skills. During a 1-on-1 duel you can expect to win the majority, since they have few ways of countering your CC. They can beat you if they manage to AoE down your pet as well as servants while attacking you, eliminating your damage mitigation shield as well as a large source of damage.

Credits go to Finnalie , who posted this on the Aionsource forums. I have slightly changed some wording, added some stuff and made it a bit easier to read.

Spirits

Let's talk about the Spirits the Spirit Master has at his/her side.

Before you ask, our Spirits cannot fly. AT ALL. This doesn't mean the Spirit will immediately be despawned the moment you take flight! If you stick to the ground your Spirit will remain active.
The only Spirit that can attack flying players is your Water Spirit.
But what do these Spirits do? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Fear not, young padawan. It will all become clear.

Fire Spirit: The Fire spirit is the "Jack of all trades" pet, with average defense, attack, and HP. The Fire spirit is best used to grind until level 28 given it has the best taunt. The Fire spirit is good for PvE groups given they debuff the targets physical defense, and lower fire resistance for other casters, all while providing good DPS and having the second best HP for surviving any AoEs. The Fire spirit can also be used during PvP for the Command: Substitution skill, which mitigates all damage towards the cast to the spirit, given their large HP pool and damage. The Fire spirit has the largest overall damage output due to the fact he is a higher tier than the others so far, but this may change when the level cap is increased. The Fire spirits commands are burst damage.

Earth Spirit: The Earth spirit has the highest defense and HP of all the spirits. They also have the second best taunt, and are the number one tanks at level 28 when they gain the Command: Disturbance and are capable of healing themselves for 50% of the damage the command does. Utilizing the Earth spirit you will be able to grind fast and efficiently, with less spirit heals using your HP, and taking on stronger monsters. The Earth spirit is also capable of holding an elite monster with a healer until the tank can take over. The Earth spirits commands are a mix of burst and DoT.

Wind Spirit:The Wind spirit has the fastest attacks and is the best melee DPS pet. The Wind spirit is primarily used during PvP given its stun effect upon using Command: Disturbance, along with the high damage and fastest run speed. The Wind spirit has low HP though, making it a liability at times if your opponents choose to focus fire it down fast. Some also choose to level with the Wind spirit by keeping aggro, kiting the target and letting the Wind spirits superior DPS kill the target fast. The Wind Spirit training books are dropped by monsters using the same sprite as the tier you need. They are also around the same level of the skill. The Wind spirits commands are a mix of burst and DoT.

Water Spirit: The Water spirit is the only spirit which attacks with magical damage, ranged attacks, and hits extremely hard. The Water spirit also has the lowest HP and can be taken out fast. Typically it is used during PvP against flying targets for its unique effect of 'Crash' during Command: Disturbance. It is also the only pet capable of attacking enemies in the air. Due to the ranged attacks, the Water spirit cannot be kited, which can give you a leg up against a Sorcerer who may try to root a melee pet of yours. There is currently no way of removing CC on your pet. The Water Spirit training books are dropped by monsters using the same sprite as the tier you need. The Water spirits commands are burst damage.

There are also two level 50 Spirits - these are only for special ocassions in my opinion, since they share a long, LONG cooldown of one hour, and only last for 20 minutes. typical PVE summons.

Elyos only

Tempest Spirit: The Tempest spirit is an Elyos-only spirit. The Tempest spirit is a level 50 DP summon which has a short duration and long cooldown, along with its opposite Magma spirit for the Asmodians. This spirit is a mixture of the Water and Wind spirits, and the commands mix both as well. This means the Tempest spirits Command: Disturbance both stuns and crashes the opponent, as well as being a ranged attack, making the Tempest spirit trump the Magma spirit during a 1-on-1 with each other. The Tempest spirits stats are slightly lower than the Magma spirits, but still higher than all others, and hits hard as well. The lower stats can be expected due to the ranged nature of the spirit.

Asmodian only

Magma Spirit: The Magma spirit is an Asmodian-only spirit. The Magma spirit is a level 50 DP summon which has a short duration and long cooldown, along with its opposite Tempest spirit for the Elyos. This particular spirit is a mixture of the Earth and Fire spirits, and the commands mix both as well. The Magma spirit is superior to the Tempest spirit for groups given the ability to debuff physical defense. The stats of the Magma spirit are all higher than the others, and hits extremely hard.

I hope some will find this as helpful as I did.

Aion Cleric Macros

I will be updating this guide with a list of useful addons for both PvP and PvE. There isn't much known about the usage of macros at the moment, so the list is quite brief. It primarily consists of some custom macros that I have played around with; they are based off the example macros provided in game.

