My Latest Findings on the Stigma Threshold

Yesterday I finished grinding the 60 mobs needed for the quest "Cracking the Stigma Threshold".  As I mentioned in an earlier post,  I had no problems with the drop rate,  its just a long quest to complete.  When I turned in the quest to Reemul in Inngison I got the answer to the question of how many times would I have to repeat this quest.  The answer is 4.  The quest requires that you grind 60 mobs 5 times.  I haven't started on round 2 yet,  but I'm curious to see whether or not the drop rate changes on the repeat quests.  I'll continue to update this subject as I move through it.  Here's a pic of one of the 4 different mobs you can kill


A Haze Spirit in Conqueror's Ravine

 to get your quota of 60.  I took this in hide,  as its a pre-emptive creature and I wanted a close up.

Aion Turns Two!




A Close Up of the Awsome Cake!

  Aion's release to North America and Europe turned 2 this month and NCsoft is throwing a party in the form of an event.  They call it the "Ascension Festival" and its running from 9/21 - 10/26.  In many ways this event
is like the "Scorching Heat" event from earlier in the summer,  where a token of energy (ascension energy for this event) accumulates in the player's inventory automatically while they're logged in playing the game.  One
energy accumulates every 20 -30 min.  The least expensive gifts are 30 and 50 energies,  and they're   surprise boxes with a possibility of 13 different prizes.  The rest of the prizes require more energies,  100 and upwards,  and consist of outfits and weapon skins,  some of which were previously only obtainable by cash purchase on the website.  This brings me to the difference between the Scorching Heat event and this event.


Me talking to the NPC of the Ascension Anniversary Event

 In Scorching Heat,  all the prizes were surprises - you didn't know what you would get.  In this event you know its gonna be from a preset group of prizes,  or you decide what to buy with your tokens.  I personally liked the element of surprise,  but I think alot of people appreciate the right to decide what to buy with their "energies".  I've only got 10 accumulated so far,  so I"m not sure what I'm gonna buy yet.  I'll post my purchases later in the event. 

Level 55 Advanced Stigma Quest

The other day while playing,  someone on LFG was complaining hard about the drop rate for the advanced stigma quest called "Cracking the Stigma Threshold". She made it seem like the item you need,  ensouled aether,  almost never drops, and you need 60 of them.  I started to get a little worried because I have that quest and I hadn't even started it yet!   The next day I decided to start on it so I could see for myself if she was right and finally start work on getting my last stigma slot.  Well,  I'm pleased to report that for me the drop rate was good,  about 4 out of 6 mobs dropped the item,  and I managed to accumulate 35 before needing to return to the fort.  Since then I've discovered that the quest is actually a rep quest which asks you to grind 60 mobs 30 times.  Can you believe it?  And this is one I can't just drop like I did with Miragent when I decided it was outrageous.  More on this as I find out from personal xp.....

The Latest Aion Event



A pic of the Insect Fossil drop in the latest Aion event



"Picking Up The Past" is the name of the latest Aion event,  which started on  9/7.  Its objective is to benefit the Atreian Natural History Museum by having daevas collect fossils from all areas of Atreia except Poeta/Ishalgen and Verteron/Altgard.  These fossils can be given to NPC archaelogogists in exchange for
gifts,  such as manastones,  enchantment stones,  silver/gold/plat medals,  and a piece of clothing (its a T shirt in 2 styles,  male/female for couples who play the game together).   There's 3 different kinds of fossils that can be collected:

1. Plant Fossils - These can only be collected by receiving an in game survey.  There's no other way to get them.
2. Animal Fossils - These can be collected from the bosses of instances or by exchanging plant fossils for them.
3. Insect Fossils - These can be collected by fighting mobs anywhere in the game except the ones mentioned earlier.  They also come up on dice roll sometimes in group run instances during the event. 

The plant fossils are probably the most sought after because with them you can buy medals,  however the only way to accomplish that is to have only 1 character collect the surveys.  The medals are 100 - 125 fossils and with 6 fossils per survey times 28 days equaling 168,  then a decision has to be made.    The animal fossils yield AP relics and the T shirts,  and the insect fossils can buy manastone/enchantment stone pouches as well as a mystery prize for 200 of them.  That one is a total gamble,  which I might just go for if I collect enough of them.  The event will run for 28 days,  ending on Oct. 5th,  so I might be able to.  I ran Taloc's Hollow on the 7th and got a few,  I'd say 1 in every 7-10 mobs drops a fossil.  I was grinding quest mobs before that and found it to be about the same rate. 
The event gives me renewed interest in doing my pve quests.  Its something more to look forward to when out in the field,  knowing that there's a new item to collect that can buy me new things to improve my toon with.