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 :)

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 :)

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 :)