Aion : all questing and no grind until level ...

[Moorea]

Contrary to popular FUD, there is no "grind" required to play Aion in my personal actual US release game play experience (as opposed to what people have read on some random blog that was talking about the CN or KR or beta releases maybe)

I will update this post as I level but for now I can tell you you can do

Level 1 to Level 25

with 2 players grouped, which means 1/2 the kill xp on each, ie much smaller xp from kills than solo players, without ever running out of quests

For that you need to :

1-11:
start and finish the ascension quest as soon as you hit 9 then come back and finish all the starter zone quests (which will bring you to 11 or so) before going to the next zone

11-21:
do the 18-20 group quests - it's an MMO - find a group

don't go to the 20+ hub zone before you're done with previous zone - you should easily be 21 before you leave the second zone (including back and forth with the city)

do the collection quests (or buy the items if you don't want to gather them)

do visit the quest hubs more than once; MANY quest open only after you finish some and have high enough level - also EXPLORE as some quest givers aren't right by the flight paths or town

21-25:
go to both zones that open up - you should end up with maxing out your quest log - got 29/30 quests without trying at 22/23...

[Sajuuk]

You're not asmodian. :)

[Mevlock]

You could do all this in the original 1.0 release of the game. Everyone who has any experience with the betas or Chinese servers knows you can easily quest all the way to at least 25.

The grind doesn't start to kick in till after that. What they have supposedly done however for the release we have is added in a ton more quests to alleviate this. If you can confirm this then great, however the only two people I know who were playing quit after 30 due to there still being far too much grind and not enough quests.

They're not the most experienced of gamers however and it's quite possible they sucked at finding all the quest hubs ;) So please do keep us updated I'd much rather be wrong on this and get my CE opened up:)

[Moorea]

Yes I'm sure the grind is always starting 2-5 level higher than my current level - as it was claimed to start at 16, then 19, then 21 and now 25... we'll see I guess but it's a nice tactic as obviously it will take a long time to disprove (the time it will take me to casually get to 50 ?... though hopefully naysayers will stop at some point and move on to bash some other game)

That or the other bullshit that ncsoft would have put significantly less quests on 1 faction than the other... right... according to aionarmory there are 469 normal Asmo quests 1-20 and 459 Elyos ones... hopefully that debunks another myth

http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=4.2&filters=204=20;230=1
http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=4.2&filters=204=20;230=2

[Mokoi]

Yes I'm sure the grind is always starting 2-5 level higher than my current level - as it was claimed to start at 16, then 19, then 21 and now 25... we'll see I guess but it's a nice tactic as obviously it will take a long time to disprove (the time it will take me to casually get to 50 ?... though hopefully naysayers will stop at some point and move on to bash some other game)

That or the other bullshit that ncsoft would have put significantly less quests on 1 faction than the other... right... according to aionarmory there are 469 normal Asmo quests 1-20 and 459 Elyos ones... hopefully that debunks another myth

http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=4.2&filters=204=20;230=1
http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=4.2&filters=204=20;230=2


I'm inclined to agree, to all the people shutting down discussion of Aion because of what they read or experienced on Beta servers needs to STFU until you play live and hit a plateau in quests YOURSELF with a record of what quests you skipped / hubs you didnt find. Then your opinions will carry some weight.

Also, Aion is NOT WoW and the game does not START at 50, there is tons to do before you max your characters level and that's half the fun. If you don't like Aion because you played it and have reasons, fine. Since US release is only one week in, I suggest that anyone telling us that Aion sucks clearly hasn't spent enough time playing.

[Rin]

It's all in perception though, Moorea. Surely you can understand that. Maybe Aion is not a grind to YOU. That's your view, no one will try and change it. Yes, there will be others that disagree with it, but does it impact YOUR game play? I'd hope not.

FYI - There is a current discussion about levels 20-24 and the confirmed facts (on current North American servers, as of last week), that you need to grind 1.xx million exp after doing quests in these levels. I believe that I linked/quoted that in our last discussion (the 2nd quote, not the first one that was illustrative of the beta servers, as you have mentioned). Perhaps your experience has been different because you've gained significant amounts of exp while grouping? Or, maybe Aion isn't a grind to you - and hopefully it will never be.

Again, what it comes down to is perception and the fact that many of us have been spoiled with WoW. As I've said before, Aion leveling is more like the original EQ leveling. That's how it feels to me, and that's how I would explain it to others that were going to try the game. Is leveling hard? No. Is it tedious? Not if you've played the original EQ or even AC. Would it be tedious if you're expecting a WoW type leveling experience? Probably.

