Gear Wars : The New Crucible PVP Gear Vs. AP Gear

When 2.7 launched it brought 2 new modules to the game:  the Arena of Chaos and the Arena of Discipline,  and with those 2 new mini instances,  new PVP gear was also introduced.  The new Empyrean Crucible gear is eternal,  with 5 manastone slots.  That's not all though.  For the first time in Aion  NC has introduced a new
element of gear stats,  called conditioning.  Conditioning is an extra set of stats that can be enabled with the purchase and application of the conditioning item,  which can be bought from the general store in Sanctum or Pandamonium.   NC also made 2 levels of conditioning available to players by creating 2 tiers of gear.  One set of gear can only be conditioned once,  and the other set of gear can be conditioned twice.  Of course the 2 tier set is more expensive because it enables a second,  extra set of stats.  The EC gear can be bought with
Crucible Insignias,  first introduced in the 2.6 update,  and with Courage Insignias,  the new form of currency

in the 2.7 release and only obtainable by running the Arena instances.  Here's a pic of a piece of my EC gear:

As you can see,  its a Tier 2 item,  and has 2 levels of conditioning available.

Now for a discussion about AP (Abyss Point) gear.  AP gear was,  until the release of 2.7,  the only available PVP gear in the game.  It is purchasable only with AP (abyss points) and medals.  There are 3 levels of AP gear for levels 30, 40 and 50: superior (green),  heroic (blue) and fabled (yellow).  There's  4 levels for 55,  an extra eternal (orange) gear set.   For the purposes of this discussion I'm only going to compare the fabled and eternal  AP gear with the Crucible gear,  which only offers fabled and eternal grade.
Also,  most players who set a goal to obtain AP gear usually go for the fabled set,  and then upgrade to eternal later. 
The most attractive thing about AP gear is the number of manastone slots.  There are 6,  which is 2 more than most any fabled piece of armor or weapon in the game.  There are some exceptions to that rule,  but not many,  so the AP 6 slot gear exceeds other fabled gear 95% of the time. 
The next stat is the bonus you get for having the entire set.  Its an extra set of stats that activates and gives more HP,  crit strike,  etc.
Those two things on top of the PVP defense or attack (armor or accessories),  made AP gear the most coveted gear in the game.
The differences between the AP PVP gear and the Crucible PVP are as follows:

Eternal Crucible Gear 

• 5 Manastone Slots
• Lower Physical Defense than a comparable item for level 55
• Only for level 55
• Extra stats of Magic Resist and Paralysis Resist
• 2 Tiers of Conditioning which enable extra stats like Strike Resist and Spell Resist,  PVP attack and more

AP Gear

• 6 Manastone Slots
• Comparable or higher Physical Defense for the player's level
• Available to players at level 30, 40, 50 & 55
• Bonus Stats for having the entire armor set

This brings up the question: Which one is better? and is the reason why I wrote this article.  Clearly,  the AP
gear has alot of advantages,  and those who have the full set are looked upon with respect.  The reason why is that AP gear is hard to get.  Earning enough AP and medals to get the entire set is a very time consuming
process.  For those who can't devote daily time to the game to farm AP exclusively from instances like dredgion or endless quest grinds in the abyss,  the AP gear is out of reach. The 55 eternal AP gear requires platinum medals,  which,  for the most part,  can only be obtained in bulk from daily quest grinds,  which I'm going to write a separate article about soon.   This means that the acquisition of AP gear is tailored to the hardcore player.   Of course,  AP is also gotten from PVP,  however if you don't have the PVP gear to begin with,  how can you beat another player who might?    I could go on about that topic,  but I'd be going off subject.  This is the reason that NC introduced the Crucible PVP gear,  which,  in my opinion,  was a smart decision.  It's biggest advantage is that it takes much less time to acquire.  The gear is bought with crucible and courage insignias,  which are obtained from running either of the 2 arenas.  If you think of the cruc insigs as AP and the courage insigs as medals,  then you're getting both items at the same time,  which is convenient in comparison to the demands of AP gear,  which requires silver, gold or platinum medals that have to be earned or purchased separately.  This is a great opportunity for those players who've never had PVP gear because they lacked the time to obtain it,  and now gives a larger player base the chance to participate in the PVP aspect of the game.
The ease of obtaining the Cruc gear has been offset with some disadvantages.  The gear has lower PD and needs enchanting to bring it up to comparable items.  It has 1 less manastone slot, which prevents higher stat
accumulation.  Finally,  it requires a lifetime maintenance fee:  re-condiitoning the armor as needed when the conditioning runs out.  A player must purchase the conditioning item,  level 1 or 2,  depending on what armor they have,  and pay to have the armor's stats refreshed when they run out.  The fee I pay for my Tier 2 armor
runs me about 200K per item.  How often the item needs re-conditioning is something I'm still studying.  I'm not sure whether it's based on a time rundown or how often one plays the game (how much the armor is put to use).   
So which is better?  They're both good,  and I hope that my comparison discussion has helped you decide.  My conclusion is: whichever one suits your playing style.  Have fun and game on :D

