This is my first in a series on the Esoterrace, an instance built for players lvl 50 and up. I have to say
that out of the 5 times I've run it, I've had maybe one good run. I ran it yesterday and it was the worst run ever! We had 2 glads (55 & 50) , me, and a cleric. By all accounts we should've been able to make a good run, but somehow no dice. It didn't help that the 55 glad left in mid instance, and then the 50 glad left after the first fail on Dalia Charlands (a boss of the instance for those new to Eso). He whispered me a minute after leaving saying he thought the heals sucked (!), and that he'd run it with me again but not with that cleric. It's little conflicts like this that can ruin a run, and it definitely did. At that point in time I wasn't ready to give up though. After all, theres a 21 or so hours cd on the instance and since my previous run was also a fail, I wasn't leaving the place empty handed this time! We
picked up a couple of sorcs (52 & 55) and tried again. Close but no cigar. Dalia is an optional boss so we ditched Dalia and moved on. After a pretty smooth run through the lab we were finally at the first official boss of the instance that you can't opt out of fighting - Captain Murugan. "There I was tanking Captain Murugan..." I'm thinking thats a good line for the start of a comedy routine for an audience of Aion players :D.
Well after 3 tries, ( I won't bother with the gory details), we recruited another cleric, a friend of the 55 sorc, and we finally succeeded. After looting the AP vaults, we continued on, bravely thinking we would show Warden Surama, the final boss of the instance, a thing or two. To make a long story short, after trying about 4 times and failing, we called it a night. Maybe it wasn't the worst run of Eso ever in the loot sense - I got some AP relics, a decent handful of balaur mats, and tons of junk loot. I lived up to my goal of not leaving the instance empty handed, which was a saving grace of the whole thing. It was however, definitely the worst run ever in how time consuming and grueling it was to get through the place. The moral of this story? Don't run Eso without a plate in your group. The End.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
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
AP Gear
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
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:
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
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
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
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.
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.
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