I’m a bit late to posting this, but my Ranger is now level 20. Actually, she’s … *checks armory*… 22? Huh, cool.

Of course, the biggest bonus to reaching those awesome 20’s is the ability to socket your first Stigma. Upon dinging you get a new quest to see Munin, who forwards you onto Urd and it all begins to feel very familiar. By the time you reach Skuld you’re informed of an impending storm and told that your mortal enemy — whose destiny surrounds yours — grows more powerful with each passing day. Apparently, if you… er me… and Hellion continue on our present paths, destruction lies in my…er… your future as well as the future of Asmodae. To defeat him, we must break break out in a way he can’t match. You guessed it, via Stigma’s.

The Stigma Stone is a fragment of a soul — a former Daeva now largely returned to Aether’s flow. Enough remains that allows you to tap into a power that the Daeva knew. You’re given a practice Stigma stone to use while in the Space of Destiny, but of course one good Stigma is like any other and if you can use one, you can use them all.

Of course, that’s all the information Skuld gives you, which really, isn’t enough. Having not researched Stigma’s at all prior to reaching that point, I had no idea how to activate or use them and of course, spent most of the fight running in circles trying to click the actual stigma slot. Needless to say, it didn’t work to well. That said, I still managed to defeat Hellion without it so clearly, I’m just that good.

So… what didn’t Skuld tell me? Well first, how you equip the damn thing for one. Which really, it’s not that hard so perhaps it’s just a case of the programmer thinking “they should just, like, know it…” *looks @Moochewtoo knowingly* But what do you do after you’ve equipped it? THAT’s the info I needed to know before engaging Hellion.

Step 1: Click and drag the Stigma Stone of your choice over to an empty socket and release. This equips it for the practice stone only. Once you have completed the quest and are equipping normal Stigmas,you will need to talk to a Stigma Master, located in major cities.

Step 2: If it’s a passive ability. Pat yourself on the back and move on. If it’s an action, then you need to open your abilities tab (K) and scroll aaaaaaaalll the way to the bottom to find your new ability and then drag that onto your hotbard to make use of it.

The second step is the part I didn’t know going into the fight with Hellion. Oops.

I should also mention that not all Stigma Stones are the same. Some stones give the bearer a passive skill such as the ability to equip a weapon not normally available to their class, while other stones can allow the use of offensive or defensive abilities. A passive ability is nothing you really need to worry about. But for something you can actually use, there’s a little more too it.

After you’re done you head back to Pandaemonium and locate Aud to continue. When you hand in the quest you get your first Stigma stone given to you, which in the case of my Ranger was Arrow Deluge I, sweet. You are also given 300 Stigma Shards which are a form of currency to then equip your Stigma Stones. For example, to socket Arrow Deluge, it cost me 80 shards. Stigma Shard cost is four times the level of the stone and you obtain further Stigma Shards via PvP in the Abyss. You can find more info on where Aud is, the cost and such over on the PowerWiki page for Stigmas.

At level 20 you have two open Stigma slots available to you, with more opening up every 10 levels:  so two slots at 20, three slots at 30 and so on and so forth.

Levels 20 to 25 give the Ranger five stigma options:

Arrow Deluge I which are you given, or you can purchase Arrow Deluge II when you are 25.
You get rank 1 for free, so if you are short on Kinah and like the damage, then chuck it in. At level 20 it inflicts 200 ~ 235 damage on any target within 15 meters. This makes it an AE affect which most people right off as useless unless your fighting a group of mobs or are looking to go into PvP straight away. But for me, it’s extra damage on a single mob while I wait for other abilities to finish their cool downs. Just because it’s AE doesn’t mean it should be written off for single use.

Sleep Arrow I – Level 20
Fellow Rangers claim this one as “indispensable” and one of the Stigmas to be with you through your entire Ranger career. As a predominantly solo player, I don’t see the value as much as someone who likes to group lots, and I’m not yet in PvP. I can see it being handy for the “oh shit” moments when you get an extra add when soloing, but in most cases I’m very aware of my surroundings purely because I don’t like those oh shit moments in the first place.

When I do get to PvP, and I will, I’ve been told it’s very handy. It’s effectively an interrupt and a root all rolled into one.

