OMFG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltW0IX7Qa6A

And the Crowds Rejoice!

From the official forums, and I quote:

"Good morning Daevas!

As you probably noticed, we've completed a server wide reboot without much notice on a day that we typically don't perform maintenance. It's only fair that we keep you in the loop and make sure you know what's going on. Over the last week we've been working on a list, we've been checking it twice, and today we found out who was naughty or nice. Ban Hammer Claus just came to town. When the servers come back online, nearly 16,000 accounts will have been removed from the game. If your account was banned, please read the following FAQ. "

You can read all of the gory details here.

25-28, The Abyss, Nochsana Training Grounds, Ice Claw and a New Guild

What a week!  As you can tell by the title, I've been a busy Ranger!

Here's a Lollipop!

So yes, it looks like Mojeaux (pronounced "Mojo") has become my "Main".  I don't know if it was a conscious decision or rather just the way things worked out so far, but in any case, Mojeaux is now 28 and poor Mori is still languishing at 24.  Last time we talked Mojeaux was 24 and working hard to hit 25 so he could finally get into the Abyss.  Mission accomplished!

The Abyss Gate in Morheim

The journey to 25 didn't seem all that long and I was fortunate enough to get into quite a few good PUG's that certainly made the time go by quickly.  Once at 25, I was also fortunate enough to find groups in need of my bow in, of all places, the Nochsana Training Camp. 

It's probably THE best place to score some really good XP once you hit 25.  From my understanding, it's a great place to grind XP all the way until you hit 29.  Besides the great XP (20K+ per mob), it's also probably the most fun I've had in game so far ~ well, PVE anyway.  The most fun of course is Elyos hunting :-)

Ice Claw is also a very good place to farm for XP once you get the quests at 27.  The XP is on par with that you get from NTC and unlike NTC, which has a 17 hour cool down timer, there is no cool down timer so you can do it as many times as you like.  Getting there was a lot more challenging than defeating the boss.  He was ridiculously easy once we got the adds out of the way.

Ice Claw Boss Karhel going Down

By the time I was done Sunday evening, I found myself at 28.  I also found myself a member of a small, casual~friendly guild that looks like I will fit into quite nicely.  I happened upon these folks on my first trip to the NTC and was offered membership in their guild, after our successful run.  All in all I had a great time this past week and continue to love this game.  Hopefully there will be more play time in the upcoming holiday week as I've set my sights squarely on hitting level 30.  If I don't post again by then, Happy Turkey Day all!

Network Blues

The Network Nazi's have struck! Actually, the Blogspot site, which as you all know hosts this and many other blogs, has finally been blocked by the company firewall. I guess this was inevitable. Anyway, since I don't have a lot of time to squander away (I prefer to squander what little time I have playing, not posting - Tyvm!) I prefer to peck out my blog updates at work during my lunch hour or breaks. Unfortunately I cannot do that any longer due to the above circumstances. So currently I'm debating on just closing down the shop (blog)or just moving it to another host (wordpress is still accessible from work). I'm really on the fence about this too. On the one hand, I like blathering about AION, but on the other hand, I really haven't had too much to blather about between levels 22 and now, with Mojeaux at least, 25 (yep, he's in the Abyss). Currently I'm working with Morituri to get him into the Abyss and he's sitting at about 1/3 away from 24 and running between Morheim and Brusthonin completing what quest there are (I try as much as I can to not do the repeatable quests more than 2-3 times)and grinding out the remaining gap between levels.


I've noticed that a few more of my fellow bloggers have given up on the game in the space of a week or two, Pitrelli at Kill That Cheerleader being the latest. I'm saddened by this but can understand. I still believe AION to be a good, solid MMO that will be around for foreseeable future, so therefore, for the time being, it will continue to get my gaming dollars. That being said, I also believe that it is not the huge groundbreaking MMO that everyone has been seeking. I mean, as much as I like it, EQ it's not. Anyway, I will hopefully have time a little later to post again about my first experiences in the Abyss or it might just be a post letting you guys know where I've moved the blog to. Until then ... Azphelumbra!

Ranger's Night Out...

On the Prowl

The Ranger is really starting to grow on me.  In fact, I think it's a lot closer to becoming my main after this weekend's bit of fun.  I hit 22 late last week and also came into quite a few new skills as well.  So armed with new skills and a wad of cash (over 250k!) I headed to the nearest broker and promptly bought myself a full set of Revenge leather gear.  It really wasn't that expensive and I'm really digging how cool Mojeaux looks in it.  So far, I have to say it's my favorite looking set.

