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Story of a EX-AION Junkie and my desperate search for a new game
Hellfyre420
Member Posts: 861
Ok, let me start off by saying i'am a NEWB when it comes to MMO's.. The only true MMO i ever really played was AION, and i LOVED it, the first few months of it it that is.. With that said, i'am not new to gameing, i've been playing consoles for as long as i can remember, and played DIablo 2 from launch to LOD to up until like 2-3 years ago.. I actually helped shed some light on the meteor+bonewall dupe lol (if anyone knows l3unny.)
Anyways... I never really wanted to get started on MMO's because of all the horror storys of getting addicted and stuff.. But i already spent every minute of my free time not working playing console video games, so i figured those horror storys need not apply to me, how much more time could i spend anyways? Hah, within weeks i was putting in 8-12hour days on AION lol..
Being a fan of RPGs (they are my favorite genre of video games, ever since i got my hands on my game boy lol) i really loved the style of questing and leveling up, even tho the quests were all sorta catch and fetch i was having a good time watching my XP bar go up and and gearing my toon.. I played 1-20 pretty much solo (this was before they put the lvl restrictions for talking cuz gold spammers) and chatted with other players time to time.. I had my first few experiences of group questing in the kraall areas, and i loved it.. And i couldn't of picked a better class, being a new to MMO's a cleric fit me well because all i really had to do was watch peoples HP bars and DPS as needed.. It was simple, yet highly entertaining and rewarding especially when better items dropped..
Anyways, long story short, i joined a few legions, met a lot of cool people, downloaded vent, got really close to these people, then i joined a new legion where we worked from rank 11 on server to rank 3, this is when i was having the TIME of my GAMEING-life lol.. I had made a lot of close friends, we were all within the "prime" levels at the "prime" time of AION, most of us in high 30's to early 40's participateing in fort raids every night (this is when fort raids wern't really inbalanced on fregion and ppl still showed up to em) grinding elite abyss guards in groups, farming world bosses (but mostly that was done by other legions.) All was well, i figured i'd be on AION forever.. But then, the cracks started to show as time passed by..
More and more people hit 50 in the legion.. Finnaly, THE GRIND WAS OVER.. Now we could all really focus on fort raids and pvp (we were a very heavy pvp legion), but thats when i noticed people hitting 50 one day, and then going absent at days first, then weeks, then obviously quitting.. Half the people i know in my legion quit weeks after hitting 50.. Eventually our legion leader just stopped logging on, he eventually came back but by then most people had quit or joined another legion, and he only came back to tell us he was quitting permenantly..
At first i wondered why people would just up and quit after hitting 50?? Putting in all these months to get there, get the gold gear, and kiteing in idratu just to quit when you finnaly END the grind?? Then i realized, oh, MIRAGENTS, my biggest gripe with AION.. Pretty much THE BEST gear in the game (besides maybe lvl 50 abyss gear but that'll take months to get rly) was now given to you thru a quest line, i didn't like that idea, especially since earlie i spent WEEKS farming platnium coin gear, something i thought would last me thru end game, or until i found better in DP.. All that met nothing, not even gear found in Dark Poeta comes close to miragents..
So you're pretty much forced into getting it.. I mean, you could chose to stick with plat coin gear, but you'll get pwnt within seconds in pvp to someone in miragents, so its like, you spend MONTHS grinding to get to 50 only to get owned by other 50's?? That wasn't gonna happen.. I had to get miragents.. I got the boots easy, i waited for the NPCs to spawn and got the gloves, i PAINFULLY grinded out the mobs for the pauldrons.. Then, i moved onto the the bloodstains for the leggings.. I heard the horror storys, and i knew this was gonna make or break AION for me, especially since 90% of my friends that quit AION after hitting 50 quit because of this part of the miragents.. To make the story some-what short, i spent the next 2-3 months farming bloodstains, failing to proc 4 times, on the last proc attempt i spent 20mil (all the kinah i banked) to get the remaining stains, and failed again.. I jus couldn't stand the fact that right when you hit 50 you think the grinds over, but no its really just beggening, and not only that the fact that you're end game was based on pure RNG luck really bothered me.. You could theoretically go FOREVER without proccing you're leggings, there is no true light to the end of the tunnel if you're unlucky..So, i emailed NCSoft, complained in there forums (this is when about 30 posts were about how lame the miragent legging quest was) and waited for something to be done..
