Guide to Aion for World of Warcraft Tourists and Visitors

World of Warcraft has become the quintessential elite of the MMO world. The relatively new creation from NCSoft called Aion, although particularly different, has made its mark as well. This small and somewhat generalized guide will give you an inside look to what the game is about, with the unadulterated bias of an ex World of Warcraft player.

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The game centralizes around three races: The Elyos of Elysea, the Asmodians of Asmodae, and Balaur of the Abyss. Their world, Atreia, has been severely altered by the destruction of the Tower of Eternity, splitting their planet into three very unique pieces. Elysea, the home of the beautiful and radiant Elyos is bathed in the constant light of a nearby star, therefore creating a prosperous and illuminated existence. The dark residence of Asmodae, the Asmodians, reside on the upper half of the broken world, no longer touched by the rays of the sun. Descended from the Elyos, they have evolved into a new race. Equipped with claws, flowing manes and fearful glowing red eyes they are somewhat reminiscent of the undead in Warcraft. The Balaur are known as the dark ones. Once the protectors of the Atreia, they have changed into an evil race bent on destruction. Dont forget though, both races can fly!

The main difference between Aion and World of Warcraft is that Aion is more focused on PVP and the escalating tensions between the Elyos and Asmodians. Your quests, cities and main content are all centralized on the plot line of either defending your race against the other faction, and the Balaur. Any attempt to avoid the other faction, besides the starting areas, is extremely difficult. The inability to see the other races level at any stage and the lack of punishment for killing players twenty levels lower than you would make this game unpleasurable for those who dislike player versus player based games.

Starting off you are able to pick four very general classes in which allows you to embark on your human journey into ascension at level ten.

Warrior

Templar - The templar is your all around tank. Being able to specialize in swords, maces and great-swords they usually wield a sword and shield. They also tend to hold hate better (that's rage for you WoW players), have better blocking abilities and have overall more hitpoints. All in all, this is your protection spec warrior.

Gladiator - This class is your arms or furry warrior. Being able to equip almost every wepon in game, you are a DPS machine. The ability to wear plate allows you to take copious amounts of damage and most often times be an excellent off tank.

Scout

Assassin - The assassin is your rouge class. With the abilities of stealth, poison and most moves being completed on the targets back, this class can deal out a large amount of damage. Unlike the gladiators though, they wear leather and can go down fast.

Ranger - Equipping a bow and arrow, this is the only ranged physical DPS class in Aion. The downside of this class is you get no pet and constantly have to kite mobs around. Yet, on the positive side, you get many slows, snares and debuffs that you can stack on targets making the Ranger one of the hardest classes to kill.

Mage

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Spiritmaster - This is your warlock. Being able to summon an assortment of pets (fire, water, earth and water pets), they are one of the best soloing classes.

Sorcerer - A mage by any standard, they are adpet in all the elemental magics. Being able to push out massive amounts of damage in a short time, they are the best burst damage in game. Watch out though, they are squishy.

Priest

Chanter - Your basic paladin, this class has a large array of buffs and can DPS and tank pretty well while soloing.

Cleric - Clerics are the overall best healers in the game. Armed with heals over time, instant heals, and various buffs, they are a necessity in every group or PvP battle. Basically your holy priest, they have little DPS capabilities until higher level

Questing in Aion is pretty much identical to World of Warcraft. The main difference being that there are three types: campaign, work orders and regular quests. Campaign quests are placed in certain intervals while you level, popping up automatically. They usually follow a main storyline while helping you progress through your own characters lore. They give you some pretty amazing gear, experience and gold also. Work orders are quests specifically designed to help you level your crafting and all in all are the best way to level your progressions, which could otherwise, be very time consuming and expensive. That leaves regular quests which can be found in all the cities hubs and remote locations. They can consist of your basic collection quests, killing quests and even repeatable quests that can be done 100 times over.

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