Retreating Slash I – Level 22
Rangers are all about keeping distance from their target so this stone is also a great addition to any Ranger arsenal. It effectively pushes you away from the target 25m. Once Silence Arrow becomes available at level 25, this stone may fall to the wayside for most rangers. You must be aware of what’s around you, and more to the point behind you before using this ability. No point getting distance and landing in the lap of another mob.

Silence Arrow I – Level 25
Silence Arrow does just what it sounds like. It silences the enemy, stopping them from casting for 2-6 seconds. This should be used on an enemy mid-cast for the most effectiveness.

So what two are the best two? Well how long’s a piece of string? There is no “right” answer for it – most of it comes down to your personal preference at these early levels. For me? I’ll be keeping my Arrow Deluge for now and picking up with a Sleep Arrow or Silence Arrow. Probably more the Sleep Arrow I guess… it’s the best of a bad bunch in my opinion. Of course, I am eyeing off Bow of Blessing I which you get at level 28 as well…

Did you know…

• You can bank Stigma Shards! This means if there is one particular class you enjoy PvPing with, you can use them to collect the shards to pass onto alts.
• Shards consumed when equipping a Stigma stone will not be returned if you unequip the stone, so be very sure when you choose which Stigma stones to equip.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. No idea how a picture speaks in the first place, but fair enough. Today, I share nothing but the awesomeness that is crits!

I realise they’re probably not as high as the crits your level xx what ever gets, but I just don’t care lol. For a level 19 / 20 (I dinged last night) they’re pretty good, and I like em. I LOVE opening with it to see the mobs health drop by nearly half, that’s just too awesome. Especially if I get some good follow-up crits with my other abilities, I can drop the mob before it can even smell my breakfast. Sweeeeet.

Of course, every good has it’s matching bad, and for me, it’s listening to Mr Pouty McWhinge beside me comment how the best crit he ever sees is 500 (which I should mention, I was getting with my Assassin when she was still wet behind the ears). Being a Chanter and spells not having the ability to crit is apparently, a very disappointing existence. Of course, I don’t see him complaining any time he gets hurt with his on-demand heals there and waiting for him when ever he needs. Maybe every time I crit he should remember the deaths I took as a youngin due to no natural healing ability!

And, as I keep reminding him, if he’d just back of the leveling a bit (he’s 25) he too could benefit from my awesome damage as we could group. You watch him come scurrying back when it comes to PvP and he needs my arrows of doom to safe his butt!! Yeah Sjanda… I’ma lookin at you!

No, I’m not just excited and yelling out “Ding 19″ twice… I did in fact ding level 19 two times – once on my Assassin, and once, on my Ranger!! Yipee!!

Dinging 19 on Dewinter (Assassin) wasn’t really a big deal, it was just another level. Cool in that it was the highest level I’ve yet to reach, but so far she’s been pretty consistent with her enjoyment, so it wasn’t like I was hanging out for it. Not like Alexan. Oh my god was she a pain and a half to get to 19! But once I dinged, it was like playing a completely different character.

Doing more damage? Check!

Reduced the need to kite a football field to kill a mob? Check!

Killing the desired mob in under 30 seconds? Check!

Killing most mobs before they even reach you?! CHECK!

I can’t get over the difference. With an addition of really, only two abilities: Aiming I and Stunning Shot I (since Boost Accuracy II is a passive ability I don’t really include it, although I’m sure it helps), I was amazed at JUST how different it is to play. Poor Dewinter got kicked to the curb pretty quick this week as I continue to play Alexan (she’s 2 bubbles from level 20 already) and have no desire to stop just yet.

At the risk of my enjoyment being sapped like last time, I put together some videos of my ‘fun’ last night…

Probably not the leetest Ranger skills out there, but I’m having fun and that’s all that matters! I can kill non-stop, most times without even taking damage which is awesome. Getting jumped by surprise is no longer a death sentence, neither which is taking on two at once should I have to. I can’t get over how different it is and have to ask what NCSoft is thinking making levels 10 through to 18 so painfully, character quittingly difficult? I understand having some hard yards to cover, and those that can push through really deserve to be a Ranger, but the past 8 levels have been so bad it’s made my quit my Ranger twice lol.

Of course now I’m there I don’t really care as much, and I’ve heard it only gets better which is even better for me – because if I’m having fun now, imagine how much more I will have soon! Now it’s time to sit down and work out what Stigma’s I want (Arrow Deluge I then Flurry I I believe?) and really settle in for some pew pew enjoyment!

