[Aion] Surviving PvP (11/18/2009)

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[Aion] Surviving PvP (11/18/2009)

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Here's some general advice on how tosurvive a PvP encounter in Aion. Not necessarily to win it, just come out ofit alive. If you're strong enough to defeat your foe, then by allmeans do it. But, sometimes, that's not an option.

General Survival

One of the best tricks you can use to avoid being caught off guard bythe other faction is to create a sort of early warning system. Thisis actually rather easy to do: simply create a chat tab and set it todisplay enemy combat spam. All of it. You'll want any warning youcan get, especially when it announces an Assassin used hide. Ipersonally set the text to some nice red, yellow, and orange colors.I did multiple colors so I'm more likely to notice it scrolling thecombat spam. I also went ahead and put enemy death in there as abright green color so I know when an enemy has died (by default, allyand enemy PvP deaths both appear white, which is confusing). Once youhave your tab, put it somewhere you can see it easily while goingabout your business.

This chat tab provides two very good advantages: First, combat spamhas a longer range than your radar. So if xxxgankerxxx is attackingiracarebear somewhere off your radar, you'll see it on your chat tab.You won't know which specific direction it's in, but you'll know theenemy is near and that you can be ready. The second, major advantageis that the combat spam will also give you the name and rank of theskills the enemy is using. This is valuable, as it'll give you anidea of the level of the foes in question. The level differencebetween, say, Swift Edge II and Swift Edge IV is huge. In general, ifthe ranks of the basic skills being used are higher than the ranks of yours, then the enemy is probably a higher level, which in turn meansthey'll have a big advantage over you.

Second is to keep an eye on your radar when you're in the Abyss or aPvPvE zone. Any enemy not in a hidden state will appear on your radar, even if there's a big altitude difference.

If you look around and stay alert, you may spot them before they reachyou or, more importantly, before they spot you. Avoiding gettingjumped will greatly improve your survival rating. Even if you couldkill the opponent normally, if they jump you, they may kill youinstead! Also, unless you have a visual of their character, alwaysassume if you see a big red dot on your radar, they see a big red doton theirs. And remember, you can set a key that will automaticallyrotate your camera 180 degrees without changing the direction you'regoing.

Third is to run away. But just peeling off and running as fast as youcan won't necessarily work. You need to out run your enemy, need tomitigate any ranged damage they have, and, most importantly, have away do deal with any mez effects such as sleeps, stuns, and roots,that they may have. Tossing on whatever protective abilities you haveas well as speed boosts will help. Assassins and Rangers can simplyhit hide. And consumables, which I'll cover in a moment, can handlemuch of the rest. However, even still, just running away can hurt youmore than standing. Why? Running forward lowers your defensiveattributes! Running backwards boosts physical defense and parry (Ithink movement might be a little slower though), whereas sidewaysboosts Evasion. Both lower attack power, but that's not importantduring retreat. Of course sideways and backwards may make it hard tosee where you're going, but that can be overcome by left-clickrotating the camera. The direction you see will change, but thedirection you move won't.

Fourth is to use consumables. Healing potions, mana potions, runscrolls, anti-shock scrolls, resistance scrolls, food, and any otherscan give you an edge in a fight or escape. You can only have so manyof some up at any given time, but in rift and Abyss PvP, they can belife savers. Even a healer should consider carrying some instanthealth potions. And everyone wants Greater Healing Potions, whichbreaks a number of nasty status effects such as roots.

Fifth, assume every Templar has Inescapable Judgement. This is thatblue lasso ability that pulls the target to them. Be prepared for itand be ready to get back, especially if you're a squishy or primetarget.

Finally, look for safe spots around combat NPCs. Not all NPCs, eventhose of your faction, will pull out a weapon and go attack the enemywhen they get near. The ones that do are usually high level and atleast of Elite rank. The stronger and more numerous, the safer thesespots are. Take advantage of them and use them to rest. But, becareful, you can get sniped in these and a group of higher levels canobliterate you and your NPC allies.

