Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Dredgion: Why it's my favorite Aion instance

Chantra Dredgion,  or C Dredge,  its nickname,  is an Aion instance for players lvl 51 and up.  There's another Dredgion,  known as Baranath Dredgion or O dredge (Old Dredgion) for players lvl 46-51.
 I discovered O Dredge at lvl 46,  when the game first offers it via an entry option icon in the player interface.  I've been running it daily ever since!  Why?  IMO, a number of reasons make this instance a contender for the best in Aion.  First,  and I think this is a very important one,  it only takes 30-40 min. of time.  This is great for casual players who want to accomplish something in the game and not spend all day playing, which is what many things in Aion are geared towards.   Second,  it offers an element of competition found nowhere else in the game.  It's a competition between both opposing races,  Elyos and Asmodian,  to see who gets the most points.  These points  are transformed into earned Abyss points at the end of the instance,  which brings me to the third reason.  Dredge is the best way to get AP (Abyss points) in the game.  Again,  this is my opinion,  but I think many players would agree that if you want to bulk up on AP in order to get PVP (player vs. player) gear, or anything else that requires large amounts of AP,  such as advanced stigmas,  then Dredge is the way to go.  Some might argue that going out and PVPing is a better way,  and it may be for some,  but not all,  players of the game.  In order to get alot of AP through PVPing,  you have to make alot of kills without getting killed.  If you get killed in PVP,  you lose AP based on your rank.  Therefore making major amounts of AP through PVP is only an option for those with the full set of PVP gear. 
The fourth and final reason that dredge is my favorite is the fact that it's different every time.  For all the times I've run it,  and I haven't kept count but it must be around 200 by now at least,  it's always a little different,  which is what keeps it from becoming boring. 

Monday, August 29, 2011

A Few Thoughts About Miragent Gear


Me in my old Miragent boots
 Hooray!  I finally got rid of my Miragent boots!  They had no speed boost at all - pathetic for level 50 or higher.  The pic on the left is me wearing the Miragents.   After lvl 46 or so,  most all boots have speed boost.  You might ask why I got them if I knew they didn't have speed boost.  Well,  the Miragent armor is part of an entire set,  which has extra benefits for every piece collected.  The Asmodian equivalent of Miragent is Fenris.  At level 50,  the game offers both
races the opportunity to collect the set through the completion of a chain of quests to obtain both the armor and weapons and the title "Miragent Holy Templar" or "Fenris' Fang".   I thought that I'd quest for the whole set,  and put up with the lack of speed for only a short amount of time,  but I never got that far.  The quest chain after the first 2 pieces (boots and gloves) is incredibly demanding.  The third quest,  which is for the shoulderguards,  asks you to get 40 quest drops off of mobs in Theobomos 30 times!  As if that isn't bad enough,  the mobs don't drop the quest item on each kill,  so that's over 1200 kills the game is asking for,  just for a pair of shoulderguards that you also have to pay a certain amount for in the form of an oath stone,  which costs $4 million.  It just wasn't for me,  so I dropped it,  but I was stuck with the boots for 5 levels, because I was too busy upgrading other pieces of my gear.  It was a real drag being so slow for so long,  especially being an assassin,  which requires as much movement and attack speed as possible.  I used tons of running scrolls.  So what'd I replace them with?  A pair of Deft Leader's lvl 55 boots from the new mentor series armor.  I'm back to running fast again without a scroll!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Intro

Me at level 50 - the Graceful Sword was really beautiful!
I've been playing Aion since November 2010.  I bought the game for my birthday,  not knowing a thing about it.  I just liked the picture on the front :) - I didn't know it was an MMO and that there was a monthly fee,  I just wanted a new game to play.  When I got home and set it up and saw that I had to commit to a payment plan,  I was annoyed.  I hadn't wanted all that.  I was mad at myself for not reading the package more carefully and I knew that taking it back was gonna be a hassle  - software returns always are.  So,  with that in mind, I signed up.  And I've been playing ever since.  It's a great game,  which is why I've started this blog.  I'm a lvl 55 Elyos Assassin on the Siel server.  My legion is Guardian Deavas.