Most of these can be copy and pasted into your macro editor, however you will need to replace the text inside the inverted commas with spell ranks/names/numbers. Fairly self explanatory.
Note that the number in the command '/Delay "Number"' is there to take in to consideration factors such as spell cast times, computer lag and network lag. Therefore it can be varied from user to user. What I have is just what I found works on China Aion.

Index:
1. Healing and Buffing
2. Levelling
3. Combat

1. Healing and Buffing
a) Buffing multiple groups with blessings:
/Variable 1 Blessing of Health "Rank"/Select [%Group1]/Skill [%Variable1]/Delay 2/Select [%Group2]/Skill [%Variable1]/Delay 2/Select [%Group3]/Skill [%Variable1]
Repeat this pattern, replacing the group number, for more groups.
Create multiple versions of this macro for your different Blessings by replacing the "Number" of the Variable.

b) Healing an enemy's target and re-select the enemy:
/Select [%Target'sTarget]/Skill "Heal Name" "Rank"/Delay 2/Select [%PreviousTarget]
This macro is very useful if you have 2 off-tanks or find yourself in a group with people who pull aggro off the tank/s frequently.
Furthermore, you can still heal yourself along with the tank if you happen to take damage.

c) Healing a group member and then re-targetting your previous target:
/Select [%Group"Number"]/Skill "Name"/Delay 2/Select [%PreviousTarget]
Alternatively, you can also /Select "Player Name"
This is probably one of the better cleric macros out there.

2. Levelling
a) Faster resting/Mana regen
/Skill Light of Rejuvenation "Rank"/Delay 2/Skill Mana Treatment "Rank"/Delay 2/Skill Refresh Mind "Rank"/Delay 2/Skill Toggle Rest
I use this quite a lot for levelling when my mana gets low. Of course you can take out Mana Treatment if you don't have powder.

3. Combat
a) Simple assist target and announce target:
/Select [%Group"Number"]/Yell DPS [%Target'sTarget] selected by [%Group"number]!/Select [%Target'sTarget]/Delay 2/Attack
Alternatively, you can replace [%Group"Number"] with the name of your group's main assist.

b) Cast Holy Servant and cast HoT on it:

/Skill Summon: Holy Servant "Rank"/Delay 2/Select Divine Energy/Skill Light of Rejuvenation "Rank"/Delay 2/Select [%PreviousTarget]
HoT'ing up your summon makes it stay around for one extra attack (4 instead of 3 hits), which is quite good, especially if simplified by a macro.
As stated above, currently I have not found a way to target a previous hostile target, but you can just hit TAB to do this quite easily.

If anybody has found a better way, or more than whats posted here, by all means please share it!

Aion Sorcerer Info/Guide

Mage

Mages rely on their mastery of magic to do large amounts of damage at long range. They are able to deal out terrifying, awe-inspiring levels of damage while taking little damage in return from afar. They have command over the elements, summoning raging fireballs and chains of the coldest ice to wreak havoc over the ranks of the enemy. They can even speak to the shattered planet, calling forth roots to bind enemies in place. They are weak at close combat because they wear light armor and their health is relatively low. Mages are at once incredibly powerful and exceptionally vulnerable. Playing a Mage is easy at first, but to do well, it is important to learn how to divert and to evade the enemy. Knowing when to fight and when to flee is important since their defenses are limited. At level 10, Mages must specialize into either the Sorcerer subclass or the Spiritmaster subclass.

Sorcerer

Sorcerers follow the path of magic, mastering the elements of water, fire, air, earth, and, their most powerful ally, Aether. A Sorcerer's talents are many, and they have single-handedly turned the tide of battle. The Sorcerer’s main role is as a damage dealer, specifically as ranged magic dps. Sorcerers have numerous ranged attack skills, including AoE attacks that can attack multiple opponents. The additional role that a Sorcerer has is as a mesmerizer (for crowd control). Mesmerizing skills allow a Sorcerer to take on groups of linked creatures one by one. The Sorcerer is invaluable in difficult party quests or for infiltrating regions that are crawling with groups of monsters because of its mesmerizing skills.

Popular BuildsSorcerers are all about the magic damage, so if you've got the ninja skills to keep your fragile self alive, then by all means max it out. Aion's resident 'glass cannon' class is especially weak to physical attacks though, even more so than you may be used to in other MMOs, so you might decide to trade in some of that damage for HP.