It seems like as all this was happening pvp in AION was dieing out.. Rifts were non-existant at 50.. Dredgion was fun, but it only pops 3 times a day, 2/3's of the games the other team trains or rushes right to the cptn with out even faceing you to pvp.. The fort raids, oh yes, my favorite part of AION, the thing i was BANKING on to keep me going, my heart litterally pounded when i first entered the abyss and laid eyes onto these massive forts, imageineing the battles that would come (only to find out you 1/2 the ppl that participate will constantly d/c, which was later "patched" even tho fort raids were always a laggy buisness) No, not even that was keeping my interest.. After the first month fort raids became less and less interesting, because of factions beefing within eachother.. One legion on the same faction wouldnt show because the other was getting its name on the fort, so it'd always end up the asmos have the fort while the elyos fight, then when the elyos kiss and make up the asmos get in a fight with eachother.. Went back and forth until eventually my faction (the elyos) pretty much jus owns all the forts and the asmos rly can't take them back being outnumbered and outgeared..
It was clear that AION was not all it was cracked up to be for me.. Such great ideas, with so many annoying restrictions.. So i canceled my sub and sold my character to a legion-mate for $200.. My months of time, sold off to the highest bidder.. A bitter taste in my mouth knowing that this quest-line took many of my online friends away from me (some of them i talked to more then i did my brother or father lol) and was now takeing me away from the friends i had left that stuck with the game as long as i had (90% of them were friends who proc'd there leggings on the 1st try tho lol, lucky bastards.)
Anyways, that's my story, and thats sorta where im at now.. I've gone back to console gameing but it feels like i've already beaten all the new games that are out, and the ones I missed while playing AION. I beat FF13, metro 2033, batman arkhyum asylum, splinter cell conviction, many many more all within the last 2 months.. My last two game purchases were Fallout 3 GOTY edition (never did beat the DLC, jus the game itself) which i've banked quite a few hours into, and i also jus got Demon Souls which is pretty good, but not somehting i play hours on end, and both games don't really excite me when i play them, nor am i excited to play them.. Actually the ONLY console game that i'am looking foward to is Red Dead Redemption, and that comes out in a month, THATS FOREVER lol..
So, i joined MMORPG.com to see what the good folks here think i should do.. I'am not going back to AION, as like i said the fort raids are dead, and the pvp is lacking, and i know that end-game is non-existant on the game.. I really would like to find a pretty pvp-heavy game.. I guess my ideal game would be a MMO giving you control of a customizable toon (able to gear up ect) in a PvP-Faction based world with large-scale PVP battles.. Group questing and being able to make friends with other players is a must, i really liked AIONs group instances (even tho most dragged on too long imo) and the leading reason i came back each day was the relationships i made within my legion and doing world bosses, pvp, and instances with them.. A good story with the MMO would be nice too, but i'm sure thats asking too much lol..
As far as i know the few MMO's that stick out for me are these.. The obvious World Of Warcraft and its Expansions.. Almost everyone i met on AION had played WoW, and all were surprised i hadn't.. Some ppl told me WoW was no good (that was after they played for 1-2 years and quit for whatever reason lol) others told me it was great, like AION but better and more developed in almost all ways.. But, my worrys with WoW is i'd be starting fresh on a game most people have been playing for years.. Will i be able to still make friends at a early lvl that are new to the game like myself? Also i never really hear much about WoW's PvP, is it well implemented?? I liked AIONs pvp, especially the fact that u can fly, but theres also a downside you could be ganked at anytime which leads to dieing in about 2-3 seconds lol.. And how is the crafting in the game? Are crafted items usefull? Is the system well developed? I was not a fan of AIONS crafting, i mean, i liked gathering the mats and the designs but i hated the low proc rate and fact that crafted items sucked unless u spend hundreds of bloodstains to craft some little pair of glasses, wich dosn't make much sense when you could sale those bloodstains to someone doing miragents and make tons more kinah then you would crafting with em..
