Aion patch 1.9 to overhaul questing, XP

By Oli Welsh Published 4 March, 2010

Plus new skills for every class.

NCsoft has revealed what we can expect from the next major update to its MMO Aion.

A significant overhaul of all the character classes, improvements to questing and a faster rate of experience gain - perhaps answering the complaints of many that the game is too "grindy" - are the order of the day.

Every class gets new skills, including skills for countering stun attacks.

There will be "dozens" of new daily quests, new regular quests, better quest rewards and increased item drop rates so they're quicker to complete.

There will also be an increase in experience gain and a new experience bonus system called "Energy of Salvation" to help those levels fly by.

The cost of getting by and getting around - specifically Soul Healing, Soul Binding and Flight Transportation costs - will be reduced, something many Aion players have been praying for since the game launched last year.

Beyond that, there are user interface and looking-for-group improvements, a weapon-combining system for two-handed weapons, increased item enchantments and more.

Sounds like a weighty patch. But what about all those amazing features from the Aion vision video we saw back in November?

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (8) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • InfiniteFury #1 2 years ago

    Hmmmm, tempting to try again but the concerns I hear relate simply to the end-game which I need to hear more about.

  • TruSmiles #2 2 years ago

    I cancelled my account last month because I was playing Star Trek instead and I was getting fed up of the constant stream of group quests which took far too long to organise and run. I mean, hunting down 100 loot items for a quest? No thanks. Less of that and I'll be happy to come back.
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 11:10

  • Zeali #3 2 years ago

    This just comes too late.
    We've been waiting this from the betas and now they give more XP to us?

  • twoism #4 2 years ago

    Personally I'm going to wait until their first proper expansion before trying it out again. I made a mistake of rolling a warrior at launch, and quickly found out how disadvantaged they are in PvP, with lots of people promising that it gets better at later levels. 40+ levels later I just lost interest TBH.

  • krisskross #5 2 years ago

    The grind killed my appetite too, quited also.
    Low population on all servers...
    Aion is dieing from the RMT and gold-sellers induced inflation.
    Ncsoft fail?

  • MaxHughes #6 2 years ago

    @ krisskross: Don't you mean another NCSoft fail?

  • Kerome #7 2 years ago

    It's a shame really because they did a lot of things right - the technical execution was fine, the setting was ok, the classes were decent. Pity that they didn't manage to understand what actually made it fun long-term...

  • krisskross #8 2 years ago

    The Ncsoft definition of fun is: $$$ and involves lots of zero's.
    The don't give a frozen rat's ass for your enjoyment.
    And Max, you are right ANOTHER Ncsoft fail.

    On my opinion the game is unfinished, like a beta stage rushed on the market to get your money.
    The released aion vision or whatever trailer looked like some final version but it will be popped like the rabbit from the magician hat when the actual version will bite the dust.
    RIP Aion, enjoy the RMT and bots < the only actual players.