… boring? Skill shy? Empty? Hrm… can’t quite think of the right word, but after coming off the Assassin who reminds me a lot like playing the piano with all the skills and constant ability pressing, the Ranger feels very different. I keep searching for the next ability to hit and have to remember, there isn’t one. It’s a rather wierd and annoying feeling.

I’ve been getting the Ranger itch the past few days and have been wanting to play Alexan again. I hear a lot of good things about level 19 and it’s been taunting me to try and make it for myself. Of course, I heard all these wonderful things about level 16 as well and I’m still not that impressed just yet. That said, my enjoyment was zapped pretty quickly after sharing my post 16 fun and being told that  I’m a horrible, terrible Ranger for opting to stand still and take a bit of damage instead of kiting. Because of this, I stopped playing her not long after that. (Not because people said I sucked, I’m not that sensative, but because I don’t particularly like kiting…)

Since Alexan started my tradeskills (Tailoring, Alchemy, Cooking), there was NO WAY I was going to restart them on Dewinter when I switched classes. The awesome part to Aion’s tradeskilling system is of course the experience you receive with each combine, be it work order or craft. This proved very fruitful for poor little Alexan who managed to tradeskill her way through the rest of 16 and nearly all of 17! Last night, at only 4 bubbles away from level 18, I took her out for a spin to push her over.

Naturally it took me a few goes to get back into the swing of a different class, and I am happy to report back that I did in fact kite, even if backwards. I made it to 18 fairly easily if you can ignore the few grunts, groans and a strong urge to thump my desk on my 2nd death.

However… I’m only 4 bubbles into 18 but am already struggling to continue without waiting for (Chanter) hubby to get home and bribe him to follow me around with heals. My gear is… less than ideal which probably isn’t helping much, and my Bow is still white quality. I’m hoping that’s most of the reasoning behind my lackluster damage and frustration more than the class, because I so do enjoy the pew pew pew.

At the moment I’m standing just out from Basfelt Village raising my gathering skill as it’s too low to collect the Blicoras for the Impetusium quests, and wondering just how long it might take to finish my 3/4 of a level with 2238 experience multiplied by 3 gatherings a try… lol!

Ok fellow Assassins, I have a question! For the first time the other night I got to group and head into Black Claw Village. The bonus to grouping is always (mostly) standing behind the mobs which of course allows for many attempts to use Surprise Attack. Not quite sure how it’s a “surprise” given I’ve been there for 30 seconds already, but maybe it’s more a “SURPRISE, that hurt more didn’t it” factor…

While it’s great for the extra opportunities to use it, I was surprised at how often it didn’t appear to land. Which brings me to my question:

How small is the area in which I need to be to land the actual backstab?

I ask this because at times I seemed to be just a smidge off center and my SA would land for a measly 50 or 70 damage. Other times I’d swear I was lined up with the mobs spine and still, nothing more than 100 or so.

Of course there is the problem that mobs seem to move around so much that there were times that it wasn’t facing the way I thought it was (general confusion and hard to see the actual face of the mob), or it might move right as I hit SA, and of course the automatic assumption of lag on my part. But still, I seemed to only land 1 in 10 good Surprise Attacks.

Is the window really small? Are there any other Assassins out there who have trouble locating the back of the mob in group/cluster situations? It could be because I like my view scrolled out a bit, but I’m not that far zoomed…

As I concentrate more and more on my Assassin, I realise that I have found the class for me… at least for now. Although the alt-itis hasn’t set in yet, I highly doubt I’m completely cured. But yes, I do believe, against everything I have ever known in the past, the Assassin class will be the first class I take to 50.

“Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.”

So, being the perfectionist I can be, I spend almost as much time researching the Assassin as I do playing one – helps that there’s more times I am too distracted to play (courtesy of toddler and now new puppy) than times I can sit down and completely lose myself in game. As I slowly level up (still only 16 due to a week of no play), I start to not only don better gear, but also spend more time in the same pieces of gear than the really early levels. I’ve been told that as you get higher in levels you replace pieces less frequently, so now is as good a time as any to make sure I’m improving the right stats.

So, what stats does an Assassin work towards? Thankfully… pretty much the same as the Ranger!

Physical Crit – The main one for an Assassin to raise, up to the soft cap of 440 that is. The good news for me, is at these low levels I’m at no risk of hitting this cap any time soon. Apparently around the mid 30 levels you can reach it, so for now, this is pretty much the only stat I need to worry about.

