Good news manastone failure being removed

Deathgod881

It has me interested in playing again.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2015/01/21/wings-over-atreia-aion-introduces-exclusives-for-returning-pla/

"If you haven't checked back into Aion in a while, now might be the time to start plotting your return. Next week NCsoft is introducing a special new experience for those who have been away from the game for more than 30 days; it includes special zones called Abbeys that provide exclusive bonuses as well as quests and gear upgrades. Even better, if one of the reasons you left was the frustration involved in losing all your equipment's manastones when you failed to socket a final stone, you'll be even happier to learn that that particular mechanic is being removed from the game! That's right: Aion players will no longer risk losing already successfully socketed manastones when trying to put another one in (a much needed change that I championed years ago!).

Devs have designed a new, permanent edition to the game that offers exclusive benefits to the returning players to help get them up-to-speed and engaged in the world. These two instances, Wisplight Abbey for the Elyos and Fatebound Abbey for the Asmodians, are located in the main cities and are areas just like Convent of Marchutan or the Priory. Only players who haven't logged in for at least 30 days prior to returning are eligible to enter the Abbeys, a benefit that extends to every level 10+ Daeva on the account. Admittance privileges, however, expire after 30 days.

In the Abbeys, players will find quests, buffs, and other bonuses (like the Energy of Repose recharge pad) to help them speed up their leveling out in the wilds of Atreia. As a bonus, some of these buffs -- like boosted instance rewards -- will transfer to all members of the returning player's party, so there's definitely incentive to join up with returning folks! The tasks offered in these instances are focused on players level 46 and above to give a boost in order to get to the endgame content. Although any level 10+ character can enter, the quests will not be available to the lower levels. As Orlikowski explained, "Once you've picked up your quests, you can use a series of portals to take you all around Atreia to complete your Abbey quests."

And a choir of Daevas sang praises! Sometimes it take a while for my Aion wishes to come true, but there have certainly been times when my wish list dwindled because certain things were actually granted, like housing, block lists, mounts, and specialized quest item and currency cubes. But one of my earliest desires was never fulfilled -- until now. I couldn't even tell you how many times I had pleaded for a change in how manastone socketing worked in Aion. In 2011's Twelve Days of Solorius in 2011, I wrote,

It may have taken a while, but my wish is finally being granted in the next update. And not only that, but it's being done in a way that's even better than my own suggestion. I'd proposed to have the next-to-last stone blow up, much like you lose a level of enchantment when you fail. However, what NCsoft is doing instead is just lowering the chance of success for each manastone while leaving all previously slotted stones intact even if the next socket attempt fails. Devs have found that with this new system, "players will require significantly fewer stones (60% fewer) Manastones to completely socket their gear." Talk about good news! If you are like me, you've gone through 100+ manastones on a single item before; in fact, a couple of my pieces still have one open slot because I just didn't dare chance it anymore and was going broke trying.

t might be a good thing that the manastone mechanic is not mirroring the enchantment system because that system is getting a big change. Currently, players can enchant their equipment up to +15; nothing about that is changing. What is changing is the fact that +15 is no longer the cap for enchanted gear! In fact, there is no cap. In this new Breakthrough System, players can eradicate the enchantment cap and enchant their weapons and armor as high as they want to.

Using a special "Breakthrough Tool" and a "Breakthrough Stone," players literally break through the enchantment cap barrier. Even better, breaking through is 100% guaranteed! Want a +52 dagger? It is possible. Additionally, when the breakthrough item goes beyond +20 enhancement, one enhancement skill is randomly granted to the item. Even Purified items can go through this procedure. That's a lot of power, so what's the catch? The catch is no matter how high you enchant the piece, one failure in enchanting will drop it back down to +15 and you will have to start all over, including using a new tool and stone.

If you are feeling very brave and inordinately lucky, you can acquire your Breakthrough Tools from general goods merchant NPCs in both capital cities and stones from the bosses of some instances. Alternately, players can use another copy of the exact item they are attempting to Breakthrough instead of using a stone (helpful if you keep winning an item you already have!). "