Opening note: This is a translation of a translation. I’m translating a blog post (sources will be at the bottom of the post) that was in Japanese, which was a translation of several articles in Korean. I am not familiar with all of the cross-terms from Aion in Japan to Aion in North America. I will also note that I am not 100% familiar with the classes outside of mine, so any corrections to mistranslations of skills and so forth would be wonderful! Thank you. :D
This is the first of three posts I’ve seen on the Japanese blog regarding these updates.
I will be breaking them up over multiple posts, since they’ll all be very very long, and it’ll be easier to read them in small batches.
Multiple blog posts will make up this article on Aion’s new update. Originally, people had called it 5.0 and I’ve also seen 4.8, but I’ve since learned that they’re no longer assigning numbers to the expansions.
This particular expansion I’m seeing is called the ‘Wind of Destiny’ and is a massive, sweeping change over the entire game as a whole.
The first part of the Wind of Destiny will happen on the Korean servers in December. This update will contain a skillset reorganization, new ‘grown’ [ed: not quite sure the exact meaning on this], new regions, new contents, the fourth dragon lord, Beritra and the arrival of Triniel.
A key part of this update will be introducing new members to the Aion development team- a new lead director and new assistant design director will be involved in this project.
They held a question and answer session regarding ‘Rhapsody 1’ of the Wind of Destiny update at the development offices.
The first question from the reporters was to find out what will be happening with the Wind of Destiny update and to get information from it. They were told that the focus for this update will be to simplify the system and contents for the userbase. Everything from user interface, item setting, quests, skills, will be streamlined for optimization and convenience. With these changes will also come in higher level contents. However, character levels will not increase. Instead, they will be introducing a new growth system.
They will be offering objectives to both new and veteran players to Aion, but they wish to bring about a new ‘romance’ to the game. This will serve as a major turning point to both Elyos and Asmodians alike.
The update title is Wind of Destiny, and this this particular update, called Rhapsody 1: The New World’ are planned to go live on test servers on November 12. There are future plans for Rhapsody 2 and Rhapsody 3, the later updates.
The biggest change of this update will be the ‘Unification of Balaurea.’ Along with this, the arrival of the two new regions, Heavenly Sigunia [Maybe Cygnia?] and Hellish Enshar, and a city will rise from under the sea.
Not only this, but the rifting battle system will be revived as well. Legions will be able to utilize 72 man rifts, alliances can use 24 man rifts, and leagues can use 144 man rifts. Users will be able to gain many PVP points through these rifts, and they will all join together into camps on the other side. You can be labeled an ‘Attacker’ if you come to the enemy side via a rift and succeed, or you can become a ‘Guardian’ if you push back the enemy coming to your location via the rift.
When asked about the new regions, they have explained that there are plans to merge the existing Balaurea regions into one, with Sarpan at the center. This will include Inggison, Gelkmaros, and Tiamaranta.
While the terrain is being changed, some of the instances that exist in Balaurea will be updated and some will be completely removed.
This update will reveal Beritra’s plot, and it will also introduce Triniel to the stage and he will be taking part in the plans to capture Beritra.
Beritra’s actions will cause the arrival of new instances, whereas some of the existing dungeons in Balaurea will be updated.
Regarding the rifting updates, many players found enjoyment in the rifting system. With the recent updates to the growth systems, newer players have drifted away from the rifting while older users still wished to participate in it. As such the new rifting system is being added in.
Reporters also asked about the skill reorganization that had been mentioned before and wanted to know what the developers meant by that. They responded that the skills will be changing through a ‘skill growth system.’ With the desire to create more convenience and efficiency, they intend to integrate currently existing skills, as well as upgrades and adjustments. The new Skill Strengthening system will prepare players for the Stigma Evolution as well.
[Note: there are more details on this in a later blog post that I will also be translating.]
A question that many players will probably be interested in is knowing about what kind of new skills will be available for the various classes.
Gladiators will see Rupturing Spirit Blade, a single powerful attack to strike enemies at a distance, and Pulverizing Whirlwind, a whirlwind attack to target multiple enemies in within its range.
With Templars, there will be Punishing Reflection, giving the templar the ability to reflect a skill back on their enemy, and Vampiric Discipline, a skill to allow a templar to regain health based on the amount of damage they deal.
Assassins will see Glimmering Sphere, which will cause enemies within range to lose targeting, and Lightning Ambush, a charging back attack on enemies at a distance.
For the Rangers, there will be Piercing Arrow, which causes both enemy damage and stun, as well as Shadow Hide, which will allow the ranger to go into hide while in combat.
Some new skills for Sorcerers include Life’s Breeze, which will put an area of enemies to sleep, and Grace of Flames, which will amplify magical power, while reducing MP consumption.
New skills for Spiritmasters include Spirit Union, where the spiritmaster will unify with the spirit to increase their movement speed, casting speed, and magical power, and Wide Area Absorption, which damage enemies around the spiritmaster and regen HP.
Clerics will now have Reinforcing Splendor, which will restore all [ed: maybe?] HP, and Judgement Seal which will weaken enemy resistances.
For the Chanters, there is Powerful Gust, a single attack that will strike all enemies around the chanter, and Spell Seal which will weaken the concentration of their enemies.
Gunners will have Multi-Bombardment, where they fire multiple cannonballs at distant enemies, and Wild Magic Bullet Fire [ed: sorta? Trying ot make this sound good doesn’t work. Lit. ‘Blindly Firing Magical Bullets’] where they send a number of hits to any approaching enemies.
The Songweavers will have Illusionary Variation, a powerful single attack, and Purification Nocturne, which will have a purification effect on all party members.
…and last, but not least, the Aethertechs will see Photoelectric Wave, which is an AOE whip attack to stun multiple enemies, and Idium Detonation, which is a massive explosion attack from the bastion.
Other questions that were asked during the event were related to the ‘Aion Master Server,’ which is specifically based on the local servers in Korea. This server will limit the character levels, and classes. AP can be accumulated through PVP but items being equipped or transactions related to them will be restricted. More details on this server will be available on 11/21 when it opens. They plan for the master server to have a high value on kinah and to see about making changes to the server economy.
[ed note: I don’t know on this all for sure, since I don’t play on the Korean servers. I don’t know much about their organization or how they function, so there are likely to be errors in the above translation.]
They were also asked about what they thought about the glory point system after having it implemented over the past year. The developers have stated that they have heard the criticisms regarding the current methods of acquiring GP through sieges and arena battles, which are set at fixed times. They intend to make changes to the system to give players more options for acquiring glory points in the future.
The final question brought up was to ask about the contents and timeframes of Rhapsody 2 and 3 for the Wind of Destiny update. Currently, the only one with any solid information at this time is Rhapsody 1. 2 and 3 are still in the development process at this point in time. Rhapsody 2 is expected to focus on item contents and intends to introduced ‘unparalleled’ items to the game.
Rhapsody 3 will be focusing on the troubles between the races, as they plan to look further into the confrontational natures of the Elyos and Asmodians. More details on these updates will be in the future. For now, the test server will see Wind of Destiny arrive on 11/12, and the developers hope that the players will enjoy the update.
Source 1: [ Mutakina (Japanese) ]
Source 2: [ Game Chosun (Korean) ]
Source 3: [ Inven (Korean) ]