At these lower levels (under 30), it’s recommended to just make use of any Physical Crit stones that drop unless you have enough money to burn on buying them off other players. If you obtain any nice stones (+8 or higher), a lot of PvPers recommend holding onto them until you have level 25 or over gear as the Abyss is where they really come in handy.

Evasion – This is an Assassin stat to concentrate on if you are looking into lots of PvP, which let’s face it, if you’re playing Aion you most likely will be. That said, there are a lot of players out there primarily interested in the PvE aspects of the game (either in general, or just on their Assassin) and as such, Evasion isn’t something they really need to worry about.

There is no cap for Evasion, however it works on a comparative stat bases of Accuracy vs Evasion. If your Evasion level is higher than your opponents Accuracy, you start having chances to evade – the bigger the difference, the more evasion. On the flip side, if your opponents Accuracy is higher than your Evasion, they will nearly always land their hits.

You want at least 400 Crit rating before you start dropping it for Evasion…

A tip courtesy of Triniel: When calculating the evasion you will want vs someone of your level, use your own accuracy as a sample. Assassins have one of if not the highest base accuracy, so take your evasion – your accuracy / 10 = Chance to evade someone of your level.

Attack – When you look at a lot of the older Assassin guides, they recommend Attack Speed Increase, but in all my searching, I can not find anything that increases the speed. The only thing I can find is the +attack manastones. In F8L’s guide, he puts Attack last… I can only assume it still belongs there because while it boosts the base damage you do (white damage), I’d still prefer the ability to crit because as Assassins, we need quick kills.

Personally, white damage is for Rangers and Gladiators. Assassins are here to do big numbers and kill our opponents quickly.

Parry – The third on my list of stats to increase because it can help you evade hits which in turn pops your Counter-attack ability. I also solo a lot (currently) so the less damage I take the better. All that taken into consideration, I do not go out of my way to slot for this stat, but if I have a Parry stone sitting around, an empty slot and nothing else to fill it, I will make use of the parry stone. Once the gear is replaced, or I have another crit stone drop, I will replace Parry. (Same goes for HP Stones)

Don’t discount Parry if you have a chance to use it, when an Assassin evades, it’s not only reducing the damage taken, but of course allowing an additional (Focused Evasion free) use of Counter-attack. Should CA stun, it then opens up another opportunity to jump behind the mob/player and use Surprise Attack. With the nice damage SA can do, this could easily be the turning point in a fight…

Accuracy – a trait a lot of Assassins ask about because when you look at it, you need to be about to hit in the first place to do nice damage. Thankfully though, Assassins have the highest natural Accuracy in game and we don’t need to worry about it – Yipee!

So far… that is what I have learned. Bear in mind all of my information comes from reading other players postings, but I did read A LOT of different posts and everything seems to be relatively similar. Of course, if I have anything incorrect, please feel free to politely point it out by commenting below.

No Hide -> Surprise Attack Opener?

Coming from the Ranger, who had like 3 abilities in total for most of her levels 10 through to 16 life, it’s quite a different experience on my Assassin who has long since filled up her first hotbar and is currently trying to squeeze additional abilities in. I’m not used to having this many skills to choose from in a fight. I tend to get so focused on watching all the pretty flashy buttons that I have missed stuns, can not keep up with guild chat and have even died a couple of times due to completely forgetting about my health. Those deaths annoy me, it’s not like I got beaten down by a tougher mob, it’s just that I lost my concentration and forgot to heal back up before entering a new fight.

At level 16 (ding last night, yay me), I have even more fun little options to include along my hotbar somewhere. It’s funny, I actually got a little disappointed when I tested and learnt that Fang Strike isn’t on the same cooldown timer as Rune Carve and that I could in fact use both during the fight. Why? Because this means I had to shuffle things around to slot Fang Strike in there somewhere lol. I can’t click my abilities (too slow, too annoying), and I don’t like contorting my fingers to use Alt + numbers. I like all my main abilities that I use every fight on numbers 1 through to the little + key.

So, in an attempts to maximise my damage while reducing the feeling of playing a piano every fight (fingers all over the keyboard), I’ve been researching the better rotations and working out how to arrange my own skills to suit me.

