Aion: The Tower of Eternity - Details emerge on the Spiritmaster class

I have some good news for the non-Korean speaking foozles interested in NCsoft's upcoming Aion: The Tower of Eternity, due out late next year in NA/UK. Over the weekend new details emerged on the elusive Spiritmaster, one of the eight classes planned at release. The Spiritmaster will indeed be a summoning based magic class, but what makes it stand-out is it will derive its prowess from the elements of nature by summoning and controlling fierce creatures based on the elements of Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. (A little cliché if you ask me, but isn't most Fantasy? What really matters is that the class is fun to play...)

As for what roles are best suited for each elemental: Fire spirits specialize in ranged attacks; Earth spirits will master various defensive measures; Water spirits focus on healing and limiting damage; Wind spirits will focus on melee and slaying their opponents quick. For balance purposes, only one elemental may be actively summoned. It is said that certain encounters will call for a specific elemental to be used as to provide more reactionary and visceral gameplay. Aion: The Tower of Eternity is set to begin closed NA/UK beta-testing in early 2008.

I embedded three Aion videos after the break that show the Spiritmaster's summoned Fire, Earth, and Water elementals. (In that order).

%Gallery-11511%

I hardly knew anything about Aion, aside from some screenshots I saw from last year. It's still too early to tell if I will play this MMOG since it will have a monthly fee. I'm planning on playing WAR and AoC when they launch next year, and well, I already play several other MMOs I don't plan on giving them up for Aion. NCsoft really needs to offer an affordable flat-fee subscription rate to all their MMOs. SOE already does, which is smart since the MMOG market is only going to become a lot more competitive. What about you? Any Massively readers looking forward to playing Aion?

[via, Aion Source]