Just a week after the last broadcast, the developers of MMORPG AION 2 are back with a new one. The stream began with an informal chat where developers Seo Yoon Seop and Kim Nam Joon shared updates about the current work process. Kim Nam Joon appeared on air with a beard, explaining that the team was so busy preparing for the launch of the Second Season that he simply did not have time to shave. They also noted an important milestone in the development of the community – the official YouTube channel of the game has surpassed 160,000 subscribers, for which they expressed sincere gratitude to all players.
Below we have compiled a summary for you with all the important information announced during the broadcast:
- First of all, an important announcement was made regarding the streaming schedule. There will be no broadcast next week as the entire development team is fully focused on final preparations for the start of the second season, which is scheduled for January 21. In this regard, the current broadcast was devoted to two topics at once: a review of the update on January 14 and a preliminary story about the content of the new season.
- The January 14th update focuses on global PvP rebalancing. The developers admitted that the current damage of the characters is too high, which is why battles end almost instantly. To address this issue, the base damage in PvP will be reduced, and the critical strike and heavy attack multipliers will be reduced, allowing for an increase in TTK (time to kill) and making battles more tactical and meaningful.
- The mechanics of how Divine Stones work with control effects will undergo significant changes. Their internal cooldown time will increase, as due to the increased attack speed of the characters, these effects were triggered too often, preventing opponents from getting out of control. In addition to this, Greater Healing Potions will now be able to remove debuffs from Divine Stones (excluding full immobilization effects such as paralysis or stun), giving players more tools for survival.
- The authors announced and justified the nerf of pet characteristics, which will happen on January 14, without waiting for the start of the season. After the recent unification of pets per account, players’ total stats (especially Accuracy and Evasion) increased too sharply, which led to oversimplification of the content and imbalance. To correct this situation, the stats received from pets will be slightly reduced.
- The Caster class has received comprehensive improvements. The debuff from the “Command: Decay” skill now reduces resistance not to critical hits (which was ineffective), but to receiving any damage, while the effectiveness has been increased from 15% to 20%. The mechanics of spirits have also been completely redesigned: now they generate elements when using their skills, and not just when summoned, the summoning itself is no longer interrupted when the character receives damage, and the artificial intelligence of spirits has been improved – they will automatically attack the target on which the Caster used the skill.
- Changes have been made for the Wizard class to improve combat dynamics. The flight speed of magic projectiles (for example, Fire Arrow) has been increased so that the damage is dealt faster and the enemy does not have time to escape. The Magic Power Boost passive has been replaced with Damage Boost to avoid the issue of hitting stat caps, and the pre-cast requirements for powerful skills like Lightning Bolt and Hellfire have been removed, making them much easier to use in your rotation.
- The killers were given added mobility and convenience. Beast Combo and Backstab can now be used while moving, which is critical for pursuing targets. The “Brand Flash” skill has become instant and does not require prerequisites, the “Fall into Shadow” animation has been accelerated, and the “Dagger Throw” skill has received a PvE buff in the form of massive damage and cooldown reset when killing mobs. However, the cooldown of the stealth detection skill has been increased to eliminate the situation where the Assassin constantly sees hidden targets in PvP.
- Shooters have had their key skill animations sped up (Staying Shot, Rupture) to make the combat system more responsive. The Focus and Vaisel’s Arrow buffs have been reworked to provide a direct damage boost. Aimed Shot’s skill specializations have been adjusted to reduce mana cost and remove the long charge time, and Rain of Arrows’ arrow speed has been increased to make it harder for enemies to avoid the area of effect.
- As part of improving PvE content for melee classes, the behavior patterns of bosses in dungeons (Nightmare, Firelink Shrine) and raids (Talos, Deus) have been significantly weakened. Annoying mechanics have been removed from battles, such as pillars of fire when the boss is stunned, the frequency of teleportations and dashes, which caused melee units to lose damage, has been reduced, and the periodic damage from bleeding and poison effects has also been reduced.
- The Sanctuary raid has been updated with some nice changes to save players time. Removed all “junk” content (regular monsters) on the path between the first and second boss, so that the group immediately gets to the intermediate boss. A critical error has also been fixed, due to which, when re-entering a raid after being eliminated, the player’s entry ticket was re-charged, and the reward from the boss now falls directly into the inventory, eliminating the risk of forgetting to pick up loot.
- Details of the server system for the second season have been revealed. Matchmaking will be done in a 1v1 format (e.g. server Ciel vs server Jikel), and pairings have been formed based on careful analysis of player population and combat activity to ensure the fairest balance possible. The developers also mentioned that in the future (for example, in the third season) they are considering the possibility of introducing “N on N” formats (multiple servers versus several).
- Changes have been made to the game economy for the start of the season. Seasonal currencies must be spent, as they will not carry over into the new season, where new types of currencies will be introduced. The Season 1 store will remain available until January 28th for those who haven’t had time to spend their balances, but the dungeon and raid entry tickets will remain and can be used in the second season (but new tickets will be required to access new, higher-level content).
- The Void scoring system will change radically in Season 2. The existing total cap of 2.5 million points is being removed entirely. Instead, a “cumulative weekly limit” is introduced, which starts at 3 million and increases by 500,000 every week. This will create a mechanics of catch-up development: players who missed a week or started playing later will be able to simply farm the entire accumulated limit at once and catch up with the leaders.
- The long-awaited “Inheritance” system of equipment has been introduced, which will allow you to transfer progress to the items of the new season. Players will be able to transfer enchant level, breakthrough, and random stat settings from old equipment to new equipment of the same rank. The first transfer attempt will have a 100% chance of success, but subsequent transfers will be based on chance. In this case, mana stones and inserted divine stones cannot be transferred.
- To differentiate between PvE and PvP content, Abyss gear will receive new mechanics in Season 2. When used in PvE, the characteristics of these items will be slightly reduced, but in return, players will receive special bonuses when hunting monsters inside the Abyss itself. This is to ensure that PvP gear remains the best gear for PvP without becoming the be-all and end-all for all content in the game.
- The January 21st update will include a Wardrobe feature that allows you to purchase and store multiple copies of the same costume to dye them in different colors, as well as the option to hide the hood. In honor of this event, a promotion with a discount on painting will return for two weeks (the price has been reduced to 100 Kyun), and goods for 1 Kinara will be returned to the game store on a permanent basis, as many players have asked for.
- The maximum strength of the Legion will increase from 40 to 96 people (the number is a multiple of the size of the alliance for the convenience of gathering for sieges and raids), and the capacity of the Legion’s warehouse has been expanded to 400 cells. There will also be a training dummy in the Legion’s hideout, on which players can measure their damage and test skill rotations.
- The developers addressed technical issues, confirming the presence of critical errors on computers with AMD processors (especially the X3D series) and monitors with high refresh rates. As a temporary solution, they advised switching the monitors to 60 Hz, but assured that the game engine engineers are already actively working on a full-fledged fix for this problem, and will also fix a bug with Suga’s “Mysterious Trail” skill not working correctly.
- A new system for Field Bosses in Season 2 has been announced. Now any player who hits the boss at least once will be able to receive rewards in the form of fragments, which will solve the problem of the top legions monopoly on loot. In addition, boss spawn times will now be publicly displayed directly on the world map, eliminating the need for players to guess respawn times.
As an apology for the lack of broadcast next week and as a thank you for waiting for the season, the developers have announced a generous giveaway. Immediately after the broadcast, all players were sent 2 Od Energy, and during the week before the start of the season, players will receive 1 more Od Energy daily and additional consumables, including 6 Resurrection Stones.
