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Is it still a grindfest?
Hello everyone, i just received a trial for AION and played for a couple of hours and I love it. Like the title say, I was wondering if the game is still a grindfest once you hit level 20?25? like ive read on many forums some time ago. Did they reduce the leveling time? have they put more quests?
And also , Is there still lots of people playing? when ive created my character all 6 server seemed recommended
I7 920 @ 2.7ghz (8 cpu total)
12 gig DDR3 ram
Nvidia Geforce 560 GTX TI
window 7 64bit
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Dont think there was ever a grind from 25?, i quested till maybe 43 then the grind started. Not sure what its like now i left at level 46 about 2 months ago, so would like to know what people think now the new stuffs been added too.
Grindfest at lvl25? It's really funny how opinionated the term "grind" is, every single person has his/her own definition! Anyway for what it's worth, here's an interview from yesterday, I pasted the most relevant info concerning this infamous "grind":
"""Q: We understand that localization beyond language is beginning to occur more in 2.0. What kind of things are you localizing? What are the differences between the East and West?
A: Currently there are a couple of small changes like the fort seige timers and a couple of droprate differences. In Assault on Balurea, we're doing a lot of different changes just for markets outside of Korea. A lot of droprate increases; there will be more news coming out on droprates. We've also got a lot more quest experience now. If you look at 1.9 and 2.0, you'll find a lot of the same quests with differences in experience.
Q: Are double XP weekends planned to occur regularly after 2.0 is released?
A: Yeah! We have a schedule down. When we did it earlier this year, every two weeks, it was to help counteract a lot of the issues people were having with leveling while they were waiting for 1.9. Now with 1.9 and 2.0 the leveling is better because now it’s just a matter of players getting in and enjoying the content. We don’t find that there’s a need for double XP as much, especially after 2.0 with the increased experience. But we will still have them, they’ll just be a little more unique than every two weeks or every month.
Q: In many interviews, we’ve heard that leveling will be easier in 2.0. In what ways will it be easier?
A: So one of the major changes is the increased experience I was talking about. We’ve gone through and we’ve increased the experience throughout the entire game, not just the new content, but from 1 all the way up to 55. We’ve also increased the item drops in a lot of instances and we’ll have more information about additional changes to item drops in the next month or two. That’s all aimed at getting players the gear they need to make leveling fun. We also added solo instances at level 18 where leveling was a difficult point, and at level 37 where there was also kind of another wall for leveling. So we’ve added content, tweaked a lot of the experience and droprates so that players are better equipped. They get through the leveling faster and they enjoy the content more."""
All 13 servers are packed except the oceanic one I think, but faction balance is borked. Population has been stable for some time, it has been that way since a few months after launch.
EDIT: There are 2 server statuses: Recommended and Full, so Recommended includes everything from low to high, and full is a lagfest, the like we haven't seen since launch I believe.
I wish people would realize that just because a game buries you in quests, it doesn't magically make it not a grind. You're just grinding quests instead of mobs. In terms of actual 'grind', Aion is no different than vanilla WoW. Actually, given the new expansion update, it's probably slightly easier.
Well actually most of the mmos are a grind in some kind of way. The grind I was talking about was mob grinding. If there is enough quest to get to the level cap ill be more than happy
I7 920 @ 2.7ghz (8 cpu total)
12 gig DDR3 ram
Nvidia Geforce 560 GTX TI
window 7 64bit
You should never get close to running out of quests now. You won't be mob grinding unless you choose to during the leveling process. There is more than enough content before, and with 2.0 and the solo instances and all the other content added, you'll have plenty to do.
I have yet to run out of quests and have to resort to mob or instance grinding. Check the old areas, new quests will become available every couple levels. Make it a habit to check old areas ever 3-5 levels. Always run through and check through your capital city, too.
2.0 added available quests being shown on the maps, there's no reason to miss a quest now, hopefully it'll point out where some players were missing content before. But honestly, there is more than enough content to do to max level and never have to worry about grinding.
Hope to see you ingame!
From all these posts you begin to wonder... "Do these players actually like MMOs!?" In all these games to gain levels it requires you to a) kill monsters/npcs b) do quests. But on average if you gave a player the option to skip the leveling/questing part and go straight to end game...they'd take you up on that each time. Most just want to be at the end straight away, they hate pve and want to do pvp endgame content.
Personally I love the 'so-called' grind, I enjoy the journey...the exploration... I like to stop and watch the sun set over the mountains! lol I like to make friends along the way and learn my class bit by bit. Call me crazy if you wish, but I do believe I play MMO's more 'correctly' than most players. lol
Completely agree with you here. I just load the game up and do what sounds entertaining for me at the time and I never feel the need to complain about feeling I'm forced to grind or anything. Once I feel forced to do something, I log off, take a break, log back in and play again.
I'm not constantly trying to level or increase my stats or gear when I'm playing, tho. I actually enjoy running lower level quests for the lore and such, guess that's the oldschool MMOer still inside me. Oh wells.
You sound exactly like me! We should hook up! lol I personally enjoy a grind as well, I like the idea it takes a long time to hit end level or max a craft because at the end you get that feeling of achievement. Hey, I even wouldnt mind infinate levels in a game (if that is possible) because I dont associate a game having an 'end game' I always thought MMO's as never ending... Kind of the point of playing online rather than offline. Players need to chill and enjoy the game, it is a 'game' after all!
Well, to quote you my friend... "Oh wells." =P
Exactly, haha, you read my mind. Are you on NA or EU, by the way? Could be nice to have someone to just.. play the game with, instead of people constantly messaging me, "LET'S GO FARM XXX" or "LET'S GO GRIND NAO!" lol -,-
It is funny you should say that I am coming back to the game because of the new expansion. Ordered a new copy because its been a while. I live in England so I'm EU.
