Aion: closed beta journey (The Beginning)

As i prepare to enter the world of Atreia i find my self asking that one question every one must be faced with, "which class/race shall i play?".

Choosing a race was a no-brainer for me, it had to be the Elyos because even though the Asmodians look more badass i dislike some features they have such as the tail and the claws. When i put on some awesome armor i want it to look great and having claws instead of some cool looking boots ruins it for me.

When the original Aion was launched my first choice was a Ranger because i have a small fascination with bows, but since i have to play again from the start i might as well give it a try with a different perspective/gameplay.

 My initial thought was the Spirit Master, running around with cool pets, summoning lightning balls to hit my target and having some of control over opponents seamed like something i would enjoy. However i spent most of my Aion time playing with my girlfriend which happened to play with a Spirit Master, therefore i have a good understanding of how the gameplay is like. So i thought i should go with something i never actually played with.

Of all available classes most i knew to some degree because i had fought them in the past. The first rule of PvP "know your enemy", if you can foresee what he will do a you can try to prevent it. How ever i somehow didn't had any memory of fighting any Chanter so i got curious about it. The closest i ever got to a chanter was the time i played a Prophet in Lineage 2, back then it was interesting to have the best buffs and be able to dual-wield(wish Chanters could do it too) with awesome attack speed... and so i decided to try the Chanter.

As an Elyos the beginning is played for the first 10 levels in Poeta, it is a beautiful area to play however it becomes rather dull because you will be playing the basic class(priest in my case) of your choice. This zone functions as a tutorial area and for you to get acquainted to the most basic game mechanics.

From previous experience the game has some interesting lore if you are into such thing, however the beginning is a bit of a cliche... you start as a recruit with amnesia and you will go around helping the locals while slowly regaining your lost memories.

Quests in this game are fairly typical consisting of "kill x mobs","get xx items from mob Y" and "talk to W" however there are some gathering quests as well (ex:collect 10 iron) and you also get a little XP each time you gather something, but it does not come close to the XP gained from a mob and the quest rewards are lacking.

Speaking of gathering reminds me of one thing i hate in this new "free-to-play" model. Apparently basic free accounts can NOT trade with players, can NOT gather more than 50 times per day and have NO access to the Auction House, thankfully beta testers and old players automatically gain Veteran status which have no such limits.

Hope you enjoyed the reading, I will do an update soon as beta continues!

Update: check out the continuation on Aion: closed beta journey (part 2)