Ceramium Medals

Ceramium medals are the newest medal available in the 4.0 update.  They are needed (along with AP and a status of 1 star officer or higher) to buy the new Field Officer gear.  If this gear is your goal,  then you have to obtain ceramium medals.  The lowest amount needed is 47 of them for the least expensive eternal pieces of armor:  boots,  gloves or shoulderpads.  The traditional way to obtain medals in Aion is to attend fort sieges,  successfully defending an already owned fort or overtaking a fort from an enemy (Balaur or opposite faction).  Not everyone is able to attend sieges because they occur at specific times,  so how can
medals be obtained?  In an earlier post I showed one way to obtain them by trading in ceramium fragments to complete a base camp quest.  In this post the way that I show requires that you use mithril medals for trade.
In the first quest,  "But It Would Be Quality Sludge!",  a quest given from a shugo npc named  Benzarinrinerk at the Stonewatch Rampart base camp in Danaria, asks you to give a mithril medal and an item called
Noble Balaur Serum in exchange for a try at converting them to a ceramium medal.   Now,  I have to point out that I don't know whether or not this is a guaranteed medal.   The quest reward is indicated as unknown, meaning no guarantees.   I've only done this quest once,  and I did get a ceramium medal when I turned the quest in.   I'll take the quest again and report the outcome in a later post.  Meanwhile,  its another chance at a medal.
Oh I almost forgot!  I wanted to tell you where to get the Noble Balaur Serum.  It can be bought in Idian Depths for 25 ancient coins.  Speak to the shugo named Sagirinerk in the bazaar (see pic below).  He sells alot of cool items in addition to the one you need to complete this quest.  The purchase is limited to 10 per day on the Balaur serum.
Update 12/31/13:  Noble Balaur Serum can also be bought for 6,750 AP from a vendor in the Katalam fort.
The vendor is in the same room as the field armor vendors  (see pic below).

Balaur Serum can also be bought at the fort for AP

Buying the Noble Balaur Serum from the shugo in Idian Depths

The quest in my quest log

Turning in the quest

I receive a ceramium medal

  I'll post one more way that I know of to obtain these medals in a future post.  GL :)

4.0: The Danaria Region

Danaria is the second open world region added in the 4.0 update.  Like Katalam it has base camps that
change faction status around the clock and can be farmed for blood marks through weekly quests.  Unlike Katalam it has 2 forts:  Sillona and Pradeth.  Katalam has only 1:  Sillus fortress.

There are 3 ways to reach Danaria from Katalam.

1.    Teleport to Goldrine City ( the far south area of Danaria)  from your faction's Katalam fort by talking to        the shugo teleport NPC at the flight transport area and paying 1 ancient coin.  Ancient coins are
       earned by doing quests in the Idian Depths,  but they can be bought from the broker for around 165K
       each  (the current price on the Elyos side of the Siel server).

2.    Take a flight from the Katalam fort to one of 2 areas:  Crerunerk's League Office for Elyos,  or
       Mairinerk's League Office for Asmodians.  Its a 2 step flight:  you have to fly to the midway base first
       and then take another flight to the League Office.    If you're Elyos,  you fly to Pantager's Base
       and from there fly to Crerunerk's League Office.  If you're Asmodian,  you fly to the base north of
       Adumbral Forest and fly from there to the League Office.

     

The first flight from Kaisinel's Beacon

From Pantager's Base fly south to the League Office

 When you arrive at the League Office,  you walk to the portal (see pic below) and you'll be auto
   transported into Danaria.    No clicking necessary!  Just stand and port.

The portal to Danaria from the Crerunerk League Office camp

I'm now in Danaria

\

This is where you land on the Danaria map after you port thru from Crerunerk's League Office

The Nimoya Passage portal (the one from Crerunerk's Office) places you in the top northeast corner of the
Danaria map.  You land in Kaberinrinerk's Field Office to be exact.