I’ve been reading over the Assassin Skill Rotation – PvE (Solo) thread found on Aion Source, and one thing I noticed that was missing from all the recommended rotations was no use of the Hide -> Surprise Attack combo as an opener? Now, before you go commenting about it, I am aware of the disclaimer which states:

If a mob is not KoS, infer that Surprise Attack will be the first attack (not buff) used in your rotation, always. If it is KoS, you use your Surprise Attack only after you have landed a stun and have positioned yourself behind them.

But at the moment, 95% of the mobs I am fighting are KoS. Which means most of the fights I am engaging in, if I follow this thread, dictate I open with my Swift Edge Chain (Swift Edge >> Soul Slash). I find this interesting as I had always assumed that Rogues/Assassins/Vermin – what ever you want to call them – always stealthed up to their target and took their first cheap shot from behind?

Oddly enough (to me), I’m actually happy to read this as I can now stop trying to hide and sneak my way up to every mob, which is very annoying with our constant lag and the fact that the mobs aren’t kind enough to just stand in one spot while I get into position. I mean really – if I’m loitering somewhere, I stand still! Or better yet, sit! I don’t constantly wander in a 5 foot radius doing nothing lol. Bloody mobs.

In a way knowing this new info also takes away some of the “Rogue” style feel to the class for me as there appears to be little use of hide in the PvE scene. Obviously I have not read up on PvP yet as I am nowhere near that part of the game. But by having less use of Hide, the Assassin comes across more as a melee class that can backstab, than it does the Rogue from WoW.

As I learn more and more about the Assassin, the more I come to think I’ll really enjoy her and she will be my first class to go all the way.



In case there is a poor sucker out there who has never played a MMORPG for Aion and doesn’t know… KoS = Kill on Sight

So, in my attempt to educate myself on the Assassin class, a necessity given I have never played anything close before in my life, I come across my first lingo hurdle… the “follow-up”. It’s got something to do with our abilities as so far I’ve only seen it used when discussing optimal attack rotations, but for the life of me, I can’t figure it out. Examples are:

I tested out dev+follow-up and compared it to just follow-up using SA

And

Around level 14-15 SA would crit in the 900-1,100 range with just follow-up. Using devo+follow-up I’d hit anywhere between 1,200-1,400 range.

I understand Dev = Devotion, and SA = Surprise Attack, but what exactly is the “follow-up” portion of that sentence? I’ve read all my skills and see nothing named similar, so can only assume it’s lingo I am yet to learn.

Can anyone enlighten me?

— Added info October 13 —

From chatting to @Tygir about this particular topic, we came to the conclusion that “follow-up” was nothing more interesting that the next attack that happens – be it auto, or ability. But now, I’m not so sure. Reading the Assassin Skill Rotation – PvE (Solo) thread, I noticed the following:

You should only use Follow-Up Strike with Swift Edge, Surprise Attack, and Whirlwind Slash. The other skills won’t gain nearly as much from it. I’ve done 800-1000 damage Swift Edge crits with Follow-Up quite often, against lvl 26/27 mobs.

That leads me to believe there is an actual ability out there they are discussing? Searching the Aion Armory however, I can find no such skill. Looking through the Scout Master’s Training Manuals, there is definately no “Follow-Up Strike” ability. So what do they mean by it here?

So loving my little Assassin at the moment – she dinged level 14 last night. Two levels away from overtaking my Ranger lol.

Her first ‘DP’ skill is Strike of Darkness, and at first doesn’t look anything more interesting that an additional melee attack. I mean, it really isn’t anything more, although it does do some nice damage in itself. Still, saving up the 2000 DP to use it still leaves me a bit “meh, what ever”. Thankfully my Assassin manages to pool up her Divine Points quicker than I ever knew possible on my Ranger and gets to use this additional strike about twice a night. Sure it drops the mobs health by a good chunk, but really nothing to get too excited about. I’m not exactly holding my breath watching the DP climb.

That all said, it does have a funky animation which makes up for the wait I guess, even if it is all over quicker than a guy on prom night…

All that wait, all the time put in to getting to the point of usage, and then what happens? You get excited, you press the right buttons and…. you blink. Over. Done. Finito. What an anti-climatic letdown lol.

I watched another Assassin video done from the Korean servers, and we get another ability that let’s us backflip and spin around while fighting which is totally, awesomely, cool! I so love the added visual effects in Aion!