Another game i was looking at was Fallen Earth.. This was actually the game i was gonna get before i decided to go with AION.. I see that its faction-based, has a interesting crafting system (which might be too deep and complicated for my tastes), and is really pvp-heavy.. Some of the things that turn me off about it is the fact most reveiwers say the game is not well explained in its tutorial and might confuse players, especially someone like myself who is new to MMO's.. Anyone know if this has been addressed?? Another thing i'am worried about is the popularity of the game, i had been following Fallen Earth since they showed a trailer of it on G4 years before its release, and for me i built up some hype for it.. But i know that others didn't think so highly of it, and it went under the radar for a lot of ppl.. Is there even a community left for Fallen Earth? And how easy would it be for a new player to fit in with that community?
Then theres Eve Online.. A week before i quit AION i decided to give Eve a try, and downloaded the 2 week trial.. Much to my surprise i really liked it, the space travel was a trip and i loved watching my ship travel from place to place.. I never really got into it to much tho because i eventually got Mass Effect 2 and spent most of the 2nd week of my trial playing ME2 instead.. But from what i can tell with Eve is the questing is something new, and refreshing for me compared to AION.. The PvM is a blast for me atleast, but i'am a little worried about how far you can customize you're ship.. How fun mineing would be.. How often large scale battles come up.. And what worried me most was the harsh death penalties, given i never lost my ship once within my week trial, but it does worry me since im so into pvp how often i'd be dieing and loseing my ship.. I also can't see how much of a story they could implement in a game like Eve...
Also how is Star Trek online? I love what the space travel in the game looks like, but i'am very turned off by all the low reviews and complaints of the boring ground combat.. Have these been addressed?? And how customizable is you're toon in this game?
So... Any thoughts and opinions on those video games or ones i didn't listed which you think i'd like would be nice.. I'am sorry if this a little of a long read, you can skip my whole AION-life-story if you'd like and jus help me with decideing which MMO to play next, but i thought by giving a little insight into what i liked and didnt like about AION (the only MMO i really ever played) would help you guys help me decide which MMO to play next.. Shoot, i might just wait for the KOTOR MMO *drool* if i have too.. But i jus got taxes back so i figured now is a better time then any to get into something new..
Sorry about the spelling errors, and no i'am not bashing AION, it's a great game just not for me!
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Comments
Ok, heres the deal.....Wait...What?
I got about halfway through this before I decided I was bored, and stopped reading. You could've made this post into two paragraphs.
I don't even know what this post was about.
The sleeper awakes...and rides his dirtbike to the mall.
long story short kthx
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Just sort of skimmed it, but it seems PvP is important to you. So, I recommend WAR, Fantasy Earth Zero and . . . WoW. Actually pretty serious about WoW. Yeah, the open world PvP is more or less non existent, but you'd be doing a disservice to yourself to not at the very least try their PvP systems out. I think the BGs are a blast, and I've actually considered cracking down and finding an Arena team personally.
When's the movie being released?
Seriously man, you cant expect any of us to care so much to read ALL of that.
Refer two posts above to the dumbed down version
and yea.. Right now i'am really leaning towards just giving in and getting WoW.. I mean, i probably will eventually get into it anyways.. How is the pvp in the game? And how easy would it be for someone like myself (newb) to build up a char that will contend with others in pvp? And is there any faction vrs faction large scale battles?
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
PvP is what you make of it. BG's, imo, are quite fun. Building up a PvP char isn't too hard, especially with the dual spec system, but your best bet would be to surf some sites like Wowhead for build ideas and so on. The only large scale battle in the game atm is Wintergrasp, which tends to favor one side over the other depending on the server. You can start getting into BGs at lvl 10, and theoretically lvl all the way to 80 doing just BGs. Be a hell of a grind, but it can be done. Arena seems to be more "hardcore" and honestly, I don't know much about it.
okay i didn't read half what u read (I kinda read 10%) but u loved aion and new ur in the LFG forum so I suggest you try WoW, don't buy any expansions just try it. for a new person I can't expect any1 getting bored of it once u get into it. an if u already posted somewhere in ur text "I've played wow" then I'm sorry.
but ur new to the mmo thing right? I'm here to save you some money and tell you. try some of the free 2 play games, cuz they are pretty much as good as the p2p games ATM! ddo(recommended), runes of magic, allods, and I might have forgotten some games worth mentioning. I can't give you any advice on p2p games. they're.... just not worth paying for.
