Wings Over Atreia: Community roundup

This week's trip through the Aionosphere will take a bit of a different approach, in part because I'm busy taking the advice of many of you from last week's column and leveling up an alt or three in order to ward off the post-40 grinding blues, but also because I'd like the community to become more involved in the column as a whole. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Boy, this guy doesn't have a damn thing to say, and he's either running right up to the deadline or suffering from writer's block. Well, you're half right. I did scrape pretty close to the deadline (just because low-level Chanters are a lot of fun and it's double XP this weekend), but I also fancy gathering a gaggle of good questions and getting them answered every few weeks.

Anyhow, this week we'll take a look at some of the noteworthy happenings around the Aion community over the past few days, and then we'll open things up for some of the best questions from the past few weeks. As a reminder, you can hit me up via jef [AT]massively[DOT]com with any Aion-related questions or comments. If I can't answer them (or at least finagle my way around them with some deft word-smithing) I'll forward them on to someone at NCSoft who can, and we'll print them in a future column.

Hit the jump for a roundup of recent community happenings that you might have missed, as well as a few burning reader questions.

Official Eye on Community

The official site's Notices page is one of those spots that dedicated Aion players should check on a weekly basis. In addition to notices about upcoming bonus weekends and other events, the community team fields a question from the player base and responds on the site. This week's question came from Deschy on the Telemachus server:

"Why was the option to post comments on our character profile/Aion live status removed, and will it come back in some way?"

NCSoft: "We've temporarily disabled our comment system to protect our users from a new initiative from RMT organizations. These companies have begun spamming our players' comments with advertisements and phishing links. Unfortunately, we currently have no effective way to combat this annoying behavior. Rather than let it get out of control, we turned off the comment feature before the spamming and phishing in character comments became a larger issue."

One thread to rule them all

There's a titanic twenty-one page thread ongoing over at the official forums, covering the always incendiary topic of perceived faction imbalance. Players rolled Elyos because they have better world bosses, or they rolled Asmo for superior stigmas, or the Elyos have an easier leveling curve, or the system gives an advantage to the first faction to take the Upper Abyss. Whew. Whatever your perspective on the issues, let's hope NCSoft has plenty of bandwidth since the 200+ post thread is showing no signs of slow down.

Approximated population counts

Over at Aion Source, speculation always run rampant about the number of folks playing the game at any given time. As with most MMORPGs, NCSoft keeps their subscription numbers under lock and key, so it was interesting to track this thread and see what kind of numbers people were coming up with using the in-game friend tools. As you would expect (and despite the thread's sub-title), a certain amount of trolling was inevitable, but there is interesting reading to be found nonetheless.

Cross-Faction Roleplay Discussion

You can always count on roleplayers to bring the drama (I mean that with all possible affection, by the way, since I am one myself), and this thread over at Aion Roleplayers doesn't disappoint. Cross-faction contact of any kind results in death 99.999% of the time, and whether it's followed with tea-bagging, translator-assisted smack talk, or politeness, wing feathers tend to get ruffled. Whether you're looking for some interesting ideas for your own clandestine roleplay events, or just want to eavesdrop, this thread delivers.

And now, your questions...

Finally this week, we'll dig deep into the mail bag and see what kind of questions are nyerking with the minds of Wings Over Atreia's readers.

JG asks:
What's with all the horrible PUGs in this game? Am I the only one sick of paying millions to Soul Heal because people can't play their class?Got any ideas to help poke them into better playing? Or am I doomed to solo?

Actually that's four questions JG, but all fair. Unfortunately they depend heavily on your server and as such are difficult to answer with any certainty. On the surface, Aion seems like a simple PvE game, with the standard attack combos, boss mobs, and dungeons. That said, it can be very unforgiving to those who don't do at least a little research and planning. Situational awareness is the key. You've got to know what mob is hitting your healer, your camera needs to be zoomed out to the max and constantly rotating around your group, and you've got to have a competent tank that can hold aggro and preferably knows the area layout and the mob paths in the dungeons. I'd recommend trying out a good guild if you're having trouble with PUGs, or if that doesn't work, taking command of your group and gently reminding the newbs to pay attention and follow orders. If all else fails, roll a tank or a healer yourself. There are never enough competent group leaders among the general populace.

Stinson_of_Lumiel writes:
When do you think NCSoft is going to come out with 1.9, and what the nyerk is taking so long?

Another good one, and another difficult one to pin down. I'd like to say that they're taking this long in order to test and polish, and the result will be a patch that brings world peace, feeds the hungry, and brings droves of subscribers back to the world of Atreia. The reality is that we just don't know, and it's not for lack of sending out an army of Shugo spies, many of whom died to bring us this lack of information. Seeing as how the patch has been live in Korea for some time, and Tamat has gone on record over at Aion Source with an estimate of the first half of 2010, it can't be too far off. I know that doesn't directly answer your question, but if it makes you feel any better, we can both be frustrated together.

Ebon Hawk asks:
I'm relatively new to MMOs, and my girlfriend has never played at all. She loves the look of the game and we're both excited, but neither of us know what to pick. What would you recommend the two of us pick in terms of classes?

The easy answer is one of you roll a Cleric and the other, well, anything. A healer plus one is a good combo in any game, and in Aion it's a great combo due to the fact that Clerics are, how can I put this diplomatically, extremely strong. PvE leveling will be a breeze (though you'd actually go faster solo in the early levels), and PvP survivability isn't bad depending on how well you research your classes. It really depends on your goals though. I've seen two rangers absolutely dominate in PvP and PvE, I've seen Spiritmasters use their pet as a tank and effectively team up with a damage dealing class, really the possibilities are endless. The only thing I wouldn't do is roll two tanks. A pair of templars could probably bore the mobs to death, but it wouldn't be my idea of fun.

That's our time for this week, folks, thanks for checking in with us. We'll be back next week for another installment of Wings Over Atreia, including an update on that murderous post-40 sorcerer grind as well as a look at the Elyos low lands through the eyes of my shiny new Chanter. Until then, keep the blue side up.

Look! Up in the air! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a snarky Daeva! Join Jef Reahard every Monday for news and views from the world of Aion. Whether he's soaring over the battlefield or hunkered down in the trenches, Jef is your combat correspondent in the world of Atreia.