3.  The third way to reach Danaria is by using the opposite faction's portal.  This can be done by taking
     the Ice Road wind stream from either of the League Offices to the opposing faction's default League              Office and simply using their portal instead.  Its a good option if you want to arrive in a different
     area of the Danaria map than where your faction's default portal places you (see pics below).

The arrow indicates the path of the Ice Road windstream and points to the other League Office

The Makoi Peaks Portal to Danaria from Mairinrinerk's League Office

Arriving in Hadrianerk's Field Office in Danaria

This portal places you in the northwest corner of Danaria

There's tons more of the same madness you've seen in Katalam waiting for you there!  Its an interesting
place with alot to see.  I'll have more to post in a future article.  Good luck :)

Idian Depths: From Katalam Part 2

In my previous post I outlined the ways to reach Idian Depths from the Katalam base camps.
In this post I'll show the way to ID from a regional non-base camp location.

There is one entrance to ID from Katalam that I know of.  It is located in the Quarantine Area
(southeast Katalam),  see pic below.

The regional entrance from Katalam

The entrance door close up

When you port through,  you arrive in the south east area of ID,  the second canal to be exact.

You land in the second canal of ID after porting through

Good luck and happy trails :)

Idian Depths: How to Get There from Katalam

Idian Depths:  The lvl 65 only region that was introduced in 4.0.  As its name implies,  its an underground
zone.  Its also one of the most unique places ever introduced into Aion so far.  Its an open world pvp region
without any safe zone obelisk pads.  The main safe zone that exists is the central hub,  called Segurinerk's Bazaar,  where both factions can take quests from their respective NPCs.  buy special things from special
vendors,  get soul healing,  and bind to if they want (for an incredible $4 million K!).  There are a couple of other safe zones that are entrances/exits from Katalam/Danaria.  More on those later.   The main purpose of
this article is to explain all the ways of getting to ID,  and where they put you on the ID map.

The 2 factions each have a default entrance to ID.  The entrance is in the base camp near each faction's Katalam fort.    For the Elyos its the Primeval Ruins camp in Loftus Woods.   For the Asmos its Beritran
Foothold in Stellman Valley. See pics below.

For Elyos: The Primeval Ruins base camp in Loftus Woods has the default entrance to Idian Depths

The entrance in Loftus Woods

Beritran Foothold in Stellman Valley is the default base camp ID entrance for Asmodians.

From the  Beritran Foothold base camp (default for Asmodians),  this is where you land in Idian Depths

This is the default entrance for Asmodians,  so the NPCs appear disabled to me

Each default faction entrance has faction specific NPCs,  which give quests to members of the faction they represent.  If your faction owns the opposing faction's default Idian Depths entrance base camp,  then
you can use the entrance to ID but you won't be able to interact with the NPCs.

The 3rd base camp entrance is Broken Cliff camp in Relics of Sorrow.  This is an excellent entrance
because it places you in an area of ID that is unreachable by the opposite faction while your faction owns the camp!

Location of Broken Cliff Camp:  the 3rd and last base camp entrance to ID in Katalam

The area of ID you port into from the Broken Cliff entrance

From Broken Cliff Camp,  you land in the Clawed Fist Garrison,  the northern-most area of ID.  Its a great place to grind mobs or get quests done because as I mentioned above,  it can't be reached by your enemies
until the base camp flips factions.

I hope this helps those of you new to Katalam and lvl 65.  Happy trails in Aion :)

Kamar Battlefield Part 2

Welcome to my second article on Kamar Battlefield. In part one I left off near the middle of the battle.
At this point in time,  you'll receive a message on your screen that says:
"A box of Reian Tribe supplies have arrived in Peace Square" (those may not be the exact words but
they're pretty close).   A huge cargo crate of supplies is dropped in the northeast and southwest corners in Peace Square.  This is one point where pvp can begin if it hasn't already because the supplies are definitely worth getting. The download time is longer than most quest items,  so you have to make sure that someone
isn't about to attack you.
They include:

1. Steelskin elixir,  which, as its name implies,  makes you invincible for an unspecified amount of time. 10/23/13 *Correction* - This item has been changed to give extra HP for a limited time. 
2. Explosive devices,  which can be used to inflict damage on enemies, 
3. Kamar Cannonball,  which is the needed ammo for the faction based cannon 
4. Siege Weapon Fuel,  needed to operate the faction based cannons that spawn in the northwest and southeast corners of Peace Square.

