PvP in Aion 2.0 – the Good, the Meh, and the Ugly
As people have been exploring the pets, the new instances, and the new zones in the Aion 2.0 expansion on the PTS, many have also asked, “Where’s the PvP?”. Given that Aion is a two-faction PvP-oriented game, it’s a fair question. There are some really good PvP possibilities with 2.0 headed up by Silentera Canyon, but there are also some very big flops from the PvP player’s perspective. As a person who loves PvP (RIP Shadowbane), I thought I’d take a crack at telling the community what’s up.
The Good
Silentera Canyon
The biggest positive from my point of view is easily Silentera Canyon. I was able to have a looksee at the canyon after GMs helped to take the two fortresses for entrance to it on the test server and it looks like it has some really good potential. As a disclaimer, I entered when the Elyos were unable to enter and it’s possible that more guards may spawn when both sides can enter the canyon. Kisks can’t be used in the canyon.
The big thing I noticed at once is that the mobs are spread out and look easy to kite. This has got to be the dream instance for any class that kills elites through kiting. The instance also links to perpetual entrances into the enemy lands and you can stay there as long as you want. I was never ported back when sitting in Elyos territory when I was on the Asmodian faction. The following map from a PC Gamer article shows the Silentera Exits for both factions.
I took quite a few images of the instance as I was able to wander around in between the elite mobs. Even the central area of Jotun Square had only a few, very large Jotuns that were easily avoided. There were quests available for things like collecting items in the instance and so there are things other than PvP to do in the instance. And what’s not to like that I could potentially gank somebody at Pacifist’s Walk?
New Fortresses
For those who like large and more epic PvP, there are two new fortresses for each faction side in Balaurea and you can’t fly in either one of them. Those fortresses have a purpose – when you obtain them for your side you’ll open Silentera Canyon for your faction. The fortresses appear to be more difficult to obtain and retain when compared to regular Abyss fortresses.
It is possible to obtain all 4 fortresses (2 on your faction’s side and 2 on the opposing faction’s side) in order to spawn a regional governor two hours later. That governor drops an eternal class item and apparently can mail players gift rewards involving platnum medals, stigma shards, etc.
More Interesting Map Aerodynamics and Design
The new maps in Balaurea make better use of gliding and gliding itself has been incrementally improved. Gliding actually works more like gliding now where you can lay off all keys and occasionally gain altitude, but when you press the forward key (the “w” for most people), you increase your speed and go down quickly. The below image shows what this now looks like – it’s very obvious when people are holding down the forward key now.
There are a fair number of canyons and places that seem separated from the rest of the map. However, the difference between these places and previous maps is that they now have water/air spouts and windstreams that will change the dynamics of how people travel on the map. These added features should make for some different types of PvP experiences. For instance, you can fall both up and down in a geyser will this make it easier or harder for people to escape PvP? And can you imagine a Templar pulling a character out of a windstream with IJ from a hill?
The Meh category is for things are aren’t great, but aren’t so horrible that I want to bang my head into the wall over-and-over-and-over (no Cynic, you may not tell me to do eet anyway). It generally includes things that have some good parts and some of what I just call meh things.
Chantra Dredgion
So I was all excited that a new Dredgion instance was coming out and it’s good that a new instance came out, but… it looks and feels kinda like the old one. With some different colours thrown in. Surk guardians can’t be CC’d anymore and everybody sees through stealth, which is a good thing. The new hero mobs are apparently taking around 10 min to kill from reports in the Chantra Dred thread. It’s just not the new instance I was hoping for.
Less PvP Emphasis Overall
The expansion seems to primarily deal with new content for PvE rather than PvP. There are pets and even new solo instances like Haramel and Nightmare where people can escape from ever encountering another person. For what is supposed to be a PvPvE game, it seems to be veering off towards the PvE side of things.
As part of this, it has become more difficult for individuals to seek solo PvP encounters. The entrance to Silentera Canyon is filled with rows of Balaur and I had to die before I could raise myself and enter the canyon as a solo player. The image below gives something of an idea of how to enter the canyon after passing in the middle of a row of Balaur.
