AION: The Tower of Eternity is still under development by NCsoft, and any information related to the game is subject to change with the release of more information.

General info

What is AION?

AION: The Tower of Eternity is a fantasy/sci-fi MMORPG chronicling an epic conflict between three factions: the player-controlled Elyos and Asmodians, and a server-controlled NPC faction, the warlike Balaur.

What is the current status of Aion?

Aion is currently undergoing the closed beta stage in Korea. So no, you can't download it.

Key Features

Interactive gameplay systems

The actions of each faction on each individual server will eventually trigger consequences, which will then change each server's live environment. No two servers should ever be the same (except maybe at the start).

PvPvE (Player vs Player vs Environment)

Aion: The Tower of Eternity features an evolving conflict system, which manages the complex relationships and alliances between realms, races and guilds. The system also controls a third NPC faction, the Balaur, who may act as the enemy - or the ally - of players.

Free flying and flying combat

Take to the skies and soar over the landscape, with wings that allow your character to access remote areas, travel to different parts of the world - and to engage enemies in aerial combat!

Beautiful and detailed graphics

Created using a modified version of the Crytek engine (as used in Far Cry), AION: The Tower of Eternity is the most graphically beautiful MMORPG yet released. Astounding levels of detail on characters and in environments immerse you in the world of AION.

Factions & leveling

Elyos and Asmodians are the playable races. Elyos are 'Angelic' and Asmodians 'Demonic' in appearance. Neither is necessarily good or evil.

The basic class tree of the Asmodians is the same as the Elyos. There will however be some important differences in skills. This means that fighting a class of the same faction and one of the opposing faction will be quite different experiences.

AION's current proposed level cap is 50.

Wings and flying

• You can fly!

• The quest for becoming a Daeva earns you your wings at level 10. You can only fly for few minutes, with a cooldown period ( probably around 2 or 3 mins ). Some items and skills can increase the flying time.

• Both Elyos and Asmodians get wings.

• You can fly freely or follow a flight path, depending on the area. Using a flight path to get to an area doesn't seem to exhaust your flight skill.

• Wings can be personalized or upgraded through PvP. We are unsure of the specifics.

• Some skills act differently or are available only when you are flying. That makes the flight system more of a strategic element than a transportation mechanic.

• Flying timer and cooldown don't change with character level.

Classes

Names will be the same for both Elyos and Asmodians.Four Schools of classes, names are unofficial unless stated.

At the beginning, you choose a school, and later you can specialize by picking a class within that school.

School of Warriors

The School of Warriors hosts some of the most feared players. With a lust for bloodshed and dismemberment, the Fighter and Knight classes are a being to defeat, and almost undefeatable in a good team.

Fighter

The Fighter will have every weapon made at his disposal to coat the dirt in the blood of their enemies.They are portrayed with a Two-Hand Polearm, but should be able to pick between all of the melee weapons.

Knight

The Knight will have access to a variety of Weapons that will provide decent damage as well as a shield to block a lot of attacks.With the Knight, players will see different shades of the class as it absorbs more and more damage. It's truly a different sort of tank melee class.

School of Scouts

The School of Scouts hosts the most feared, yet unseen, players. The Ranger and Assassins classes are an easy kill, if you find them before they find you.

Ranger

Ranger is a utility class with many tricks up its sleeve, such as laying traps and sniping from afar. It's a well-rounded class with both melee and ranged skills as well as an ability to heal itself.

The Ranger will have access to an arsenal of weapons that will provide hard damage from afar, dropping the enemy before they see what hit them. If things get rough, they can pull out a Dagger or two and dice the opponent.

Assassin

The Assassin will use Daggers in expert ways to destroy their enemies in the blink of an eye. If things get hairy in close quarters, the Assassin will also be able to pull out a bow like their cousin class, the Ranger, and turn their enemies into swiss cheese

School of Mages

The School of Mages hosts some of the most damaging players. Able to bend the world at the mutter of a few words, the Wizard and Spiritmaster classes are a force to reckon with, teamed up with the School of Warriors, they are almost undefeatable.

Wizard

The Wizard will wield Orbs or a magical Tome to increase their magical damage and incinerate the opponents with magical spells.

SpiritMaster

The Spiritmaster is assumed to use Orbs and Staffs like the Wizards, but they will be more geared towards the power of their summons. Their main weapon will be the strength of their summoned elementals.

They will use the power of the Elements to crush, burn, freeze, and cut up their enemies.

School of Clerics

The School of Clerics hosts some of the most demanded players. Able to cure the worst wounds, as pump up their party-members for maximum damage, seeing a Priest or Chanter classes on the other team means that this is going to be a long battle.

Priest

Priests are, of course, the masters of recovery. They posses many healing skills to aid their kin, but that's not all. With a solid set of skill combinations and a number of melee skills they may surprise you in the right situation.

Chanter

As a cleric, chanters can also heal to a certain extent, but their specialty is in mysterious chants that boost the morale of nearby players. They're also known for effective melee skill combinations and all-around usefulness. It should be an attractive class for those that like to do it all.