The supplies crate that drops around mid-battle

A closeup description of the Steelskin Elixir

Some groups choose to designate a person who should roll for the cannon items.  This has pros and cons.

The advantage is that everyone in the group knows who'll be operating the cannon,  but a disadvantage could be if that player gets killed during pvp and cant easily return to the group when the cannon is needed.   Teams sometimes camp the breakouts of their opposing teams.

Unlike dredge,  where a team can lock their side and choose to avoid pvp,  KB is a pvp instance,
something like Arena of Harmony but with a 12 person alliance.   The battle starts to heat up during the
middle of the instance,  after both teams have farmed the points for their sides and theres nothing left to
do but duke it out in Peace Square.   As I mentioned above,  this is often started by the dropping of the supplies crate.

PVP in Peace Square

I've been on teams that try to jump the gun on the opposing team by running to the center first and catching
the other team while they're PVEing,  however I don't really agree with that strategy.  It often backfires,
valuable points are lost,  and team morale goes down quick.  Once that happens,  a loss is inevitable,
and with a 2 day cd on this instance,  you want to do your best to win.  This brings me to another difference
between Dredge and KB:  the points awarded.  In  Dredge a losing or afk team can expect to win at least
5k AP  or thereabouts based on participation,  however in KB when you lose you get about 1750 AP. Victory in KB is also a  fixed amount of AP,  although I've never been afk on a winning team so I don't know if AP is adjusted based on participation or not.  See pic below.

Victory always gives nearly 11K AP

 You also receive a Victory Box.  Again this is like AOH.

Now back to the battle.  After the mid point in the battle,  a message will flash on your screen that
says:

A message about Commander Varga.  Note the faction based cannon in the background.  It can only be operated by a player who has Siege Fuel.

In my experience Commander Varga spawns in the main central building,  where players get their Kahrun quests in the real Sarpan.  Its the building where Garnon's office is. Raxu told me he can also spawn in Lamina Bazaar,  however I've never seen that.  If your team can kill him and his sidekicks,  the instance
will end.  He is tough though,  and teams don't usually go after him because doing so puts them in a vulnerable position.  It takes awhile to kill him,  and the opposing team can storm right in and ruin the effort.
Although the message above says he and his Deputy,  there are really 2 deputies.  He has 1 mob on either side of him.

In this particular run of KB,  my team really rolled.  We had alot more points than the opposing team,
and when that happens,  the instance plays out differently than when the points are closer together.

Message stating "You will win if you exceed opposing team by 1961 pts.

If your team is way ahead in points,  the instance will generate a message stating that you'll win if you exceed the opposing team's points by a certain amount,  in this case 1,961 pts (see message box in pic above).
When that happens,  and it did,  the instance will end,  regardless of how much time is left on the clock.   Its a game mechanism that saves the losing team from excess grief,  and makes sense,  since the winning and losing AP rewards are fixed anyway.

In other cases when the teams are close in points,  something different happens.  The clock will run to the end,  and a message will appear when 10 min or less are left on the clock,  stating that "Acting Commander Crispin and Acting Commander Tepes have arrived".   These are 2 NPCs ,  one for each faction.  Crispin for Elyos ,  and Tepes for Asmodians.  Crispin usually spawns in front of the main building in Peace Square,
and Tepes usually spawns down in Lamina Bazaar.    The team who kills the opposing team's NPC will
be awarded about 5k pts, and the opposing team will  lose that amount of points.  For example,  if my
team kills Tepes,  we gain the points that he was worth,  and the opposing team loses that amount of points.
This is something to be watchful of.  It can make or break a run for either team.   Sometimes a team will
enlist the help of the Balaur to kill the opposing team's NPC.   Its a strategy that works well.

