Aion is something I have been involved in from the very beginning of its life and I just wanted to take a chance to look back and evaluate how the game has progressed over the two years it has been out. Originally Aion was supposed to be this groundbreaking MMO that would bring a lot of new stuff to the table for gamers everywhere and provide a solid alternative to WoW's deathgrip on the MMO market. Sadly I don't feel Aion delivered in the way people were hoping it would. Aion had a lot of good ideas that were executed rather poorly, the main thing being the grind. While each small part of Aion was good in its own respect it was hampered by a lack of content making leveling a new character extremely time consuming and frustrating. This was the reason I had to unsub for several months, it was too much of a time sink to balance with college and still get my money's worth. There were also numerous other issues with the game's pvp structure which was just messed up completely. Air combat was dominated mostly by the ranged classes and the ground pvp dominated by the melee classes, namely the assassin with its unbreakable stun lock combo'd and its already fast and heavy attacks, it left most opponents unable to even use a single skill before they were utterly destroyed. Rift based pvp also suffered a frustrating fate with the sheer number of twinks (people who would purposely gear up at a lower level and not progress in order to keep killing lower level players) they would sing all sorts of songs to justify doing this but in reality it was just a psychological cushion so they wouldn't get shredded by other players. Twinking made the already difficult leveling process almost impossible with every major leveling area being camped almost 24/7 by people who would convince themselves that what they were doing was PvP and not griefing.
So, I was a little frustrated with Aion when I left but once the summer hit I resubbed and got my first character to level 50...then 1.9 came out and changed the dynamics of pvp entirely. As I previously mentioned, the Assassin class was insanely difficult to beat if one got the drop on you and locked you up with multiple stuns. So in 1.9 NCsoft decided it was time to take a dump on them...by adding a skill for every class called Remove Shock. This skill completely changed the dynamics and strategies employed in pvp since it allowed players to escape from a single stun and gain a buff that made them resistant to said stuns for 8 seconds. Needless to say...this threw a wrench into the gameplay that the Assassin revolved around and it was no small nerf, this butchered the class almost entirely. Not trying to say I have a better idea on how to balance things but within 8 seconds of not being able to stun people most assassins would be dead before they had a chance to do much. This gave rise to a new standard of pvp...Gladiator and Sorceror dominance. With the ability to evade stunlocks these two classes became immensely difficult to kill for anyone outside of other ranged or caster classes and even now, a year or more later, they are still top tier for pvp. The way "balancing" has worked for pvp is essentially creating one powerhouse after another and leaving certain classes in the dust (Assassins and Chanters mainly).
Where has Aion gone since 1.9? There have been three more updates that were noteworthy, 2.0, 2.5, and 2.6. 2.0 introduced the ground abyss, a pvp area with new forts to siege and very little flight pvp outside of one or two areas. This was a great addition to the game for people who did not like to rift excessively or fight in the air due to the dominance of the ranged classes. 2.5 took things a step further and added new skills for each class which changed pvp even more, but for the better this time. 2.6 was a very recent update which was mostly a pve centered update so I won't talk too much about it since this is being written from the perspective of a pvping Assassin but it added more ways to gear yourself up as well as level.
Has Aion gotten better over time? You bet! It has been a bumpy road for sure and I was pretty negative while writing this but I love Aion its a great game and it has been made much more accessable to the more casual player and many changes have been made for both pve and pvp alike. Every class has a shot in pvp at this point in time and it has created a very fun, fast paced pvp environment that is in constant flux.
Where is Aion going from here? Well 2.7 is the next big step with the addition of a pvp arena for both solo and small group pvp. Aion had taken some flak due to it being centered on group pvp rather than solo but now even us solo pvpers have a place to call home. Its an exciting update that is adding more pvp gear and more pvp in general. Next is 3.0, this is the biggest projected update for Aion and people have been drooling over it since the vision trailer was released so long ago depicting epic sieges on home cities, houses, new classes, new weapons, new game mechanics, etc. From my perspective Aion can only keep getting better! Thanks for reading!
-Fest
