Saturday, December 31, 2016

Luna Shop Part 2: Taki's Mission - Contaminated Underpath

Welcome to Part 2 of my Luna Shop article.  Today I'll be talking about the section of the Luna Shop called Taki's Mission.  Here you'll find 2 new instances to run:  Contaminated Underpath and Munitions Factory.

Contaminated Underpath

This is a daily instance that can be run once a day for free.  There are 2 quests to take before running it for the first time:

1.  Luna - Unknown Creatures
2.  Luna - Gathering Samples

The first quest,  Unknown Creatures,  requires that you kill the boss of the instance,  Maad-S.  When you loot Maad-S you receive an item called Maad-S skin tissue.   When you turn in the Unknown Creatures quest to the lab tech,  he'll transform the tissue into a tooth  (a molar).    When you collect 7 of these molars,  you can complete the 2nd quest,  and the lab tech will give you a key to open the treasure chest with.   One complaint I have is that the drop rate on Maad-S has been recently cut in half.  He used to drop 2  tissues,  meaning you could collect 7 molars by running the instance 4 times,  with one molar to spare.  Then you could get another key after 3 more runs.   Nowadays he only drops one tissue,  meaning you have to run the instance 7 times before you get a key.

When you enter the instance be sure to pick up the Bright Aether next to the NPC.  It's used to set up guns in front of the NPC barricade:









This instance,  like Taloc's Hollow or Shugo Kingdom,  transforms your character into one with a limited skill set.  You can't use your regular skills here.  You're given 5 skills,  from left to right they are:

1.  Soul Skewer, an AOE that attacks up to 8 nearby enemies,  dealing 3500 damage per hit.
2. Crushing Darkness an AOE that deals 7,200 to up to 10 nearby enemies per cast.
3. Terrifying Rupture a skill that deals 7,000 to 1 enemy per cast.
4. Hellish Strike. a hit that deals 16,000 damage to one enemy per cast.
5. Hellish Wave,  the highest damage skill in the set,  best reserved for the boss enemies.
    It deals 150K damage per cast. This skill has a 1 min. cooldown.

The instance begins with a wave of enemies assaulting you and your NPC helpers,  and continues in this way until the final boss fight with MAAD-S.

The first wave of enemies

If you die while fighting,  you'll res at the start of the instance and  have a soul sickness debuff on you for 1 minute.  There's always a healing fountain that spawns when that happens:


 However, during the rest of the fight, the healing fountain isn't always there.  It spawns only sometimes,  so use it wisely.

There are a few waves of enemies,  and each wave is harder to kill.
After the clodworms,  who'll keep you pretty busy cause they take forever to kill,  spawns MAAD-S:




I've learned that in order to stay alive during the fight with him,  you have to know when to back away.  He casts 4 different skills: Destruction, which hits for 15K,  Demolish, Domination and Discharge.   Discharge makes clodworms appear around him.  Domination is an AOE poison stun that deals 18K damage.  There's no way to avoid it or the other 2 skills, except by backing out of his range, like up the steps or the alcove behind the treasure box.   The healing fountain will spawn in and out of the fight in case you need a top off from accidentally getting hit.
In between times of avoiding his skills,  I go back in and cast Hellish Wave, Hellish Strike andTerrifying Rupture until he's done.

MAAD-S casting Destruction

Waiting in the area behind the treasure box while he casts Destruction





After the fight is over,   a bunch of cores and a lump of flesh are left.





Hit them all and watch your XP bar fill up as you do.  The new game patch has made leveling up a very slow process,  and this instance is one of the best ways to quickly get large amounts of XP. Opening the flesh lump gives you the quest item:




You take it to the NPC and he turns it into a molar for you.

Turning in the quest




Run the instance 7 times and you'll get a treasure box key,  which gives you ______.  I won't spoil it!

If you're new to running the instance I hope this helped, and thanks for reading.

Oh and since I'm publishing this on the last day of 2016,  I'd like to say:

Happy New Year to all my Readers :)





Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Milestone: 100,000 Page Views!

To All My Readers,

My blog reached 100K page views today.   I'd like to thank all of you for helping me achieve this milestone with your continued readership.  Aion is still a fun game and I'll keep writing about it for so long as it remains that way.


As I always say at the end of each post,  Thanks for Reading :D

Monday, October 17, 2016

What's New In Reshanta

Reshanta (also known as the Abyss) has seen a makeover in the recent patches of Aion.  Quite a few changes have been made,  and while I can't outline them all,   here are the outstanding basics:

Redemption Landing/Harbinger Landing

These are the new faction landing zones in the upper abyss.  These were actually added in 4.8 I think, but I didn't get a chance to check them out at that time,  so I'm getting familiar with the new layout now in 5.0.