Cracking The Stigma Threshold Part 3

I recently completed the level 55 quest "Cracking The Stigma Threshold",  a quest that I began writing about some time back.  See my first post on this quest  for a full recap.  After grinding 60 mobs for a total repeat
of 5 times,  I'm happy to report that the drop rate stayed the same for every rep quest and hardly changed.  There might have been a slight reduction in the drop rate on the last rep,  but not by much,  maybe 7 out of 10 mobs dropped the item while 8 of 10 dropped them on the earlier reps.  Its a reliable quest that isn't quirky or hard to complete outside of the fact that its a long quest to begin with.  Oh and while you're out there in Conqueror's Ravine, you might just spy the shugo who sometimes spawns there.  He sells high level
designs for crafting!  What a nice surpise!  I saw him for the first time on my last rep quest,  and picked up a couple of designs.  You can also sell junk loot and other items to him,  which is really convenient while grinding out there and running out of room in my inventory. 
It was nice to return to Reemul and get my final stigma enabled.  Finally - Quickening Doom - Wow!  It really rocks and only has a 1 minute CD. 
I hope this was a helpful article to those of you who needed answers about this quest or are soon having to complete it. 

Aion 2.7 The Arena of Choas Part 2

I've run the Arena several times since my last post and can now offer a better description of the instance and what goes on there. There are 3 rounds to each run and players can be ported to any of 6 possible places to run those rounds.

 The Plaza of Struggle - This arena  is also used in the arena of discipline (the 1v1 instance).  It's a
Roman coliseum sort of place with an upper tier accessible by stairs and a main level.  The main level is a center surrounded by a wall.  Outside this wall is a running area with large nooks to stand in.  The nooks have faces!   A power up called "blessed relics",  worth 1250 pts,  spawns in the center,  usually at the beginning of the round and towards the middle of the round.  Be careful though,  because if the
instance starts in the Plaza of Struggle,  everyone goes running for those relics!  Those aren't the only power
ups to get.  Go upstairs and you'll find Flame Throwers,  worth 500 pts,  which deal out a flume of fire from the mouths of one of the faces downstairs,  lets hope your enemy is standing there! 

The Collapsed Wind Tower  - This place is vertical in build and requires flying to navigate through.  The main
thing that players in this place go for is the Cannon.  This item can be found on the middle wall of the tower,  in a nook that was made to house it.  If you can get to this item before anyone else,  you've got a big advantage.  Once you've got control of this item you can tab lock onto players and fire "cannon balls" at them
or fire a paralysis debuff.  I prefer the cannonballs because they kill quickly and help me rank up fast.  Most players are hip to this tho,  and try to fly out of range of the cannon.  The cannon will tell you if the targeted player is out of range.  In that case just keep tabbing until you find one that can be targeted,  and kaboom!,  the most satisfying kill ASAP in the entire instance.   If round 1 of the Arena starts in the Wind Tower,  and your player is placed behind the cannon,  you've got it made.  Likewise if you respawn behind the cannon during the round and nobody else is already at it.  The only downside of using the cannon is that when it disappears after about 15 secs,  the  player is poisoned and low on health,  which is an easy target for those who were waiting for the cannon to fade. 

MuMu Garden - This place is a flatland that's easy to run around in. It's also a pretty small place in comparison to some of the other places.   The power ups that exist are huge gatherables that spawn for a very short time and require a minimum of 350 gathering skill.  I think they give 1750 pts for gathering them and it takes a much shorter time to gather them than regular gathering so its worth it.   There's also treasure boxes to be had,  which yield crucible power up buffs,  like restraint water,  explosion water,
faster casting water,  etc.  Watch out for the Maus,  they're elite and they aggro.  The mumus are worth pts too and aren't hard to kill,  but since the place is small,  its likely that someone might attack while trying to kill one so the decision is yours. 

Alquimia Culvert -  This place is alot like a dungeon.  Its also a big maze.  The bottom floor of the place has
swamp water that puts a slowing debuff on toons.  Stay on the small areas of safe land and jump from land bit to land bit if possible,  and watch out for the sprays of sewage while walking along the tunnels of the maze:  the sewage outs you from hide and possibly puts a debuff.  Ranged fighters can go to the landing at
mid level and shoot players on the ground floor from above,  a definite advantage. 