Hmm sounds fun.. So im assumeing WoW is a lot like AION when it comes to loot dropping and the pvp system (besides the fact u can fly in AION) and wintergrasp sounds fun, that was my biggest worry with WoW is that there'd be no large scale pvp battles.. And about BG's, is there a queue wait for that game?? One thing i hated about AION was only being able to enter the dredgion (AIONs BG's per say) 3 times a day, which met i couldn't rly pvp more then 3 times a day lol..
@surstorming thanks for the advice man
yea i'am really new to MMO's, i jus played a lot of Diablo 2 and a few months of AION, that's about all i have under my belt atm.. But, now that you mentioned F2P games i did play Rune Scape for about 2 days, and couldn't stand it.. I've yet to find a good F2P game with good graphics, devs online to help, and one as well put together as a P2P.. Then again i havn't checked out any of the ones u listed, i'll defiantly go do some research on em..
And Surstorming i know you said i should buy WoW first w/o the expansions.. So, my question is, do the expansions just add onto the end of the original World Of Warcraft or do they effect the whole game from starting point to ending point? Cuz if the expansions effect the starting of the game then i'll prolly jus buy em all at once, but if i can play thru the first World Of Warcraft w/o worrying about missing anything because of not owning the expansions then i'll jus buy them afterwords.. Idk if anyone can help me with that? lol
Ok, well ima go read some guides on WoWhead.. maybe i can find a guide that explains the basics of WoW to begginers and make something out of it.
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
err u might wanna try the trial version its like wow without any expansions, and what the expansion add in total is, 2 new races, 2 new beginner areas, 1 new class(hero class dunno what blizz has in mind about them and no they aren't better than the other classes)
and the rest is pretty much high leveled stuff so try the trial, if u like it and think u want to play in the endgame(which some people say the fun starts at 80) then you should definitely buy the full game. and when u get bored of it remember than this is currently the best mmorpg 2004-2010. wow has everything, when u play other mmorpgs u notice what they lack what WoW had, as for myself I've played wow and loved it but it got boring after 4 years and I think the game isn't as good as it was before.
but since ur casual this game will be perfect for you, this game has 9 million active subscriptions which is about atleast 80% of the mmorpg market (excluded some korean mmorpgs).
Well, first of all, the game is for you just not all of it.
And you are going to find this with every game. Every one.
You are not going to find a game that doesen't incorporate somethign you hate. also, given all the time you put into Aion and how much you claimed you loved the experience I would think that the game is "still" for you but for a few things.
It's hard to recommend a game for you because you will then come back with the exact same post only with perhaps something else you don't like. We all could.
However, as you said, EVE is a way to go. but that game does have a lot to it.
You could also try Tera when it comes out but besides some beta testers no one has played it.
Possibly warhammer as that is a decent pvp game. I might also suggest Lineage 2 which is a great game but will take quite a bit of effort in order to catch up. It's very doable but you will have to be proactive.
However, all in all I think you have just discovered some of the downfalls to mmo games. They rely upon players and player interaction and players come and go and eventually move on.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I actually read all of that. So I will write a lot too. Sorry about that. This is my opinion on WoW pvp as a long-time wow player.
Once you hit 80 and want to pvp, there are several venues for you:
-----------------
#1. Battlegrounds (BGs): these are instanced matches with teamsizes from 10 to 40 people. There are six BGs in total:
-Warsong Gulthch (WSG) - 10v10 capture the flag. First to 3 flags wins, 20 minute limit.
-Arathi Basin (AB) - standard hold-nodes-for-points. Five capturable points, usually takes around 20 mins to complete.
-Alterac Valley - 40v40 zergfest. Fairly big sized map, the objective is to kill the enemy general inside the enemy's fortress. The map has many capturable points, but all-in-all this is a standard zergfest where the two teams rush straight for each other's general. Takes 5-10 minutes most of the time, although sometimes game drag out into something more epic.
-Eye of the Storm - 15v15, supposedly a mix between AB and WSG. Has 4 cap point that you hold for points, and a flag in the middle that you cap and bring to you base for points.