Max Damage BuildGear: + Intelligence Cloth Armour (bonus available on certain Abyss armour) Enhancements: +Magic Spell DamageCooking trade skill highly recommended for +Intelligence foodSurvivability BuildGear: + HP Cloth Armour (bonus available on certain Abyss armour)Enhancements: + Max HP, + Max MPCooking trade skill highly recommended for +Intelligence foodOther professions that great for PvP is Sewing which will give Maximum HP +52 / Flight Time +3 / Flight Speed +3% / Speed +6%. That is big for PvP. Need all the speed you can get air and land since we are squishy as hell, we need all the distance from our enemy as we can get.

Other Titles/Crafting Bonus Stats can read from here : http://www.xoohq.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8896

PvP Gear SettingTips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian Defensive Gear: To become the top notch 1% player, you must have Abyss gear with HP or Magical Resistance bonus set + Magical Boosting Power bonus set. Using a macro, when you are fighting Glads or Temps you switch to the Magical Boosting set, then when you are done back to the HP set. You should have 8k HP, 1350 Magical Resistance, 1200 Magical Accuracy, 1250 Magical Boosting Power would be good.Godstones: Out of 1% and 2% damage stones, I think 1% is better.

Tips from Player 중독된 보이, Server 페렌토, Lvl 50, Asmodian Defensive Gear: HP, Mboost, Concentration and even 1 more socketable gear (Abyss Gear would be good) Speed 22%+ Boots/ ASPD gloves are needed as well. Weapons: HP, Mboost, MAcc, and/or ASPD+ books. I trust that everyone knows why Sorcs need ASPD + (It gives casters faster spell motion, meaning lower aftercast delay). Manastones: Magical Resistance seemed best to me. To avoid being killed by Assassins, you need to avoid their stunning ability. Magical Resistance is helpful against them. I used buffs to get my hp upto 7k, but after experimenting, Magical Resistance was better against Assassins than HP. GodStones: I?d like to recommend 1% or 2% damage stones. Blind/silence/paralysis ones are too expensive, and compared to dual wielders you cant wait for the godstone effect to kick in. And with the exception of Paralysis, if you Blind/Silence assassins, they can just run and wait for the effect to expire, and too fast to catch them as well.

PS: New in Patch 1.5, some unique weapons have +Cast speed. These are nice, but not a must. In PvP, Sorcs are all about burst, not DPS pressure.

PvP Stigma PS: Its not in the guide, I had to find one on the list of comments because this section was somehow excluded? but the comment comes from one of the comm enters on most of the sections tho. Tips from Player 프리샤 and Mebby Lvl 50s The absolutely needed stigmas for Elyos areVaizel's Wisdom I - Skills - AionCurse: Tree I - Skills - AionBoon of Strengthening I - Skills - Aion (Elyos) or Boon of Quickness I - SkillsRest can be any of these, depending on your preferenceBarrier of Severance I - Skills - AionIce Sheet I - Skills - AionVolcanic Explosion (not in AionArmory, stigma version of Volcanic Eruption I - Skills - Aion, with stronger damage. AionArmory's damage for this skill is misleading, the non-stigma version has at least 3x+ damage, and the stigma has 4x+ damage)Boon of QuicknessCurse Tree: SleepBaizel's WisdomIce Sheet II

PvP Chat Tab RadarMake sure you drag it out to an easily visible location.This radar will let you know if any opposing faction members are within just outside of your visible range.
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3855/pcstat.jpg

Seed of Perception: Eating this seed will let you see enemies in its basic Hide mode for 10 seconds. (randomly gathered through various plants)

Crystal of Life: Recovers your Health by 5000. (randomly gathered from http://www.aionarmory.com/object.aspx?id=400208


Strats/Tactics

Against other classes . . .

