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