Arena Survival

As low as level 10 you can enter the arena. Sometimes people will campthis area and gank lowbies trying to do the quests offered there. There's no penaltyor reward to get here, so killing them only slows them down. But, ifyou can kill the ganker, do it. No ganker means no worry about notfinishing your quest.

A couple of things in the arena help specifically. First, when youenter, if you don't do anything, you'll be completely invisible forabout a minute. The moment you act, this goes away. Use this to waituntil people are distracted. Once you have your opening, either runalong the edges or fly to the quest contact and quickly talk to him.Once the conversation is done, then you don't need to worry aboutgetting killed. Grab your weapon and bust some heads on the way outor die trying. You won't lose anything, so why not?

Rift Survival

In level 20+ zones, except a specific one, enemies can pop in througha portal and go kill people. Naturally, since we're talking aboutsurviving PvP and not owning PvP, we'll be assuming you're not one ofthose going through the portal, but dealing with the ones coming intoyour faction's lands. Rift PvP isn't entirely common, so for the mostpart you'll be free to solo quest without interruption (at least, inmy experience).

First, watch for the messages "A rift connected to X has opened,"where X is either Elysia or Asmodae. The one you want to watch for isthe one connected to your map from time to time and look for a skull.If you see one, that's an enemy who has killed many of your faction'splayers. If you don't want to try hunting it down, then avoid it.Odds are the player came from a higher level rift.

Third, if you're unlike me and can access the chat channels such asTrade and LFG (no clue why I can't), access /1, which is General.People will give locations to rifts and enemies in this channelsometimes. Use it to either hunt down the foe or to avoid them.Also, keep in mind, depending where they appear they will havedifferent capped levels. As a general rule, the farther they enteredfrom your zone's main town, the higher level they will be.

Fourth, don't be afraid to /shout for help. Call for help and give alocation on the map. You can control-click the map to put an "x" on itand then link this spot in chat. Allied players who are activelylooking to get kills can run over and help you out. Or, on occasion,die trying.

Abyss Survival

In the Abyss, you have to add a new axis to the fight for fighting.Ambushes become easier with flight as players can use it to movefaster. The enemy can appear anywhere at any time and roving ganksquads are not uncommon. Expect lots of combat down there.

First, Wind Serums and Raging Wind Scrolls become very important. Thelonger and faster you can fly, the better. People will fly a lot andyou get passive abilities while in the air. Flight is usually fasterthan running, so chases and retreats often take to the skies.However, when in the air, you get less physical defense, so you'lltake more damage. This can be important when being stalked by, say, aRanger. If you can keep moving, you might be safer retreating from aphysical attacker on the ground than in the air. And then, when theyland due to the flight timer, you can get away by flying.

Second, fortresses your faction controls can either be safe or deadlyto you. It all depends on whether the enemies are willing to farmfortress guards for the mass amounts of Abyss Points or would insteadget farmed by the guards. If you see red dots in the middle of thefortress as you approach it, then get away! This is something that Ipersonally think needs to be addressed, as an invulnerable fortressshould... well... be invulnerable.

Third, when escaping in the air, you can do one nifty trick: stopflying. Yes, cancel flight, fall for a few seconds, and then turn iton again. It can throw off your pursuers or even make them think yourflight timer ran out. If they think you started falling to yourdeath, they won't chase you.

Fourth, though I don't have much personal experience in this, thehigher levels of the Abyss seem less populated. Gank squads go foreasy targets, so they'll be less frequent up there. Of course, mytime on the upper level is very limited at the moment, so I could bewrong.

And finally, groups and alliances help a lot. A strong group, even asmall one, can hold off a huge number of players through mind gamesalone. Ever seen five players bottle forty by some allies becausethey were too scared to rush the five? I have. I was one of thefive, and I knew we'd die if they zerged us (and eventually, theyrealized we were few in number and did). Safety indeed lies innumbers.
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