The upper abyss has been remodeled a lot with the addition of these 2 landings.  The Elyos landing is near the Ruins of Roah,  and the Asmodian landing is near Lake Asteria.

These landings have to be maintained by each faction's players in order to have better services,  such as extra NPCs,  Wells of Life and Flight,  etc.   The landings are maintained by the completion of base camp quests by faction members.


Base Camps

Another new addition are base camps.  Modeled off the same idea as the ones in Levinshor and the deleted areas of Katalam and Danaria,  these camps change faction affiliation throughout the day,  but can be "taken" (conquered) by opposing faction players if or when the Commander has spawned.  These camps offer weekly quests that give rewards such as Blood Medals (a new currency used for buying gear) and  Blood Marks.  

Re-Assignment of NPC Levels

The mobs of the upper abyss have all been upgraded to lvl 65.  Back in the early days of Aion, the abyss was a place for players of  lvl 25-45 to go.   Ruins of Roah and Lake Asteria  used to have lvl 30ish mobs.  As a matter of fact,  Ruins of Roah was the place that Elyos players were sent to for a lvl 30 campaign quest.  That's probably been changed now.  

Introduction of Wells of Life, Flight and Strength

These are the power buff stations that grant a 1 hour buff to the player.  They're found at each faction's landing in the upper abyss,  depending on the level of the landing.  The Well of Flight is probably the best improvement I've seen in Aion in a long time.   Wind serums are hardly needed anymore because of the unending flight time offered by this buff.  The only time they would be needed is if or when the player is hit with the "burn wings" debuff that many of the mobs in the upper abyss cast.  It's great to be able to fly freely without worrying about flight time running out!

Give the upper abyss a look if you're coming back to the game.  It's a different place lately.
Thanks for reading :)






Saturday, October 8, 2016

Hangin' Around Kaldor

I was in Kaldor recently,  taking part in the weekly fort siege.  I never knew what the schedule was, but it seems that I happened to be logged in at the right time.  It was last Sunday,  Oct. 2nd,  early afternoon, around 2 pm  PST,  which means that it's around 4 pm CST,  5 pm EST, and 3 pm MST. Those are the approximate times of the Wealhthow's Keep fortress siege.   You might want to arrive earlier just to be sure that you don't miss it.

My group helped to guard the Elyos gate from the Balaur that periodically spawn there.  I wasn't in the actually fort itself fighting the Deity.  Since I'm new to that fort's siege,  I still have to learn the routine.  The lag was tremendous at times,  so I really didn't mind not being inside the fort.  We won the fort, which brings me to the part that I wanted to tell you about....

After the siege is over,  you receive mail as you always do when you win a siege.  Usually it has kinah or medals as a reward for helping out.  This time it had something different for me:  a Title Card!  I finally figured out how the title "Kaldor Champion" is earned.  It's a multi stat title,  here's it's stats:

Attack Speed +1%
Casting Speed +1%
Speed +5%
Maximum HP +200


Some more good news:
After you equip your new title,  you can return to the fort and NPC Terenoa has 3 weekly Glory Points quests that you can now take.   These quests ask you to kill 20 mobs per quest and can be done solo,  but they can get done a lot faster with a group.  Here's a pic:


You earn 125 GP per quest,  a little xp,  and a Ceramium medal.  Most folks are interested in the GP because it's so difficult to get.

That's my report for what goes on in Aion on a Sunday afternoon.  Thanks for reading :)




Thursday, September 22, 2016

Aion 5.0 : Luna Shop Part 1

The Luna Shop is a new feature in Aion 5.0.  You can't miss it on your play screen.  It's the bright pink crescent moon icon on the lower right hand side of the screen.   It has 4 areas of activity to access,  as shown in the pic below:



Today's article discusses the first area,  Karunerk's Workshop.   This zone brings something new to Aion:  a daily crafting opportunity with designs that change daily.   There is a required fee for crafting items here,  and it's paid with new in game materials,  which are earned in 2 ways:  through running the instances in the area called Taki's Mission,   and through crafting the daily mystery material box (pic below):



The cost for crafting the first material box is free,  and you get to craft one a day.   There are several different kinds of materials required to craft an item,  and the best way to earn them is through running the instances.  More on Taki's Mission in a later article.  

As you can see from the above pic,  there are different designs every day.   They have varying success rates,  and the designs with lower success rates ask for less materials than the designs with higher success rates.

I recently took a chance on crafting a design with a 50% success rate.  It was the fabulous Eastern Four Seasons Cabinet,  which I always wanted,  but couldn't afford to buy from the store.  I happened to have the materials,  so I gave it a try.   I won! It crafted!  That was a really happy moment for me :)
It gave me the incentive to go to my studio and furnish it again.  Here's a pic:

 
As you can see,  the items you craft from the Luna Shop daily designs are unsellable,  They're only for personal use.  I'm guessing that they could be "wrapped",  which is a way to transfer unsellable and untradeable items in Aion that requires a purchase from the NC store,  but I'm not sure.