It's a kickass game though, and we're not debating that, but I still don't think that we'll ever come to terms on the leveling curve in this game.

Best,

[Moorea]

What you quoted rin is totally flawed and I replied in that thread - counting quest xp reward and saying there is a gap as opposed to actually completing the quest, which, oh suprise involves killing some mobs; which oh amazing; .... give xp ! wow... what a concept... the fact is you can level by only doing the quests

Ok so it started "aion is a grind starting at level 16" and now we're to a slightly more reasonable "well, yes actually there are plenty of quests but I still feel I ding slower than wow" 1 level in aion != 1 level in wow - so yes if you want the exact same leveling exeperience in a new game and not finding it makes you quit - so be it - but please don't go around posting fake information about grinding... and the reason for which I care - and it could affect my experience is that fake or bad word of mouth can kill a game - and if nobody plays it it won't grow and that will affect all players (and innovation in the industry)

saying it's kick ass but requires grind I love is a backhanded compliment which actually deters player from discovering a great game

I don't think it is tedious at all - I enjoy seeing all those zones and quests and mob for the first time - if you want tedious go do 71->80 pure questing in northrend just after you zapped through 1-70 thx for "adapted" curves compared to original releases - the first 68 levels go so fast you get the wrong expectation for the last 10, but that's wow's problem... Aion game play as Mokoi pointed out is not starting at cap level... enjoy the ride and quests along the way

[pinotnoir]

Aion reminds me totally of EQ2. I quit Eq2 at level 20. I am having a tough time logging in Aion now. Partly because I have no idea how anything works. The stats on gear is totally confusing and I have yet to figure out how to craft.

[Fat Tire]

What you quoted rin is totally flawed and I replied in that thread - counting quest xp reward and saying there is a gap as opposed to actually completing the quest, which, oh suprise involves killing some mobs; which oh amazing; .... give xp ! wow... what a concept... the fact is you can level by only doing the quests

Ok so it started "aion is a grind starting at level 16" and now we're to a slightly more reasonable "well, yes actually there are plenty of quests but I still feel I ding slower than wow" 1 level in aion != 1 level in wow - so yes if you want the exact same leveling exeperience in a new game and not finding it makes you quit - so be it - but please don't go around posting fake information about grinding... and the reason for which I care - and it could affect my experience is that fake or bad word of mouth can kill a game - and if nobody plays it it won't grow and that will affect all players (and innovation in the industry)

saying it's kick ass but requires grind I love is a backhanded compliment which actually deters player from discovering a great game

I don't think it is tedious at all - I enjoy seeing all those zones and quests and mob for the first time - if you want tedious go do 71->80 pure questing in northrend just after you zapped through 1-70 thx for "adapted" curves compared to original releases - the first 68 levels go so fast you get the wrong expectation for the last 10, but that's wow's problem... Aion game play as Mokoi pointed out is not starting at cap level... enjoy the ride and quests along the way


Ahh, now I finally understand why you dont want anyone posting their opinions on Aion unless they coincided with your own.

[Moorea]

Ahh, now I finally understand why you dont want anyone posting their opinions on Aion unless they coincided with your own.
You understand I don't like lies - good. I don't like trolls either so maybe stay away ?

[NegativeX]

I originally thought there was a grind as well, but even past 30, I have not had to grind at all.

As Moorea stated, there's many times you have to go back to NPC camps to find quests, or even go crawl through your main city.

At 20 I hit a brick wall with no quests, then I went to Pandemonium and sure enough, found a couple quests that opened up a whole butt load of quest chains.

Quests are indeed perhaps a tad harder to search for in Aion versus WoW, but WoW IMHO has made one of the most laziest MMO player base in history and it shows these days. People need to unlearn the easy mode that WoW has introduced and realize not all games are meant to be ran through in a month... but then again, perhaps Aion isn't the game for you, and that's ok! Not everyone is going to have the same opinion, likes and dislikes on somethings... people need to realize that's perfectly acceptable.

But personally, I enjoy the increased time, work, effort and challenge Aion brings to the table. I work full time, manage a company and have a mortgage to pay, but I don't mind the time required to level in Aion.

I came from games like UO, EQ1, AC and DAoC, so I suppose I'm used to it...

All in all, if you're out of quests, go hunting for more in your main city... or back at old camps. It's more then likely you will find a lot more quests to get you through the level.

Now if only I can get Keyclone to work in full, lol...


:edit:

Woot, Keyclone is working 100%!

[Souca]

I'm inclined to agree, to all the people shutting down discussion of Aion because of what they read or experienced on Beta servers needs to STFU until you play live and hit a plateau in quests YOURSELF with a record of what quests you skipped / hubs you didnt find. Then your opinions will carry some weight.