-Strand of the Ancients - 15v15 vehicle-based BG, where you use siege engines to break down the gates around the enemy base. Once you break down all the gates leading up to artifact in the middle of the base, you win. During the match each team gets a go as an attaker or defender. 10 min each.
-Isle of Conquest - 40v40 kinda like a mix between AB, AV, and SotA. Each side has a gated fortress with a general in it, access to vehicles to break down the gates, and capturable points around the map. All of these give you points toward victory, but killing the general will auto-win the game for you.
All BGs are cross-realm, there is virtually no wait time at 80. You can do some of these while leveling, but expect to wait 10-15 min in que. You can q for these anywhere in the world.
-----------
#2. "World pvp" aka Wintergrasp. Wintergrasp was more or less "world" pvp when WotlK launched, but stress on the servers and the lag from all the players was so bad that they had to instance it. Heh, and so ended wow's attempt at world pvp. Anyway, wintergrasp is the zone on the world map, every two hours there is an instanced battle for its control. To win you have to break down the gated fortress insde the zone; basic idea is the same as Strand of the Ancient BG, just bigger on a bigger map with more shit around like additional towers that you can break down for points and multiple machine shops used to access vehicles. Again, Blizz made this instanced and I have no idea why some people continue claiming that it's world pvp. Participation is capped to either 80 or 120 on each side. It can be called world pvp on smaller servers where players don't ever reach the allowable player cap inside the zone, but not on larger realms. Winning the battle gives you access to a number of puggable bosses inside the fortress (again, all intanced) that drop gear that you would normally get from pve raids, BGs, or arena.
Killing players, and completing objectives in BGs and Wintergrasp gives you honor points that you can spend on pvp gear. Plus, in wintergrasp you also get tokens you can spend on a few odd pvp pieces from wintergrasp vendors. The pvp grind for all of the latest tier pvp gear takes at most 2-3 weeks of focused grinding.
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#3 - Instanced and ranked arena pvp. 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 death matches on small maps. This is considered the pinnacle of wow pvp. All the BG and wintergrasp grinding, for most players, is just a gear grind leading up to arena. You make a team, participate in the ranked ladder, get arena points every week based on how highly rated your team is. You spend the points on an arena 5-piece pvp set and weapons that you can only buy with the aforementioned arena points. Arena seasons last 4-5 months, every season a new tier of arena 5pc set/weapons and a new tier of BG honor gear is realesed. At the end of the season the top 0.5% of the players on the ladder get a "gladiatior" title and a neat-looking mount. The top 3%, 10%, and 30% also get lesser titles but no mount. Arena is very composition oriented, and class imbalances there as stark. It's still fun though, Blizz made an ok job at balancing, and you can safely say that each of the 10 classes has at least one spec that they can successfully arena with. Still, though, many classes/specs and team combinations are much easier to play than others so that's always a consern.
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That's all I have to say about wow pvp. It can be very fun, both arena and BGs, but it is what it is. Instanced games that have no bearing on the world. It's very streamlined, focused around ranked arena, and for someone like me its just a cycle of farming BGs for honor pieces every new season, then playing arena for the 5 pc set and weapons, and finally trying to rank up as high as possible at the end for titles. There is no world pvp, if you want world pvp you have to create it yourself. You can go out and gank badly geared 80s doing their daily quests, or get a couple of buddies and go ganking the opposing faction in their capital city, which typically ends with you being zerged by NPC guards. It's no EVE or Warhammer, these two games come to mind as revolving around meaningful pvp.
I know that in the upcoming expansion, Blizz is going to de-emphasize arena in favor of ranked BGs, but again ranked BGs is simply instanced arena gameplay on larger scale. I think they are doing it mainly to dilute the pvp class balancing issues that were so much of a pain in arena, where small team size dictated that players stick with the most overpowered combination of classes and specs. They are also adding more Wintergrasp style "world" pvp zone, but I was not thrilled at all with WG as a world pvp.
Anyway, I hope that answers some of your question about WoW pvp. Aslo, leveling in wow is a breeze compared to Aion, so if you have 1-2 months to kill, go for it. You can do BGs and even arena while leveling and you can get a taste of whether you like it early on.
Guild Wars is heavy pvp based with a storyline. Not really open world, but a lot of diverse ways of specing classes.
Lineage 2 - never played, just heard it was full-loot pvp I believe...not sure again.
