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

The Code Red: Atreia Event

The Code Red:  Atreia event is the newest event in Aion.   It began yesterday,  June 5th and will run until June 26th,  which is also the scheduled date for the 4.0 launch. 
Medical camps outfitted with medic NPCs are stationed in every major fort/zone of both factions,  as well as in the neutral zone of Sarpan. 

The event is about getting daily buffs for your character,  as well as stacking up on some expensive potions and scrolls by completing a couple of easy daily quests.  Pick up the daily quest "Prescription for Pyschiatric Medicine" .  The doctor NPCs offer the daily potions and buffs.  The buffs offered by the nurses/instructors,   like the attack speed increase,  crit strike increase/casting speed increase and magic boost increase,  aren't daily and are only available on M, T, W and TH.   On F, Sat and Sun a PVP defense buff and a drop rate increase buff will be offered.  Another good thing:  the scrolls are 30 min. long and don't disappear when you die, as opposed to the standard 5 min. scrolls that disappear upon death and are made by in game alchemists.

Talking to Rella,  the Doctor NPC

After picking up the quest you talk to the stack of medical supplies and choose your scrolls or potions

Choosing my item and completing the quest

This event is a great way to stack up on free valuable supplies before the 4.0 launch,  while having fun in PVP and getting better drops in PVE.  I like it because it helps me save my in game money for things I might want to buy in the 4.0 update.  :D

The Guardian General Showdown Event

This new event,  which began on May 8th and ends on May 22nd,  takes place in Silentera Canyon in Jotun Square.  The siege begins daily at around about 11 a.m. PST and then again 12 hrs later.  The objective of the siege contest is for each faction to kill the opposing faction's Guardian General deity while defending their own general at the same time.  The faction to down the opposite race's deity first is the winner.   The reward for winning the siege is a Guardian General Treasure Chest,  which contains the following 3 items:

1. A mithril medal
2. A special manastone box which may or may not contain a special composite manastone
3. A major ancient crown

 Any player who can enter Silentera Canyon can participate in the siege,  meaning its open to lvl 50 and up.  I've attended 1 siege so far and it was uncontested by the Asmos (they didn't show up),  so it was very easy.   Its not always that way though
so its best to be prepared for a fight!

Here are a couple of pics that I've taken:

The new NPCs in Jotun Square.  This isn't during siege time.

Sometimes they aggro on one another and start fighting!

At the siege waiting for the dieties to spawn
 

Downing Furious Stalari

I'll post more pics if and when I go to more sieges.  Until then,  Have Fun in Aion :)

Aion's 3rd Anniversary

This September marks the 3rd anniversary of Aion's launch,  and to celebrate the occasion,  there's an anniversary event!  There's a huge birthday cake in the capital city of each faction,  and deavas are invited to light a candle,  which will endow them with the blessings of Aion.   The message:  get out there and start grinding mobs!  You'll need to in order to get an Aether Flame,  which is the event item that's exchanged by the NPCs in Sanctum and Pandamonium for a candle.   The Aether Flames
are somewhat of a rare drop during this event.  I haven't gotten one yet,  but my cleric alt did from an Earth Spirit in Heiron while on the Fast Track server.    If you haven't gotten one yet,  its not a problem,  because the effects of the candle buffs extend to a large radius (100 meters) around the daeva who lights the candle.  In other words,  just stand around the cake for a while and you'll receive the buffs from the candle just lit by the lucky deava who did get an Aether Flame!
There are 3 kinds of candles (buffs) to choose from:

1. Blazing, which triples the leveling speed,
2. Magical,  which triples the drop rate, and
3. Spiritual,  which recovers 2000 DP,  increases attack speed by 10% and reduces cast time by 10%

These buffs last for 4 hours.  Good luck on getting those Aether Flames,  but if you don't have the time to grind for them,  they can be bought from the Black Cloud Marketplace.  They're on sale
until Oct. 10th. 

A Pic From the Fools Day Event

The latest Aion event celebrates April Fools Day.   There arent any quests associated with this event,  just a fun bunch of mobs from some of Aion's instances such as Steel Rake,  Haramel,  and Dark Poeta.  I was

near Altar of Avarice a couple of days ago,  and I saw this mob: 

 Its Tahabata from Dark Poeta and you'll only see him if you do the "S" run,  which is the highest level of difficulty,  so most ppl never see him.  During this event he's a much tamer lvl 52 (?) mob who isn't that hard to kill :).

The Harvest Revel Festival



Me talking to Blair

 Theres a new festival that started yesterday in Aion called the Harvest Revel Festival.  Following on the heels of the Ascension Festival,  it's been a seamless stream of back to back festivals for the last month.  For this
festival,  there are 2 quests:  What Witches Wear,  a 10 time rep quest,  and a second, also a 10x rep quest , that's based on character level.  It's the same for the Asmos,  just with different quest names.  To start the quests,  talk to Blair in Sanctum or Witcha in Pandamonium. 
The first quest asks players to obtain "castings",  pictures of the witches from their younger days.  The game directs players to go to the pvp arena of Sanctum or Pandamonium,  and kill Shulack Sugarcrooks,  naughty
shulacks who stole the castings.  Thats only one way to get the castings ;  they drop from mobs throughout the game,  which is good because I have to say that the idea of putting players in the arena was pretty lame.
The drop rate is bad,  I'm talking like 1 out of 5 if not worse,  and everyone's competing for every single
shulack that spawns!   Accidents happen,  tempers start to flare,  and since this is all going on in the pvp zone,  you can figure out the rest.  I was AOE'd by a glad,  which  startled me,  then later I was rooted by a
ranger,  which really got on my nerves,  so I pounded him out of the arena.  No,  it wasn't brutality,  he was lvl 52.
So,  in my opinion, a thumbs down to NC for that!  I think they should've placed them throughout the land zones of the game,  that would've been better. 
The second quest,  based on char lvl,  took me to Heiron for killing Senior Mage Souls and a lepharist lady,  her name might've been Senior Witch Hunter.  These quests reward with different kinds of bundles,  which contain a big variety of items:  manastones great and small,  event dyes,  event outfits - some perma, some temp,  event drinks,  enchantment stones,  medals and power shards. 
I'm on rep 2 of 10 on the Heiron quest,  and as for the "castings" quest,  I'm gonna just wait for world drops and skip the coliseum.  I'll post some pics soon :)

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. 

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.