Also, Aion is NOT WoW and the game does not START at 50, there is tons to do before you max your characters level and that's half the fun. If you don't like Aion because you played it and have reasons, fine. Since US release is only one week in, I suggest that anyone telling us that Aion sucks clearly hasn't spent enough time playing.

I played beta. Release *is* different than beta. I could tell by level three that they had added quests and changed the progression rate.

You can get into situations where you don't seem to have any quests, but thats not really the case. You have them, they are just at lower level areas you skipped or a hub you haven't visited, or chained off of a campaign quest you haven't finished.

As for the grinding starting with the Abyss levels; I can't comment as I haven't gotten past 25 yet. I haven't heard any complaints from guild mates, but that doesn't prove anything. I do know that instances and pvp start at 25, so it is possible that your ability to level solo and pve diminishes as your group and pvp opportunities increase. Once again, just conjecture.

- Souca -

[Moorea]

:edit:

Woot, Keyclone is working 100%!

You mean maximizer works correctly (doesn't scale incorrectly when removing frame or changing size)

and all keys, including space bars can be sent and work ? (ie you can double tap and have 2 toons glide?) - I'd like to see that

In my experience neither work so far (yet it's still boxable)

(maybe we should move that discussion to a different thread though)

[NegativeX]

You mean maximizer works correctly (doesn't scale incorrectly when removing frame or changing size)

and all keys, including space bars can be sent and work ? (ie you can double tap and have 2 toons glide?) - I'd like to see that

In my experience neither work so far (yet it's still boxable)

(maybe we should move that discussion to a different thread though)


I'll try those things this evening... but 100% working for my immediate needs I suppose. ;)

[Moorea]

Without trying; I'm level 23; reached with quests only (at 1/2 kill xp again) and I have ***29*** quests left to do in my quest log...

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_VMUAeYUcLwc/SsxHpC24nwI/AAAAAAAAAWM/1sDqBEe_eL0/Aion0085.jpg

[Rin]

Moorea,

For a better analysis, can you list the number of completed quests you did in each zone? I think if you click on the "In Progress" tab and switch it over to completed, we can compare numbers. I probably wont be able to get back with you until Monday (I'm on a biz trip in LA atm), but I'd like to know the # of quests completed in each zone, because on my Sorc, I did all of those quests that you currently have open in your log.

Best,

[pinotnoir]

There are many repeatable quest. The quest turn in is very low xp but they are basically grind quest.. Kill this or kill that. I think some of my repeatable quest give 12k xp and killing monsters gives maybe 4k a kill. So killing 3 mobs nets you the same xp as completing the quest.

[Moorea]

as I said I didn't do any repeatable more than once; except for the coin (2x) and the krall one (maybe 2x or 3x) and the city one a few times when going back and forth - ie again - no grind

as far as completed quests: I have 147 regular quests completed - it's painful to count by hand but did it for you and that includes 75 quests in Verteron

ps: the screenshot above only shows the elten quests but not the theobomos ones - there are as many there too

[CGuru]

Aion is quite a grind and it only gets worse the higher level you get. There is hope though the latest test Korean test server build they have increased XP from quests by a huge amount.

Here is an comparison of the new and old quest XP.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk315/DCynic/lulz.jpg

This is just on the Korean test server and it is unsure if and/or when the update will come to the NA servers.
It looks like NCSoft is trying to improve their game.

edit: I found this information in this thread Incoming Updates to 1.5 (XP Boosts and Flying Beasts o_O) (http://www.aionsource.com/forum/news-announcements/73690-incoming-updates-1-5-xp-boosts-flying-beasts-o_o.html)

[Rin]

as I said I didn't do any repeatable more than once; except for the coin (2x) and the krall one (maybe 2x or 3x) and the city one a few times when going back and forth - ie again - no grind

as far as completed quests: I have 147 regular quests completed - it's painful to count by hand but did it for you and that includes 75 quests in Verteron

ps: the screenshot above only shows the elten quests but not the theobomos ones - there are as many there too


Oops! Sorry Moorea, didn't mean to make you count them by hand. I haven't done any of the theobomos quests yet on my Sorcerer.

[Moorea]

np rin, so how many completed quests do you have in verteron ? (and how many total) - you should go to theobomos before you're too high level (then come back to etlen as that zone goes higher)

[Moorea]

update: got to 25 and still plenty of quests - 23 and 24 were a bit slow because there are a bunch of 20-21-22 quests and mobs which are not giving much xp compared to what is needed for leveling - I abandoned a fair number to focus on the higher level quests