On all runs no matter how they play out,  you'll always receive the following message:  "Defeating the top
ranked race will earn you more points"

The above message appears in all runs of KB

A few words about the cannons.  The main cannon in the center of PS is a very effective weapon,  not to mention alot of fun to operate!  You can use it until the opposing team kills you while you're on it.  Its alot better than the one in EC Arena of Chaos,  imo,  because you don't get the lava debuff.   The faction cannons are also cool,  even more so because they're mobile.  You can chase your enemies in it!  It isn't used as much tho,  because of the need for siege fuel,  and sometimes the opposing team kills it for 225 pts.

The main cannon in PS.  Its usable by both factions

Thats all I can think of for the moment...I think I've covered most of the important things to know about
this instance.  I hope it helps :)

Kamar Battlefield Part 1

Kamar Battlefield:  the Dredgion for players 61 and up.
In the same way that we were given a look at how the little town of Poeta in Elysea would be if it became a war zone occupied by Balaur in the Dark Poeta instance,  this idea is shown to us again in Kamar Battlefield. The awesome city of Kamar in Sarpan has been ravaged by Balaur and this once neutral zone ruled by the Reian tribe is now a war zone in which both factions can fight.  The city is a shambles of a once civilized and
busy place.
This instance differs from dredge in that it needs an alliance of 12 players,  whereas dredge is a basic group of 6.  Like dredge,  you can form your own alliance,  or have the game queue you into a pick-up group (PUG).   One half of the alliance begins in one starting point of the faction warships:  Griffoen (Elyos) and Habrok (Asmos),  while the other half starts from another point. There's a  statue at the starting point while the clock counts down,  and it gives each member of the group 200 points (see pic below).

Be sure to click the statue in the breakout room to get 200 pts

When the instance begins,  head down and out into the city and meet your first obstacle,  an elite 3 dot Varga raider rampager,  usually.   In this run I started from a breakout in Peace Square where running into this mob can't be avoided,  so it had to be killed by the group for 50 pts.   If you start from the breakout in Lamina Bazaar you can sometimes side step it,  but not always.

Fighting the first mob

See those 2 Reian prisoners in the upper left of the above pic?  They're worth 225 points each,  and all you have to do to get those points is click on them once the Varga  is taken care of.

Clicking on the Reian prisoners for pts

All the side rooms of the city have a similar set up,  except often with more mobs to kill.   Some rooms have
a Reian elite thats worth around 1225 pts.   There are also fuel barrels to destroy that are worth 75 pts each
and give an item for the alliance to roll on,  usually a Kamar Siege Cannonball or Siege Weapon Fuel.

Going to destroy a fuel barrel for 75 pts and siege loot

Before I forget, let me mention something else that has changed about the city.  In the doorway to each room in the city there is a band of floor spikes.  Maybe you can see that in the above pic.  You have to jump over
these spikes to enter and leave the rooms because they act as obstacles.  They also keep the mobs inside the rooms from leaving,  so you don't have to worry about being chased by them- the rooms are their jail.

That concludes part 1 of my article.  Its a little difficult to get pics of the instance in its later stages,  because there's alot of pvp (unlike dredge where there sometimes isn't any) and it gets pretty hectic.  In KB pvp is un avoidable,  as I'll discuss in part 2. :)

Aion's 4th Anniversary!

This month marks the 4th year of Aion,  and naturally NC soft is throwing an event!  This event is called
the Alchemist Event,   its for lvls 30+,  and will be held from Sept. 4th - 18th.    NC promises more events during the month of Sept.,  and that this is the first in the planned lineup of others to be announced.

To take part in this event is simple:  visit a Suspicious Alchemist NPC in either Sanctum (Elyos Square),
Hushblade in Tia (Elyos),  Kaisinel's Beacon in Katalam (Elyos),  or Pandaemonium (Pand Plaza), Fatebound in Tia (Asmodians),  Danaur Spire in Katalma (Asmo).
   