Here's how it looks!



Isn't it pretty?  I think so!  Plus it has 3 drawers of storage - neat!

I give the new daily crafting feature in the Luna Shop 5 stars.  It's a fun new addition to the game, that I think is worth giving a try.
Thanks for reading :)

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Aion 5.0: Enchantment System Changes

The old way of obtaining enchantment stones in Aion has undergone a makeover in the 5.0 patch.
First,  let's review how it used to work:

In pre 5.0 Aion,  when you wanted to obtain enchantment stones from old or unwanted gear,  you would go to the general store and buy a pair of disenchantment "pliers".  Then you would activate the pliers over the gear you wanted to disenchant and the game would give you an enchantment stone or 2,  depending on the grade of gear you were working with.  

In the latest patch however,  they've done away with the "pliers".  They're no longer sold at the general store. Come to think of it,  if you had one in your inventory before the patch,  it probably looks like a terminated item now,  post patch.  If you have that and it looks like a terminated item now,  please comment,  I'd like to hear about it.  The game now has a built in interface that will disenchant the gear for you and convert it into enchantment stone "dust",  and it's from this "dust" that enchantment stones are now made.  Once you have a pile of  at least 1000 dust in your inventory,  you click on it,  the game asks how many you want to make, and then creates an enchantment stone from there.   A couple of pics:

Enchantment Stone Dust and Stone in my inventory


In the game's past,  enchantment stones had level numbers,  up to L130,  the best enchantment stone for enchanting high level gear.  This was phased out in the last patch,  by naming stones in groups, such as omega,  delta, etc.  Now in 5.0,  enchantment stones that I've seen so far have no numbers or names,  they just are.


Another new feature:  the difference in price.  Disenchanting a piece of gear used to cost the amount of the pliers,  around 2,000 kinah.  In the new system it costs 20,000,  10 times as much.   I guess  we're being made to pay for the convenience of not having to go the store and buy an item to do this job.

By the way,  I received 220 ESD (enchantment stone dust) from Killios' Breeches.  I don't know if that's a lot or a little just yet,  but they were taking up space in my inventory and I'd had them for ages. 


Ok,  so that's the new enchantment system in Aion.  Hope that helps those of you coming back to the game from a break who need some info on the game update.  Thanks for reading :)

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Wealhtheow's Keep Weekly Quest

Here's a quest I took when I decided to take a look inside Wealhtheow's Keep,  the fortress in Kaldor. I'd never been inside that fort before - last time I was in that area,  the fort was owned by the Balaur. I happened to be in Kaldor turning in a quest that I completed ages ago and forgot about.  I looked at the map and saw that the Elyos owned the fort,  so I had to check it out for myself.  Here's what it looks like:




It turns out that there's a weekly quest called "Jobs Beget Jobs" given out by the fortress NPC Gantis  that gives an ancient crown bundle and ancient coins.  I thought "why not?" and took the quest while I was there. The quest asks you to go to an area (also in Kaldor) called the Path of Reverance.  There you have to kill 15 mobs to complete the quest.   It wasn't very far to walk, but like a lot of places in Aion,  the transport could use improvement.   Kaldor in general needs better transport options imo.

Here's me at the mob location for the quest:

At the Path of Reverance to get the quest mobs.  The Thornstick Crynacs in the distance are the ones.
  On my way back to the fort I took a wrong turn and ended up here,  at the Flamecrest Chariot Depot:

I got lost on my way back to Wealtheow's Keep and ended up here
This place is a chariot depot:  I've never seen it active and I'd really like to.  I guess it springs to life when there's a fort siege.  It has spaces for where chariots would park.  It was empty when I was here and the one time I've seen this place before.

I then found my way back to the fort,  where I turned in the weekly quest:

Turning in the weekly quest


Getting my reward

And that's it.  It's a pretty easy quest to do if you happen to be in Kaldor and your faction happens to own the one and only fort in the region, lol.  Thanks for reading :)
















Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Aion 5.0: Terminated Items

Just a quick post to talk about something that caught my eye in the game. As a veteran player who started playing in 2010,  I had to mention this.  In the beginning of this game,  there were some things that were staples in one's inventory,  kinda like food basics in a pantry.  One of these items was Stigma Shards,  which were used for equipping or removing a Stigma Stone.   Stigma Shards have now been removed from the game in  the 5.0 patch.  This came up on my game screen last time I was logged in (which is the 2nd time I was logged in since the 5.0 update).  I did have to download updates before the game would load,  so it's probably a change that was recently made,  an afterthought to the 5.0 patch that they forgot to add with the first one.
Anyway,  some other items that are now obsolete in the game are:  Scopolen Poison,  an item that Assassins used to have to buy from the general store to keep the Apply Poison skill working.  That skill is automatic now (yay finally!).  Also another item that came up as obsolete from my inventory was the Pandarunerk's Delve Scroll.  This item was a return scroll to get back to Idian Depths.  I don't yet know if Idian Depths was removed from the game in 5.0,  as the regions of Katalam and Danaria were,  but I'll leave that for another post.   
The game paid me pretty well for these "terminated items" as it calls them.  I'm going to assume that other skill based items for other classes are also terminated like Worg Souls for Rangers and Dimensional Fragments for Spiritmasters.  
Here's a screenshot of the dialogue notice that the game gave me on this subject:


It's something to look out for if you haven't logged in for awhile and recently downloaded the 5.0 update.  
Thanks for reading :)


Update Sept 2, 2016:  I've checked the general store and it seems that Worg Souls and Dimensional Fragments are still for sale,  so that means those items still have to be bought for the corresponding skills.


Update Oct. 8, 2016:   Other terminated items I've learned of :  Tripeed Fruit & Tripeed Seed,  both these items were used by Rangers to set traps.  Also,  Blue Balaur Scale is now terminated.  It was needed to gain entry to Dark Poeta.  It was something that was sold on the broker to those who needed it.  In other words,  it was an item players could make kinah from.


Saturday, August 6, 2016

Aion 5.0: My First Adventure

I've been absent from Aion for a long time,  probably at least a year, and a year before that.  I logged in last summer (2015),  and didn't log in again until yesterday,  7.30.2016.   I downloaded the 5.0 patch,  and checked out the new update.  I did the first campaign quest,  with it's rewritten lore, courtesy of my good friend Raxu via NCsoft.  His blog posts on the lore of Aion have obviously influenced the devs into re-thinking the storyline and that is evident in the latest patch here.  We are now Archdaevas,  with a new island created between Theobomos and Sanctum  called Iluma.   As all returning players to Aion,  I began with a level 65 campaign quest,  this one called "Memories of Eternity".  It's a classic Aion campaign quest for after a major update:  a quest where the player is asked to walk around and speak to a long list of NPCs,  each of whom gives you a piece of the new story that's been added to the game lore.    The quest begins with talking to Sanctum Keeper Ador. The player daeva suffers a fainting spell (see pics below),  and wakes to see a lady standing before him/her.     He explains about Iluma being a high security place due to the tower being there,  and sends you off to speak to Agent Viola.

A  headache begins the quest Memories of Eternity,  

The headache leads to the daeva passing out at the feet of 2 NPCs
The NPCs remark that they didn't expect that to happen.


You also meet this lady who appears in a beam of light







 Speaking to Ador


Ariel's Sanctuary is in the new region of Iluma.









Talking to Viola

You then begin a long line of tasks....






Such as looking for a fragment of the Tower of Eternity at the Eternal Pool.
In case you were wondering where the Eternal Pool is,  here's some info:

How to find the Eternal Pool



It's here:

The fragment of the Tower of Eternity


Clicking on the fragment transports you to another realm:




You meet Lugbug,  from way back in the game.  Remember him from Leibo Island?   What is he doing here - it's hard to say,  and he isn't very friendly either.

Lugbug



He calls you an intruder and summons some fleshgolems to fight you.




You fight your way through in order to gain access to read this scroll:




which speaks of a hero who rose to prominence amidst a culture of unbelievers.





Lugbug reappears,  and directs you to read another scroll.  You are declared to be the Protector of Atreia, and that the destruction of Atreia is not Aion's will.

The last thing to do is defeat the Augmented Fleshgolem and speak to Leibo.















You must open the Archive of All Knowledge to leave this campaign quest "instance".  It reminded me a bit of Linkgate Foundry in it's layout.






A map of the Archives of Eternity

















Then this lady appears:






Who has a rude awakening in store:




She transforms into the Archdaeva of Eternal Waves:




Then the Archdaeva of Eternal Earth:






and finally the Archdaeva of Eternal Flames:

































Back at the Eternal Pool












Completion of the quest and getting a mythic weapon as a reward





Acquiring the "Protector of Atreia" Title

The quest gives you a new set of wings,  which are mythic grade.

I also acquired something called Growth Aura.  It allowed me to augment the skill of my choice.







The new options for upgrading your skills






I used it to augment a skill of my choice.


I have yet to explore the rest of Iluma,  and I'm hoping to do so soon.  I have yet to socket my new sword before I do that!  Thanks for reading :)