Sorcerer Vs Templar

One of the most annoying opponents to deal with, the Templars. Not only do they have lots of HP, they have a skill that can raise magical resistance way up (Armor of Interception) So its not an opponent you can defeat within a short time. Time your condition skills with the time that their Armor of Interception would end, then plan your strategy from there. Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian Watch when that Armor of Interception comes down, then run down snare. The thing that makes Templars different than Glads in this aspect is that they have a skill that can release snare other than using a Greater CC Pot. Its Iron Skin and a skill that prevents anti-Flight magic (referring to Shield of Speed, look into Templar PvP thread). Snare, then use a shutdown condition, then deal damage. After this, you have go unload your instant cast skills then use a shutdown condition again, and repeat. Tips from Player 프리샤, Server Kasaka, Lvl 50, Elyos Use Stone Skins 4 min duration 2 min recharge time carefully, and Grace of Prot well. When the Templar throws a stunning strike, immediately use Greater CC Pot then get some distance while using Flame Cage I - Skills - Aion and Erosion I - Skills - Aion. You stop running when the Templars Armor of Interception runs out, then snare him with Restraint of Winter I - Skills - Aion or normal snare. Then turn on Baizel's Wisdom I - Skills - Aion, and unload Flame of Hell I - Skills - Aion and Volcanic Eruption I - Skills - Aion (note, actual Kor version damage is more than 4 times than this). These do a lot of damage, and if they eat it, it breaks down about half their hp. Then unload your quick and instant cast skills in any order. While they are running, if their Iron Skin has cooled off, turn on your Shock absorption scroll so you don't get Stunning Strike. For me, once I got 7k hp I could deal with a templar. Before I used to get burned. Anyway, using this method I usually win 1 on 1. Nothing much to add (except for a mistake when saying they are diff from glads because the can kill root other than with a cc pot, but glads can do too)

Sorcerer Vs Gladiators

You get the feeling that they are a little easier than Templars, but you should watch out for their Aerial Thrust! Just keep your distance. As usual, use shutdown condition, then unload some burst damage onto them. Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, AsmodianOnce the opponent gets out of snare with a Greater CC pot, make him a tree. Then go upto him and hit him with Winter Restraint. Reason being, if you attack him under tree state, the Tree stigma's enemy magical defense buff will kick in, doing less dmg. Once you've hit him with winter restraint, under this state he cant do much other than throw ranged chain. These attacks shoudn't hurt unless your Stone Skin is down. Use boon + Baizel's Wisdom, Then use Delayed Blast I - Skills - Aion > Lava Tsunami I - Skills - Aion > Flame of Hell I - Skills - Aion > Soul Freeze I - Skills - Aion > Frost I - Skills - Aion > Summon Cold Air I - Skills - Aion. If you even unload your DP skill, it's a damage amount impossible for Gladiators to survive. Tips from Player 프리샤, Server Kasaka, Lvl 50, Elyos Once you've used either Winter Restraint or Restraint and force him to use a CC pot, then restraint him with one of the two that you haven't used, turn on Baizel's then unload Flames of Hell and Volcanic Explosion, unless he doesn't have Armor of Balance. If he doesn't, turn him into a tree then put him to Aerial Thrust, and go from there. Their Aerial Thrust is instant, so you should kill them from a distance. You can remove their Ankle Snare I - Items - Aion with Dimension Door I - Skills - Aion, but in Aerial Thrust not really. If you've been Ankle snared and cant DDoor, use tree/sleep/Grace of Prot/Barrier of Severance, and go from there. Never ever count on your roots because they can CC pot and they CAN come out of another snare with a skill. Another thing to add is that if he lands his ankle snare on you and gains distance, dimension door is your friend. (aka blind leap)

Sorcerer vs Ranger

Scouts can use Hide, so to Sorcerers they are sworn enemies. Not only that, Rangers have longer range, so many times rangers gets the first attack opportunity. To fight rangers who can hide and fire devastating burst damage, using the Chat to your advantage will help a lot. Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, AsmodianUsing Silence, sleep, and hide ability, Rangers can pour explosive damage onto Sorcerers, leaving them wondering why they died. While you are fighting, if you receive criticals it will leave you speechless. If you don't receive criticals and your 3 second cast skills are recharged, you can fight them fine. But top notch 1% Rangers use sleep to interrupt the 3 second cast skills, making it mind-boggling to fight them. If you saw him first, unload your Frost (Severe Cold if you are Asmo) and other skills of same kind. If he saw you first, don't even look back and press that 3 second cast, or Dimension Door to make him lose target, then deal from there. Again a situation where if he gets the jump on you you will most likely die. Your invincibility spell can be used to distract and confuse and win you the fight. A nice strategy to confuse rangers is to hit your cast speed stigma then use invincibility, then blind leap to them and shut them down, by the time they react and target you again your shutdown would have landed already (since it is faster because of the stigma) after shutdown ranger=dead.

Sorcerer vs Assassin

They are called sworn enemies of Sorcerers: Assassins.