                   Brusthonin

So anyway, new threads and new skills weren't the only new things that I ended up getting.  Luckily, at 22 I also picked up a few more quests for the Brusthonin and Morheim areas.  Brusthonin's quests mainly dealt with the area in the lower left quadrant of the map, the Havenjak Farm and Cemetary and these were basically a bunch of "kill X amount of these mobs and X amounts of those mobs and bring me back the result" type of affairs.  Nothing fancy.  The mobs themselves consisted mainly of Frightcorns, over-sized bugs and some undead types who had their own mini boss named Supervisor Gillers or something like that that had to be killed as well.  After completing those quests and not wanting to repeat the repeatable ones, I decided to head off to Morheim to see what I might find there...

Morheim

  

Well, Morheim was a blast!  Aside from the new quests (got new ones once I hit 23) there also happened to be a lot of Elyos action going on in just about every corner of the map.  My first contact came early on in my adventures on Saturday morning.  I was grouped up with a fellow Ranger that I had just met and we were in the process of making our way to The Fortress of Spirits in order to complete a quest that was giving us both a bit of trouble (too many Elyos camping the site) when we ran into Candylynn...

Die Pidgeon! Die!

Candy gave us a bit of trouble, being as how she was level 32 and we were both just 22, but in the end, after a long and running fight, in which I even went Mau on her ass, we got her.

Mau form anyone?!?

As fate (aka the wife) would have it, I had to take a break after that fight (something about stinky dogs and all that).  Needless to say, that really sucked too because my adrenalin was up and I was longing for some more PvP action... which luckily I got when I managed to log back on an hour later.  I logged on and happened to be at the right place at the right time to join an Elyos hunting group that had sprouted up to combat the recent incursion of pidgeons.  We had a good and fruitful hunt.

 Three dead Elyos...

 

Danmaku and Kwan, dead and dying...

 

Krausen the Cleric didn't make it...

 

But, Cashel, a bad ass Gladiator, whooped our collective butts

all by himself!!!

All in all it was a great weekend that had me wishing I was 25 and able to hit the Abyss at will...

Morheim and Mojeaux's 22

Well I finally was able to group with Mojeaux for awhile last night (almost too long as the crawl to bed began at 1am), but I do have to say it was quite a lot of fun. Here are a couple screen shots of the Morheim area.

A view looking up from Morheim with the snow falling

The waterfall next to Favyr's camp

We met up in Morheim and began our journey to start the campaign quest "Petrifying Elim".

Talking to the trees

The quest was fairly easy, kill a couple Spriggan Gatherers until an essence was dropped, run from X to Y, and back to X, and then it was complete. Then came the question of what to do next... We both had some [spy] quests but neither of us had hunted down or been through a rift yet. So we decided to go fight Elyos while trying to do the "Guardian Spirit" quest, well we didn't decided the Elyos part... they did. It was quite a jog from one side of the Morheim area almost to the other to begin the quest.


We started out just grinding the nearby spirits for the Archon Ancient Weapons, when a group of Elyos rounded the corner and I soon found my death wings out. Mojeaux soon found a similar fate and a new strategy for the evening was devised. As it seemed the area we were trying to quest in was infested with doves, we would simply grind out the rest of the evening until Mojeaux hit 22.

Grats on 22 Mojeaux!!

All in all it was a fun night of grouping. I wish we had been on the better end of the PvP, but then again we weren't hunting Elyos. Well I guess technically we were hunting the spirits of dead Elyos... but you know what I'm getting at.

What's with all the negative waves, man?

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?"

Ok, I have to admit that I'm getting a little concerned/annoyed about all the negativity I'm seeing being directed at AION in alot of the forums and blogs that I read on a regular basis.  Concerned because I'm somehow letting it start to affect the way I look at AION.  Call me weak in my convictions, since I know I shouldn't let it bother me, however, I can't help but wonder at the validity of some of the rants currently circulating around the internet and the impact on potential new players looking for something besides their normal fare to spend their gaming dollars on.

Syp at Bio Break takes his latest (albeit half hearted) shot at AION in his post AION: Fallen Angel   while Syncaine at Hard Core Casual nearly pees himself with delight talking about AION's struggles in one of his latest offerings; AION: Eminem's "Kim" track, final verse, final line, a post in which, like a lot of his posts, he couldn't resist plugging that POS called Dark Fall.  Maybe he just likes the game? /shrug.  I'm not attacking Syn here, because he's certainly entitled to his negative opinion (would be more credible if he played the game though) but I would think that a guy, who clings so desperately to a mediocre game like Dark Fall, would understand the life cycle of an MMO a little better and not be so hard on a game that's not even  2 months old yet.  Maybe give it a chance to develop it's own dedicated fan base?  Kind... of... like... Dark Fall... maybe?  Just saying...