The Balaur seem very aggressive on the PTS with retaking the forts on either side in Balaurea. As of the time of this writing, both forts that belonged to the Asmodians have been retaken by the Balaur. Remember that you cannot enter Silentera unless both forts belong to the faction wishing to enter. Additionally, the PTS groups have not really managed to take the fortresses without GM intervention. While the PTS groups are small, this probably means that the fortresses are challenging to take. This spells trouble for servers without active factions on both sides.
Debris of Abyss
There is a new instance for the Divine Fortress called in the patch notes Debris of Abyss (patch notes). While I’m sure the instance will be fun for those who own Divine Fortress, this instance probably isn’t going to help the faction imbalance that exists on some servers where Divine was overwhelmingly taken by a single faction.
Gear
The level 55 PvP gear from 2.0 on the PTS has not been well received by players (No Abyss Eternal Gear?). Those who want to PvP in order to obtain gear may want to look at the Veille’s/Mastarius’s gear sets that are obtained from fighting to take fortresses in the new zones. These sets are very noticeable with the winged capes they have (oooh, pretty).
Rifting Nerfs
It appears that rifting was nerfed in the Korean version of the game fairly badly (see this initial article and comments on it via Google Translate). That’s 76% of the Korean players commenting that a defense buff protecting people from twinks is not needed. However, we do know that there is a defense buff to protect individuals from twinks in Morheim/Eltnen and Beluslan/Heiron. The goal of this move appears to be to force twinks into either the Abyss for PvP or towards the end game rifting in Balaurea.
Kisks can no longer be placed in the mountains, making the best hidden kisk locations obsolete. Of course, there are now camouflage kisks to make up for this, although I personally liked concentrating on where to glide in order to find or hide a kisk.
The truly ugly part of all of this is that rifting on the PTS is entering the realm of the impossible for the lower level zones. Rifting quests are equally almost impossible as rifting characters can’t actually fight off the native inhabitants.
Localization
After the PTS came up, a couple of different threads were started about perceived PvP difficulties on the PTS. One was about rifting in lower level zones and the other was regarding guards that exist on the PTS that don’t exist in the Korean version of the game. Numerous images have shown the greater number of guards in the NA version of the game now.
It is currently unclear whether the rifting nerfs are different between the NA and Korean versions, but given the greater number of guards in the NA version, it’s quite likely that rifting was nerfed harder here than it was in Korea (this is not yet confirmed however — if somebody could look into this it’d be great). Quotes from the thread on the rifting nerfs mention as much as an 80% damage debuff for the Eltnen/Morheim zones.
Whether or not solo PvP’ers can navigate the new maps with the extra guards actually doesn’t matter – it’s the fact that localization seems to be aimed at reducing PvP that is of concern. Rift type PvP appears to be the primary form of PvP that people will encounter at level 55. Hanging all the hopes of Aion 2.0 PvP onto the small instance of Silentera Canyon (it’s not a large instance when compared with current zones), seems like a bad idea that will effect the open world PvP feel of the game. Remember that there are no new Abyss zones for level 55’s to choose from and that Silentera Canyon itself is not always open. Those who enjoyed PvP in the neutral core from those who farmed there, may be disappointed.
While there is certainly a population in Aion that does not like open world PvP, those who remember games such as Ultima Online fondly will mourn the loss of the open world PvP feeling in the game in Balaurea. At this point, I personally am unsure of how to balance the game between those who wish to pursue PvE challenges (PvE is much improved in 2.0) and those who prefer to go out and PvP consistently. Most games balance these two with having a PvP specific server where things like the extra guards and rifting nerfs would be taken out. Is this what will need to happen in Aion for the future?
The PvP in 2.0 is a mixed bag with Silentera Canyon promising an interesting experience, the new fortresses that need to be held to open Silentera, and the interesting new aerodynamics of the Balaurea maps. The Chantra Dredgion is at best a meh PvP instance as it’s very similar to the old Dredgion and there seems to be an emphasis on PvE over PvP in the expansion overall. The really ugly things that have happened in terms of PvP are the rifting nerfs and overall the fact that localization of the game appears to be trying to nerf PvP even more.
It is not currently known what the overall direction of Aion in the future is, but if PvP continues to be de-emphasized, the PvP crowd is going to only become more disenfranchised. The only thing I’ve been able to think of personally has been asking for a PvP-oriented server. Which seems rather strange in a two-faction PvPvE-based game.
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