Even though Sorcerers skill line lets them defend against them, they are still very dangerous to the low HP class. If you've been hit with Ambush I - Skills - Aion and died in one chain, too bad. But if you see room, you must use Dimension Door, put him on shutdown condition then kill him with strong burst. Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian To Sorcerers they are a scary existence. They can use Throw Dagger I - Skills - Aion followed by one-kill chain. Also, the most of the top notch 1% assassins are now acquiring Paralysis Godstones. To avoid getting caught by this skill, two things you can do are raising Magical Resistance or using HP manastones. Once you've been stunned in air, you must get away quickly using restraints then go from there. Use Flame Cage DOT's to take down their evasion skills, Once they released their restraint with a Greater CC pot, if you can unload a Soul Freeze onto them, it makes the fight easier. While you are fighting during flight, get away using DOT's and Cold summonings. Tips from Player 중독된 보이, Server 페렌토, Lvl 50, Asmodian Using the Chat If you look in the chat tabs theres a tab named Combat. Take that out to another place in ur UI, go into options, click on Combat. Third, uncheck everything else, make the font colored Red, then click ChangeFlight If you are in flight, they cannot use Ambush. Do not bash on dimension door when he gets the jump on you, save your teleport because the assassin himself has a teleport(never use yours before he uses his, if he jumps you and you teleport he will do so and appear on your back stunning you and carry on) Instead, you have 2 rooting skills at your disposals and you will use both of them (because he will get out of one with a cc pot) Activate your shield again asap and pot and gain some distance, then use your shutdown and kill him. If when you gain distance he teleports, you teleport(after being out of stun, do not worry you will not die because you already survived the initial burst), and shutdown. The thing is that it is very hard to stay alive when the sin gets the drop on you (magic resist will save your life though). If you have ice sheet, then you can use it to always cover your back and expose them, remember that hide II has a 60 sec duration, a sin can't really stealth and roam around til he spots you from far and ambushes you. If you have a nice attention you will spot him too and ice sheet will cover you til he appears because he can't hide forever. (Although a sin can stealth from far and use his speed up ability that depletes his mana, but by the time he reaches you he would be out of mana)

Sorcerer vs Cleric

Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian. Just make him a tree. If you are out of range, snare him then make the room. Once they are a tree, you do the combo. The combo that everyone knows that I listed in .vs Gladiator. Nothing much to add except that a smart cleric will always keep going in and out of range making it very hard to shut him down, how do you solve this? Blind leap to him, shut him down.

Sorcerer vs Chanter

The reason may be that its so easy for Sorcerers to kill Chanters, but there wasn't any good suggestion on how to fight this class. The little amount of suggestion was really generic. However, to beat them, sorcs should follow the same tactics to beat Clerics. Easiest class to beat, just shut down and kill. Most of them will try to unload damage on you after they hit you with their stun. Not enough damage though, so just play around and have fun heheh.

Sorcerer vs Sorcerer

Same class. It will depend on whose shutdown conditions succeed.Knowing your class, it will be much easier to spot weaknesses. First sighted will put shutdown first, and deal damage first! Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian If you are fight the same Sorc class, the side who turns the other into a tree will be advantageous. If you can Freeze then Curse Tree, then owned he will be. If you've been caught with no Stone Skin available or low hp, restrain him then run. He will eat Greater CC then come after you. Once you've got some def and cooltimes down, fly once he comes close, then DDoor then use Soul Freeze. Or you can just suddenly stop running, use DDoor Freeze then Restraint of winter. Since he used Greater CC on Restraint earlier, he'd be unable to use magic. Then you know what to do. While you are still out of range, pop cast speed stigma blind leap to him and shut down and you win. If other sorcerer was smart he will also blind leap, then it becomes a game of who targets the other first and lands his shut down(you have the upper hand because you have faster cast, unless he did the same). Playing with soulfreeze here is not a big deal because both of you can pot it, but if you want to be sneaky you can use the soulfreeze just to gain like half a second over him(when he pots) for you to land your shutdown first.

Sorcerer vs Spiritmaster

Same Mage school, but one of the most annoying opponents.Especially you must avoid the Flight disabling skill and control disruption skills they possess. Try to hit them unnoticed.Tips from player 쏘스, Server Asphel, Lvl 33, 4th Sorcerer character If you think the opponent is lower lvl, less-experienced, or worse-equipped, then fight.Freeze (Spiritmaster's first skill to avoid against Sorcs) > Treee > Restraint > Soul Freeze > Burst damage.If you think it's a fair match or better, don't do it. Very hard to win.What you need to do is survive his instant fear, pot out of his silence, cast speed stigma blind leap to gain a precious few milliseconds and soulfreeze, then shut down.

Sorcerer Combat Manual
http://www.aionsource.com/forum/sorc...at-manual.html

Hope this helped some, enjoy!