Decayed Garden -  My least liked area of the arena.  Its a circular place with a hill ring to run along on the perimeter,  water below the hill ring,  and a hill in the middle of the lake.  The most important thing to remember in this place is : Dont fall in the water!  It puts a damage over time debuff on toons that takes so much HP off per second that its almost impossible to beat,  even if you get out of the water quickly.  Sometimes taking a potion works if you get out very fast,  but most of the time its certain death.  Stay away from it at all costs. The hill in the middle can be reached by gliding,  and there's relics to be had on the hill,  but players often don't make a strong enough glide,  end up in the drink,  and then its bye bye...



Round 1 Arena of Chaos starting in Decayed Garden - Me and
 other Contestants




Another view - theres the hill in the middle with the relics surrounded by the deadly water


Cassus Manor -  This is the haunted house of the arena,  and the place with the most mayhem IMO.  The aggro is close here,  and there's alot of mobs to kill for points if killing players isn't working for you.  If you spawn in a room with no other players or can get to an empty room,  you can level up by means of pve,  and not lose points from being killed.   The place has an upstairs and a downstairs,  the upstairs is reachable by
means of 4 staircases,  which lead to 2 hallways,  which each lead to a room with a mob or two.  The most valuable mob in the manor is Pale Carmina,  who is very tricky to kill because of a buff called bladestorm,
which is actually a reflect buff.  All attacks on her are reflected back to the attacker when bladestorm is cast.
This is a quick death,  as I found out the hard way.  Strategy:  wait out the buff without attacking and go for the kill when it runs out,  for a reward of 1,500 pts.  Btw, these rooms are also the place where the treasure boxes are placed for this area.

And that's it!  I hope you found this helpful.  I'll try to post some pics of the instance,  which is gonna be a challenge to get,  but if anybody can it's an assassin,  thanks to invisibility skills :)

Aion 2.7 - Part 1 - The Arena of Chaos

Aion 2.7 went live on 10/19,  2 days ago,  and of course I've been playing!   Two new instances have been
introduced in the Empyrean Crucible:  the Arena of Chaos and the Arena of Discipline.  Both earn Crucible Insignias and both reward players with a new form of currency,  the Courage Insignia.  The Crucible Insigs and the Courage Insigs can be used together to buy a new line of PVP armor and weaponrs that's also been introduced in the 2.7 upgrade.  An alternative to getting PVP gear was long overdue and I'm glad they finally
did something about it. 
The Arena of Chaos is a free for all PVP instance - it's Aion's version of a virtual pillow fight! After getting the quest for an arena ticket from Perbano in Kaisanel Academy,  you request a group in either of the 2 instances.  You start out  in one of 3 places: a haunted house,  a field,  a lava pit kinda place,  or a roman style arena.  Once ported into the instance,  you're locked within a ring of light,  unable to move until the game begins,  which is 1.5 minutes after you're ported in.  You can see some of your opponents and are able to click on them to know what class they are.  The 1:30 gives you time to buff up and plan your strategy.  The object of the game is to get as many kills as possible without getting killed.  When the game starts,  thats it - total madness - players attacking one another,  instance mobs aggroing on players,  players dying,  and players being rezzed back into the game to try again.  If you get alot of kills you rank up,  and the game notifies you of that.  The player in first place is marked with a winner's ribbon over their head.  Each round is about 2.5 minutes.  The game alerts when 10 seconds are left and when that time is up,  the players are auto ported to the next round,  which is always one of the 4 environments I mentioned earlier.    Sometimes there are things to collect or treasure boxes to break which give you power up items to help you in the game.  One such item is a kind of explosion fluid,  which is used to deal damage to enemies in the instance.  There's others too,  but I've only run it 3x so far,  so I don't know all there is to know about the collectibles yet.   In the Roman arena setting there's cannons that players can take control of to shoot other players with,  but I haven't tried that yet.  Killing mobs and collecting things gives points,  so if I'm tired of fighting other players and I'm in an area where no one else is,  I can do that instead.  The one thing I like alot is that it doesn't take too much time to run,  only a few minutes,  and  in addition to the cruc and courage insigs,  I  get AP,  which is nice.  It isn't as
much as I'd get running c dredge,  but its still something. 
All in all,  I give it a + rating because its fun,  new, pays well and doesn't take much time.  In my next post
I'll discuss the other instance,  the Arena of Discipline.  Until  then,  have fun in Aion - I know I will!