WoW - would be your best bet because Aion was a...improved WoW you could say. You dont need to download a bunch of add-ons in Aion that you do in WoW. Its faster to hit end-game. You don't have as much inbalance. However WoW is a more open game, and even though I was not a fan of it, it did immerse you into it for a while. You would go Bananas for it prolly. I liked Aion because it wasn't WoW, you leveled faster, and I could fly early on. Either way WoW is more advanced than and fleshed out than Aion, I just didn't have friends on my servers in WoW. Didn't get the story either.
Short answer, WoW is probably more your style of game. thats my opinion and I appologise if I offend anyone who enjoys WoW. Just wasn't my style game.
-Maltos-
defintitely world of warcraft.
Lake Wintersgrasp is better than any huge PvP battles in Aion, it happens once every 2.5 hours and is a blast.
Endless battlegrounds where people actually fight each other instead of zerg some silly boss.
I honestly cant believe you have considered it before. You will be blown away by how much more fun you will be having when compared to Aion.
You can even PvP to level up after level 10 (for a new player though I wouldnt recommend it, you will be outmatched for a while).
The only problem is that you will be years behind some people, but once you get past level 60 you will be basically caught up and can compete. And leveling in WoW is not a grind at all. You can quest, queue for some dungeons, queue for some pvp, grind some mobs for tradeskill mats. It only gets old after the 4rth or 5th alt lol.
But it seems like you are very competent at MMORPGs so you shouldnt feel too out of place.
It will not take you nearly as long to hit 80 in WoW as 50 in Aion takes, and it is a much more enjoyable journey. Hell you can even get a friend to recruit you for 3x exp from quests and mobs til level 60. That way you can get a boost on ur main character.
Wow i never realized WoW had so many PvP options.. In AION it was just ganking, dredgion, or fort raids.. I always thought AION would be more pvp-oriented then WoW, but after reading all that i'am excited.. I actually just went and bought WoW Battle Chest + Lich King, i jus' couldn't stand having nothing to play lol.. Got me a 60 day game-time card too..
Guess it's time to go read up on a good pvp class for a beginner while it downloads
I guess it was inevitable that'd i'd eventually give WoW a try 
and the lady at Game Stop said an new expansion is comeing out later this year, so i might as well jump on now so when that new content comes out i can be a part of it..
Thanks guys.. ill keep you updated on my thoughts with WoW..
and @Sovrath... Yea, part of me really wanted to go back to AION.. But as i said, the end game is lacking and the game is dieing out (atleast on fregion) and with such a low populace the fort battles (my favorite part of the game) died down too.. I guess i coulda stuck with it, but then all i'd have to do pvp-wise is dredgion, and since you can only do that 3 times a day (realisticly 1 a day for me cuz i wouldnt be able to make the noon or midnight queues) it jus wasn't worth it for me to pay $15 a month and sink all this time into a game that only has one fun thing for me..
Like i said, when AION was new and full of people the fort raids happened often.. But as more people hit 50, and was introduced to miragents, the more people quit or jus grinded out bloodstains, eventually leading to the death of fort raids and me canceleing my sub
anyways.... damn, WoW takes forever to download :P
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Really it's quicker to level in AION? It seriously took me the better half of a year (ok actually only 4months but w/e :P) to hit 50 (8-12 hour days sometimes 4-6) and when u get to 40 it literally takes a 4-7days of kiteing mobs back and forth to jus hit one level.. I REALLY hope WoW is not like this, the solo-grind was the most boring part of AION for me (even tho i did find 2 orange items while kiteing in idratu..) I hope atleast WoW makes it effecient to lvl up in a group, cuz on AION the quickest way to lvl was kiteing elite mobs back and forth for hours on hours by you're self, and that's what most people did.
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
but you know what, wow is acutally a pretty good game.
You will find many things i wow far easier than i Aion. However, once you get to level cap, from what I understand, that is where the challenge lies.
But it seems that crafting and certainly levelign is a lot easier. The nice thing about wow is that it is very polished, very well funded and has a lot of players who are really jazzed about the game. This type of excitement really lends well to getting hyped about it.