And as if those weren't enough negative waves, the head primate at Screaming Monkeys decided to throw his two cents in with his AION crash and burn? post, in which he goes off all Nostradamus-like on us and predicts one of two ignominious ends for AION, all the while citing outrageous and unsubstantiated (which he freely admits) numbers.
  

And that's just the blogosphere.  We haven't even touched on the the forums which are, if nothing, chock full of whiny ex-WoWers, crowing about the failings of AION and how their MMO is better than your MMO and that they're going back to WoW and blah.. blah.. blah.  Two words for you my friends: Go Already!
  

Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

I guess I'm just having issues trying to wrap my head around why, after trying a game, and not finding it to their liking, some people have to stick around and try to ruin the experience for someone else.  It's not enough to say that they don't like a game and be done with it. Oh No.  These folks have to go and not only thoroughly trash the title, as if it had somehow just run over their dog or stole their girlfriend (yeah, right!), but then they cross the line and proceed to insult those people who have decided to keep playing the title and talk down to them as if they were some incredibly retarded dip shit... and for what?  For having the audacity to continue to play a game which they had deemed unworthy?!?  Gimme a break!

The way I see it, AION will survive.  It's not the best MMO ever, nor is it the worst.  Currently I'm having a ton of fun playing it,  and... isn't that what it's all about?

Lag. La < * * * Request timed out>

Well thankfully I haven't had to deal with this too much as RL seems to have pulled me away from any significant gaming time. On Sat the 31st I logged on to Aion, and began my aether crystal gathering around Altgard. It seemed a bit laggy, I would start to extract and start to get concerned as I hadn't managed to extract 1 crystal while while my flight time was almost out. I logged out feeling a bit frustrated but figured it was the weekend, and maybe I had hit a peak.

Will I make it?

It wasn't until yesterday when I was perusing through the forums and happened to find one about lag issues and Time Warner Cable, that I even gave it a second thought. So I decided to investigate:


There were soo many threads and postings on this issue, but what amazed me was no responses from NCSoft. It was confusing to say the least reading everyone's theories about where the problem was, amongst all the support bashing, and threats of subscription canceling. Finally at 900pm on Monday the 2nd there was the first posting from NCSoft that I read on the subject:


Well last night I was finally able to log on for just a little while. And the lag was gone. I guess I'm just glad I wasn't dealing with this issue like some had for a couple days. I do have to say I was starting to grow concerned over the lack of response from support in reading the forums.

Halloween Tricks and Treats!

Ok, so like a lot of you, I felt that the Halloween "event" left a lot to be desired.  Let's be honest, it sort of sucked and would've have been a complete and utter failure... had they not provided me with this:

Boo!

Ok, so I'm easy, but I just love my Jack O' Lantern head gear!  What can I say?  There's just something perversely fun about running around looking like the Headless Horseman and swinging a huge sword to boot!

Anyhoo.., after getting in some group time with Crowe (and hating it), this weekend saw both Mori and Mojeaux making inroads into two new locations.  Morheim and another place called Brusthonin.

I was able to get out and take a better look around Morheim since my last post and I opened up quite a bit more of the map as a result.  

Mithus, the Elyos Gladiator must have thought I looked like an easy target because he decided to jump me at full health (I later found out he was level 25).  Not the best recipe for success in my opinion, to take on a full health Templar, but maybe he knew something I didn't.  In a blink of an eye he had me down to below half of my hit points!  It took me a few seconds to finally get my wits about me and start to fight back.

It wasn't long after that and I was actually starting to give better than I was getting.  I guess Mithus wasn't up for a long fight and must have decided that he wasn't going to win it anytime soon because he turned tail and ran like a little girl.  He was FAST too.  He must have used some sort of speed scroll on himself or something because he ran away from me at speeds that I hadn't seen before.  I need to get me some of that!

Anyway, the rest of the weekend saw both Mori and Mojeaux grinding out quests in the Brusthonin area.  I liked this area a little bit better than Morheim at 20 because the quests there start at around level 20 as opposed to Morheim's 23'ish.  In any case, Mori is now at 22 and Mojeaux is about 25% short of 21.  Getting closer to the coveted 25

As an aside note, like I mentioned above, I got into my first groups with Crowe my assassin and definitely didn't like the experience.  Maybe I'm to used to standing in front of the mob or something, because I just couldn't seem to get into the whole assassin m.o. thing.  As a result, I think I will shelve Crowe for now, bringing him out on those occasions when I get bored or burned out on the Ranger and the Templar.