He'll give you an event Key pouch,  which is opened to reveal one of 2 kinds of keys:  Copper,  which opens a common prize box,  or Gold,  which opens a premium prize box.  There are tons of cool prizes to be had,  and so far I've gotten a personal broker summoner and  blood marks.

As always with Aion events,  there's a way to obtain more than one event item per day.   In order to assemble a key pouch 2 items are required:  a "lead fragment",  and "alchemist's essence".  These items drop from instance mobs and world mobs.  The alchemist's essence is by far the item with fewer drops.  The lead fragments are much more common.    The other way to obtain the needed items is by purchasing them from the NCsoft store.

Its nice to log into the game and have a free gift to look forward to!  Happy Treasure Boxing to all my readers!  :D

Camps Without Special Vendors: Katalam

Some of the base camps in Katalam have no special vendors.  These are:

1. Crumbling Redoubt
2. Irigani Keep
3. Windswept Camp
4. Sillus Pass Watchpost

Note:  Sillus Pass Watchpost has no special junk loot vendors,  but it does have 2 "special vendors" of a different sort.  Please see my post on Conqueror's Marks for the details.

Special Vendors: Katalam Part 2

In my last post I detailed the 2 camps near the Elyos fort:  Primeval Ruins and Spiralroot Shelter.  In this
article I'm showing the SV inventory of the remaining Katalam camps.

Name:  Broken Cliff Camp

Location:   North of Relics of Sorrow area

NPC:  Zetanakos (Elyos)

Items Bought:   Worn Danaur Relic Pieces, Worn Ancient Manastones,  Worn Metal Powder, 

Jagged Relic Bits,  Ancient Old Manastone,  Flawless Danaur Relic,   Flawless 
 Ancient Manastones,   Flawless Metal Powder,  Intact Relic Bits,  Intact Ancient Manastones,  Barren Metal Powder,   Intact Metal Powder

The SV  at Broken Cliff Camp

Page 2 of the Broken Cliff SV's sales inventory

Name:   Beritran Foothold

Location:  Stellman Valley

NPC:  Aranis
Items Bought:  Worn Hazy Crystal,  Worn Rare Serpent Membrane,  Hazy Crystal.
                           Holey Membrane,  Flawless Hazy Crystal,  Flawless Rare Serpent

                           Membrane,  Intact Opaque Crystal,  Intact Rare Membrane

The SV at Beritran Foothold in Stellman Valley

Name:  Occupier's Lounge 

Location:   Hadradim's Watch

NPC:  Tatiana (Elyos),  Moldof (Asmo)

The SV at Occupier's Loungue in Hadradim's Watch

Items Bought:  Worn Beast Claw,  Fractured Talon,  Flawless Beast Claw,  Intact Talon

That wraps is up for the Special Vendors of Katalam,  and hopefully you'll  be saving
your special junk loot because now you know where to sell it off  :)

Special Vendors : Katalam

Another new feature of the base camps is the special vendors.  In 4.0,  certain junk items have been elevated to a status of re-sellable for more money than you can get at the general store if you happen to be at the camp with the special vendor who'll buy them off you for a higher price.   Each camp's special vendor buys a
specialized list of items that you may or may not have in your inventory.   It helps to know who buys what,
and the objective of this article is to organize the special vendors of Katalam by which base camp buys what items.  I've chosen to start at the camps nearest to the Elyos fort and work outward.   Here we go:

Spiralroot Shelter

Location:  Garren Forest
Vendor's Name (Elyos) - Lopan
Items Bought:   Worn Beast Claw,  Fractured Talon,  Flawless Beast Claw and Intact Talon
Additional Info: 

 I've included some pics below.  I had a flawless beast claw in my inv,  so I 
 compared the price paid by the general goods merchant and the special vendor.
 The gs merchant pays $1,340 and the sv pays $4,020.  Thats almost 4x as much,
 so for those of you who like to pinch pennies and get the highest price for your
 special junk items,  it pays to go to the sv if you're nearby and your faction owns 
 the camp.