Welcome back! Too bad there isn't more likeminded people on NA. Hope you enjoy the time back!
Well i had the same feelings asking my self do i want back .... i did go back and found out AION is still pretty much a Grindfest still ........ played for a month and i just got angry at the game and left ...... the game didn't change much if u left it b4 it's still pretty much the same old ..... for me it's the Core game it self what's wrong with it so am not going back for it it's a Shift+Del for me
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Have they done anthing about bots? Last time I played was a month a go there there was soo many ppl just boting and farming in the same place for days....
Bots have been gone for the better part of a year, at least on NA. I have no idea how EU is, but the bots are gone. You either didn't play a month ago or you mistaken people who enjoy grinding/farming for bots.
You level much faster now than you did on release and there number of available quests has substantially increased.
imo...
korean grinders will be korean grinders
-Would you like cheddar or swiss cheese?
-Yes.
-...
It is still a slower leveling game than something like wow. If you are not willing to take any time at all to level then the game is still not for you. They didn't change the essential nature of the game, they simply made the curve less daunting. Proc rates are up. Drops are up. Exp for mobs is up. Exp from quests is up. There are more quests to do now. There are solo friendly alternative campaign quests now so you can complete the campaigns even without a group. There are repeatable quests at pretty much ever camp, most of which are not needed unless you die alot. Soul healing is cheaper. Flight and teleports are cheaper. Ganking in the rift enabled leveling zones is all but gone. There are now two solo instances as you level up at about lvl 20 and lvl 40. The whole leveling experience is greatly improved but not essentially changed.
If you don't enjoy the time spent leveling and exploring then this game will drag for you. It does take a while to get to max level and it takes a while to get great gear. But if you also enjoy the journey then you will have fun, and the path is less steep.
All die, so die well.
As someone who played this game at release....
This game dragged no matter what... did all the quests.. did all the exploring... and all there was left was grind.
If they made it better fine... but it was a bad game overall anyway. "Aion- now with less suckage"
There have been definite improvements in drop rates, quest xp, XP in general, etc. I have 3 level 50's and I can definitely level to 50 now much faster then release. With the expansion the PvE game has become very solid, they just need to improve the pvp side.
The expansion has done a lot to really get rid of the grind all together. I have made 1m kinah a day on quests, and dropped items. The xp and drop rates have increase tremendously. I think everyone playing can agree that the xp/kinah grind is gone. So learn more before you post Pussaykat...
/sigh
Its just like release. People complain about the grind and there is always some that say it was never there and how they never grinded a single mob until level 40 something. How can this really be at both ends of the spectrum?
We all know what is largely considered a grind by most. When someone asked "Is there still a huge grind to level" they mean mobs. IE did all the quests and you now have nothing left but mob grind a couple levels to open up a couple more quests. And no, repeatable quests dont count. Thats just as bad as mob grinding. Content runs out, and youre forced to do the same thing over and over until you reach a certian level. That IMO is a grind.
So lets try again. Is there still a grind in Aion? Will I have to mindlessly repeat killing the same mobs and/or the same exact quests to reach a new level? Is there a nice steady stream of non-repeating fresh content, story, gameplay to keep me interested all the way to end game.
Im interested in trying it out again. Mainly because they finally did something about rifting. But id also like to know what progress they made with the grind. Think what you can do in WoW. Granted, WoW has a giant surplus of quests where you can level and even skip a few zones, instances, and whole chains of quests without ever bothering to kill a single mob that isnt part of, or in the way of, of an objective. It doesnt have to be THAT engorged in quests ... just enough where ill always be immersed in the world and its problems, even if its just a guy that needs wolf pelts to make coats for the winter. I know the devs would swear on their own mothers that its fixed ... but then again, they said the same before release. I dont trust them. If they worked nearly as hard on developing content and fixing the ganking as they do on twisting the truth in order to promote the game ... they would never have had to merge servers and the game would still be booming.
EDIT: lol, never mind. As if I wasnt skeptical enough as it is at giving them another $15 when I go to check my ncsoft account is banned and am immediately reminded of their horrible customer service. I havent even played a game of their's in months and somehow I managed to get banned. They can kiss the darkest part of my ass.
Good, stay well away. You sound like a terrible player. Rifting was fine, it's just gimp players like yourself who QQ all day long.
And to answer your original question; No, it is not a grindfest anymore, you simply send an email to ncsoft and say ' hai can i haz level 55 now plox ' and they give it to you.
Hmmm Ive played Aion at start and had to grind I think lvl 23-25 without any quests. Now I started again with Aion and lvld a cleric to lvl31 and a sorc to lvl34 and I didnt have to grind one lvl yet. I choosed once to grind one lvl cause there was a good spot to lvl my gathering skill but I didnt have to ...
The lvls still take kinda long compared to WoW but you can do it all with quests at least to 34, cant speak for later lvls right now. The biggest change imo is the Kinah you get now from quests, its really ALOT MORE than it was at the beginning of the game.
But Iam still sad that they didnt change the camera with the snap back, that was one main reason why I have quit Aion, its nearly impossible to do PvP like this as a kiting class. Also you still cant turn around the camera with the left mouse button if the mouse arrow is over the sky which is nearly everywhere in the abyss. Also some sounds are still kinda awkward and Iam somewhat disapointed that they still havent changed it. Also hitboxes from mobs and players are really thin so you need to bind a key to target them at least for pvp and you still cant freely configure the mousewheel and enter key.
That were my minus points and still are for Aion. Really sad that they still havent changed it cause I guess it wouldnt be such a big deal for the devs but that are points why I have quit Aion and again will after this month especially cause of the camera snap back, its unacceptable IMO for a PvP game well at least for me, REALLY SAD cause overall I like Aion.