Changing Classes

No news on changing classes later, but sub-classes are a possibility.

Heroes

Only the strongest of the strong can become heroes. It will be a long and hard patch, but it will be worth it.

Combos & Divine Power

Combos

• Certain active attack skills/spells only become available after you successfully land a particular skill/spell. This way you're able to chain 2-3(maybe more) skills in succession which may result in extra damage inflicted.
• For instance, fighters should be able to use the skills Explosive stike(attack skill) -> Stun strike(knocks enemy over) -> chance strike(attacks fallen enemy)
• Those 3 skills have to be chained in that order because Stun strike won't open up untill explosive strike has successfully landed.
• Rangers also get a similar 3 hit combo attack similar to the fighter. Priests have an AOE spell combo that knocks all enemies over followed by an attack spell. But you get the basic idea now.. its just chaining certain skills to inflict lots of damage in a short amount of time and watching the cool flashy animations.

Divine Power

• It is said that Divine Power(DP) is a powerful skill that is able to turn the tides of a pvp battle.
• The DP gauge located under the character's HP and MP bar fills up as you hunt regular monsters and must be at 100% to activate the skill.
• When you release the DP skill(the skill is called DP explosion or something like that), it will do large amounts of damage to multiple monsters around you.
• The skill has a slow casting time so you may be exposed to incoming attacks during this time.
• You should also be careful as the skill will hit any monsters within a certain range and any monsters that get hit will aggro you.
• The DP gauge doesn't decrease if you dont hunt, so you'll be able to conserve it as you move around hunting zones.
• As the DP gauge fills up, the amount of damage you do to monsters also increases.
• DP gauge reset when you disconnect, but you can transfer it to another char.

Party combos

There will be some party combos, though details are unknown.

PvP

• PvP in Aion will have a focus on control-oriented and reactive skills. Skills have clear relationships with each other where some are used in combinations and others to counter combinations.
• PvP-specific skills will be available for usage around level 40. The player can, however, still choose not to participate in PvP unless he/she wants to.
• The time required to reach maximum level has been reduced since the last Friends and Family Test. The level progression will be similar and comparable to that of many western-developed games in the genre. After reaching the level cap (currently 50), players will be able to improve their characters on a more horizontal plane by using something called ???Stigma???. More on this later.
• For players who don???t enjoy PvP, there will be various PvE activities to take part in such as raids, instanced dungeons and so on ??? All connected to the great war. An example would be PvE players collecting items for big siege weapons to support their faction.
• The main conflict within Aion: The Tower of Eternity is a great conflict raging between the Elyos, Asmodians and the Balaur. This is also where the content focus will be.
• A feature that is currently on a planning stage is to randomly open teleportation portals in the Elyos and Asmodian lands.

Locations

• You can PVP in the Abyss and there will be some zones outside the Abyss where the Elyos and Asmodians will be able to interact.
• You can only duel your own faction.
• You can raid city (maybe siege...).
• You can PVP in an arena, although this is currently just for fun, with no ranking systems etc.

Abyss

See Abyss

PvE

• There will be two types of raids in Aion. The first type is similar to that of Lineage, with huge amounts of players participating. The second type requires more strategy and class-specific skills (perhaps more comparable to that of ???Everquest???).
• A Raid NPC/Monster for the Elyos might be an important NPC for the Asmodians which leads to the possibility of raids influencing the faction war.

Abyss & Castles

• The Abyss will consist of two distinct parts. The first part is aimed at beginners and is meant to introduce players to the Abyss concept. The second part is connected to the real war and meant for more experienced characters.
• The Abyss will be home to 8 to 10 castles that can be captured by either faction. The advantages will have extreme consequences. Your faction will be able to gather crafting materials easily. Besides that, traders live around the castle and will sell special weapons only to your faction. Finally, the ruling guild will receive taxes from the land. The rest of the faction won't get any money from it. Only when the enemy retakes the castle, another guild will have the chance to benefit from the many advantages of the castle.
• You can lvl in Abyss, killing balaurs and receiving XP, and you can get PVP points to buy PVP equipment.
• Leveling in the abyss seems more effective than leveling in the outside (due to the greater risk of getting killed, the XP reward from mobs will be greater...)
• Abyss thread #1 - translation
• Abyss Thread #2 - translation
• PVE Abyss Video

Items, Armors, Professions

Items, Armors, and Professions.

Characteristics & Stigma

• The developers do not want players to have to worry about character attributes (such as Strength, Dexterity, Constitution???), which is why attributes are automated and controlled by the game.
• One of the things differentiating characters is the ???Stigma??? system. Stigma is a sort of stone containing the memories of a Daeva. A Stigma stone will, in a nutshell, allow players to, by the use of different slots, create unique characters with skills or equipment from other classes. Examples of the combinations that can be acquired by utilizing this system are Wizards wearing heavy armour or maybe Assassins knowing how to teleport. Stigma is available from around level 20. There are limitations which will be revealed at a later point.

Tradeskills, professions & crafting

Find out more in Professions