Talking to Lopan,  Special Vendor of Spiralroot Shelter in Garren Forest

Talking to the general goods merchant to compare prices

Selling my special item to Lopan

Primeval Ruins

Location:  Loftus Woods
Vendor's Name (Elyos):  Lilas
Items Bought:  

Worn Ancient Elim Essence,  Worn Spirited Essence,  Decayed Elim Essence,  
 Rough Spirit Essence,  Flawless Ancient Elim Essence,  Flawless Spirited Essence,
 Intact Elim Essence,  Intact Spirit Essence

Additional Info:  See Pic Below

The SV vendor at Loftus Woods Camp

Part 2 coming soon :)

Conqueror's Marks

Conqueror's Marks are another new form of currency in Aion 4.0.  They can be earned
by defeating boss mobs in the new instances.  For example,  I earned 5 of them when I ran the Steel Rose Solo instance and defeated the boss there.  They also drop from Steel Rose Group Instance,   Sauro Base,  Ophidian Bridge,  Danaur Reliquary,  and Infinity Shard. 
When I saw these I wondered 2 things:  Where do I turn these in,  and what can I buy with them? 
Eventually I found out while adventuring through Katalam ( and after I asked Raxu ,  who kindly told me where to go ),   that the vendor for Conqueror's Marks is at the Sillus Pass Watchpost camp (see pic below).  If your faction owns the camp you can be teleported there from your fort.  The tele for Elyos is off to the side of the obelisk.

location of Sillus Pass Watchpost camp

The exact title of the NPC is "Field Achievement Steward".  The name of the Elyos one is Kannaris.
The Asmodian NPC is named Isabelle.  Their window has 3 items for sale:

1. Vanquisher's Box for 10 CMs, 
2. Noble Vanquisher's Box for 70 CMs
3. Brilliant Vanquisher's Box for 200 CMs 

Talking with Kannaris

It seems I can't afford one yet :(    I'll just have to run an instance and earn some more :)

You can also find another important NPC at this camp.  Its the NPC who you can trade in your old AP stigmas to for an AP reward.  For Elyos the NPC mane is Epina,  and for Asmodians its Setuk.  How I wish I hadn't thrown out my old dash and slash and lightning slash!  I can't believe I threw away AP!!

The stigma vendor's sales window

I still have QD 1 though and it commands 26K AP.  I paid 152K when I bought it. 
At least I'm getting back some of what I paid,  so I give this new feature a +1. Don't miss out on this! 

Where's Popokin?

This post is about a quest in Danaria that I completed recently called "The Last Train Home".  This quest is picked up by NPC Muti in the Goldrine Free City area (in Goldrine Village to be exact,  see pic below).  It's the train station at the end of the line from the main city that shuttles you out to the more distant questing area so that you don't have to walk. 

Where to pick up the quest "The Last Train Home"

Shortly after I first picked up this quest I abandoned it.  Why?  My quest roster was full,  I needed to pick up another quest,  and it's one of those quests that doesn't locate the NPC that you need to speak with to get the item that you need for the quest.  In this case,  the quest item is a train ticket.    The thought of searching all over Goldrine City to find a mystery NPC didn't appeal to me,  even though I have advanced stealth and am the best class to do a search like that.   I'm still level 64 and needed XP quick,  so I dropped it.
While I was working on another quest,  " A Touch of Skurv", which can be gotten from NPC Lebos inside the building near NPC Muti,    I found NPC Popokin.
He's in the same area where the abandoned tents are for that quest are (thanks Raxu for pointing her out to me as I ran by :D ) 

I discovered Popokin while working on another quest called "A Touch of Skurv"

And there she is - NPC Popokin

As you can see,  she's a level 64 non pre-emptive 2 dot elite.  She isn't an NPC that talks with you because she has no quest arrow over her head.   It took me 2 tries to kill her,  and I did succeed. 

Killed her on the 2nd try without much HP to spare

Got the ticket

I returned to Muti and completed the quest for 6 mil XP. 



Quest completed

 It's probably a good idea to do this quest with a group.  That'll make it a lot easier.
Thanks for reading and gl :)