Aion Stigma System, The Gladiator, My Impressions, and Patch 1.3

“Aion’s Stigma System allows players to further customize their characters, so that players of the same class are not necessarily identical in their abilities.”¹

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“Each character can equip up to 5 stigma stones.
However, with the current level cap at 45, you will be able to equip a maximum of 4.

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Level 20: 2 Stigma Slots
Level 30: 3 Stigma Slots
Level 40: 4 Stigma Slots”²

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The Stigma system. I’ve read conflicting information about whether we can or can’t use other classes Stigma’s.  There are also faction specific Stigmas.

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We have translations of the current list of Stigmas in the Korean version of Aion thanks to Hellrose. Also, Aion Armory has the abilities from the translation in the English Beta. I combined these two sources and created this. A list of the known Stigmas in English Beta form. Also, I’ve written my opinions about the specific Stigmas.

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Something to note. On the Aion Armory tool tips for these abilities it says “Gains Stigma”. I don’t know what’s up with that. All the articles that I’ve read about the Stigma system have led me to believe that it’s similar to glyphing from WoW. Perhaps this isn’t the case.

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The Gladiator, the juggernaut in plate that does somersaults while swinging prodigious weapons in mid air (I ❤ the thesaurus). These stigmas are specific to the Gladiator.

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Improved Stamina I : (lvl20): Recovers your HP by 20% and increases your Maximum HP, Block and Parry by 20%, 150 and 100 respectively for 2 min.

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Seems like an IWIN button. But I guess that will depend on if it is enough to change the course of a fight. I don’t know. I haven’t played at that level yet or even PvPed.

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Ankle Snare I : (lvl28): Immobilizes a target within a 25m radius for 10 sec and decreases its Evasion by 1000.

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This is suppose to be THE Gladiator snare. With a two minute cool down it should be very useful. Perhaps, to useful. Needs tweaking?

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Howl I : (lvl 34): Lowers Physical Att of the enemies within a 7m radius of you by 300 for 15 sec.

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I used a similar ability like this in WoW on my Warrior. Good for both PvE and PvP. Not much to say.

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Armor of Balance I : (lvl 37): Increases your Stun, Knock Back, Stumble, Rotation, and Mid-air Binding Resistance Values by 1000 for 1 min.

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Same response to Improved Stamina. We’ll have to see how good this really is in end game.

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Crippling Cut IV : (lvl40): Inflicts 494~498 physical damage on a fallen enemy.

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I’m not sure what they mean by ‘fallen enemy’. But I’m guessing you would use this after knocking your opponent out of the sky with Forced Drop.

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Equip Off Hand Weapon II : (lvl40): Allows you to use two-handed weapons skillfully.

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I’m always in favor of giving players more options. Good stuff. The text is a little confusing though.

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Castle Gate Destruction : (lvl40): Inflicts 16~20 physical damage on the target. If the target is a castle gate, inflicts additional 4000 physical damage.

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Siege ability. Not much to say.

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Lock Down III : (lvl43): Inflicts 65~69 physical damage on the target. The target is bound for 3 sec.

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I’m taking ‘bound’ to mean immobilized. Let me know if I’m wrong. The cool down is 12 seconds. It seems logical that a melee class will need a snare of some kind to catch there opponents. I withhold judgment until I see it in action.

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Earthquake Wave I : (lvl44): Inflicts 258~262 physical damage on the enemies within a 10m radius of you and decreases their movement speed for 2~10 sec .

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Sounds really fun. I can definitely see it’s usefulness in mass PvP.

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Force Blast I : (lvl45 Elyos): Inflicts 286~290 physical damage on a target within a 15m radius of you and up to 5 enemies within a 10m radius of the target, and decreases their Physical Def by 500 for 30 sec.

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Ouch. That sounds really mean. Again, mass PvP application. Gladiator won’t be lacking things to do during sieges.

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Piercing Wave I : (lvl45 Asmo): Inflicts 691~695 random physical damage on the enemies within a 10m radius of you.

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Sieges, mass PvP, etc. You get the picture lol. The Asmo ability gets more damage. But the Eylos ability gets a debuff with the damage. What do you think of that?

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Now, all this comes with a disclaimer. They may change some things or all of it for that matter and we don’t know a lot to begin with.  This is the combination of Hellrose’s translation of the Korean Stigma list and Aion Armory’s list of English Beta abilities. Let me know what you think. I’ll write more about the other classes’ Stigmas at a later date.

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Edit: I forgot about Patch 1.3. New ‘High Grade’ Stigmas and a quest that will gain you an extra Stigma slot.

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¹ and ² are both from Hellrose.

Aion Beta 5, Self Employment, and Choosing a Faction

Well the scheduled beginning of Aion Closed Beta #5 is just a mere few hours away and I’m ready to get started! I for one and am looking forward to trying all the classes and exploring the game. In the last beta I came in late and didn’t get to do much. So this time I’m going to try them all or as many as time allows. Now I just have to decide which one to try first… decisions!

You may be wondering how I have all this free time to blog and play Aion during the day. Are you unemployed? A teenager? On vacation? No, I’m self-employed. I won’t get to into the nitty gritty of it (It’s pretty boring). But I do habillitation work with autistic children and because of it I have more flexible hours. So that’s why I get to play Aion. Hehe.

Getting back to Aion though. I have a lot of choices ahead of me. What Faction do I want to join and what class do I want to play. That’s not even mentioning creating the character. With all that customization I could be there for hours trying sooth my neurotic need to make my character look just the way I want it to (And I know I’m not going to be the only doing that either).

First decision, the Asmodians vs the Eylos. Looking at them from a purely physical stand point. I think the Asmodians win in that category. They can look like Drow and to me that’s enough to seal the deal. However I can see why some people would choose Eylos. They’re kind of cute and angelic looking, and if that’s your thang. Then more power to you. From a lore perspective, I again have to side with the Asmodians. To me they seem like the good guys. But again, if the Eylos are pulling at your heart strings. Then good on you. I want both sides to be populated. Otherwise how are we going to kill each other? I really think that faction choice comes down merely to esthetics. Yes the lore can certainly impact how you think about them. But I don’t foresee a lot of people making their choice based mostly off the lore. So it comes down to: Do you want to look wicked and dark or cute and cherubic.

Also, some people are going to focus on game mechanics when choosing their faction. I’ve read that the Eylos get better abilities then the Asmodians. I can relate to this. But I still think that I’m going to end up siding with the Asmodians. Even if this is true. I can always Learn2Play and win anyways.

More on this, the classes, and anything else I think is worth mentioning at a later date. See you in the beta!

Oh, and be sure to check out Aionic Thoughts it always has the latest information on Aion and is an enjoyable read.