In any case, good luck. keep us informed about how you do.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
i actually read it all. AIon-sucks end game is nothing. WoW is too into making kids happy and well games too easy to get through. Fallen Earth is great. Their is a community and the devlopers listen to the community and every last thing we have ever asked them to do. they have done it. 100% perfect customer support. gm's ingame 24/7. and ill say this im pretty good friends with a few gmrs atm. Fallen Earth also has a test server now with big patch's on they ingame population matchs that of most games and every1 is generally very helpful and likes to have fun. we even create our own ingame events and the gm's help support it :-). So if your looking for pixels and fairy crap WoW would be the game for u. if u looking for heavy pvp and tons of fun. Fallen Earth would be for you as your charcter is 100% custmizable u do ur char ur own way and style and id say about 90% of the game is craftable.nice ride selection and keeps growing and improving. and the learning curve is easy youll figure everything out fairly fast and if u need help their is a help channel and gm's around to make sure u know what you are doing.
Looks like you need to try WoW imo, the combat system is smooth and flows, I'm also resubbing this week.
WOW is alot of endless and meaning less grnding. Try Age of Conan. If you like a grownupp game with blood/goore detales and beautiful woman in DX10. The expantion is ready to lanch in 2 week. Play.com sells it at onely 18pounds with original game/30days playing time. If you have the hardwear to run it I would check it out at that low price.
WOW will set you back 13p+18p+18pound for the game 2 expantion and 60days playingtime.
Except the PvP in FE lacks in a lot of ways. If they make your faction actually matter for PvP, then it might get better, but as it stands now, FE is a solo crafters dream, but little else.
Nice post OP. The part about the leggings you took forever to grind for and could never get made me feel your pain. It's not far from the stupidest game design element I've ever read about. I see how they come to it : a way to easily create artificial "challenge" and playtime, but so artificial it ends up pissing off your playerbase. No surprise Aion doesnt do wonders nowadays.
And I'd suggest WoW too. It's a really solid game and you wont find the same bs you wrote about. I think you should enjoy it.
Check my blog on mmorpg.com.
Yea it was a stupid idea implemented into the korean version (pay by the hour) to make money, then brought over here simply to extend the lack of end game in AION.. After you get miragents all you have left to do is PvP for abyss points or run fort instances/dark poeta.. I mean, don't get me wrong, the end game actually could be pretty fun if you had a group of friends you enjoyed running the same instances with and getting better scores on em.. But in order to get the S rank in dark poeta and the max number of abyss points in the fort instances you need a group all decked out in Miragents set; which forces you to grind them bloodstains for litterally months - years.. I grinded for about 2 n half months and failed 4 or 5 times after that i gave up.. Really i wasted prolly about 2weeks of my life jus sittin infront of my computer grinding guards and gathering bloodstains; all for nothing just to fail the proc (stupid 13% proc rate.)
Thats why i couldn't whole heartedly suggest AION to anyone, being that stupid quest-line alone.. Because even if you do make it past the months of grinding to 50 and do finnaly experience AIONs end game you still need to get miragents and you're likley to rage quit before you proc.. Big waste of time.. It's a shame to because AION truley could've been a great game....
Anyways, wow.. WoW is all i could've dreamed for
the pet system is awsome, the skills are way more creative; being able to use eagle vision to scan the battle field, being able to take control of my pet (even if it is sorta useless lol), and such.. The talent tree is also a cool touch.. The thing i liekd about AION was it was faction vrs faction and that continues in WoW, so i know im in store for some pretty epic pvp when i start hitting end game.. atm im really jus enjoying the quests and pvp/dueling.. 
almost got up to lvl 20 tonight but i think its time to hit tha sack 
thx for suggesting WoW everyone..
even tho it feels like i've been missin out >.< just wish i woulda got it before AION lol
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Try Face of Mankind. This is a player run game with no grind, and the point of the game is pvp. There are 8 factions that continually war with each other or make alliances with each other for economic and physical domination of planets. This part of the game is player run as well. Members of your faction decide who to go to war to based on experience in game and what your high command and senate decide (all players). From the moment you start you can wear any armor, weapon, and can visit any world you want but highly recommended you travel in a group. It has a great community because everything that happens in the world is decided by the community and all the factions are forced to either like or hate each other. Give it a try.
edit: oops posted in wrong thread lol
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta