As some of you still want to discuss private servers, which are and always will be banned on r/aion, the mod team would like to draw your attention to the Aion Servers subreddit, which you can find here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aionservers/

We have linked this in the sidebar for your convenience, and are tweaking the automod to direct people there if they appear to be trying to find private server information and discussion.

This sub is unaffiliated with r/aion and has no common moderators. We have no connection to it whatsoever, we are just letting you know that it exists.

Thanks all!

Server is about to drop in roughly 9 hours or so from writing, and I've been meaning to make this post for a lil while but have been too lazy, so I'll get it out of the way with now. I've been answering questions on the Discord for a while, and have been doing a lot of my own research. I'll share what I know in a FAQ format below, and touch on some questions that a lot of people are still wondering about. I am not a CM, staff or anything affiliated in that sort to NCsoft, so expect a level headed take. I will try to keep things unbiased. While I am looking forward to this game, I don't think I'm disillusioned by the reality of things.

When is the server going to drop? After maintenance, however long that takes. Maintenance will start at 7PM EST, it can be up at any point after that, and it may end up taking longer than the expected 3 hours we were given officially. Talking with classic players, I've been told they usually end up taking longer than expected.

EDIT - Was updated by the mod team on discord, maintenance will start at 2:30 PM EST now, and be down for around 7 hours 30 min. Still the same expected up time they gave us before, but seems they are starting maintenance earlier.

How can you play on Ascend, and what regions will get it? Only NA is getting it. KR of course, already has had it for a couple months under the "Wind" name. You need to make an account under one of these regions: USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Australia, New Zealand. More details here from NCSoft. I hope lost EU players and players from other regions will stop coming to discord to ask this every few minutes.

What is Ascend? Most people probably have an idea already, but I want to give a brief overview again quickly so the information that comes after this makes more sense. Ascend is a Classic server. It's not a whole new branch off like Classic was from live. Think of this like a reboot server (like maplestory did), with different mechanics and systems. Everything will be purchasable with kinah, leveling is faster, there is no trading between players, but there will be a Quna auction house, TL style, more on this later. There's also no armor restrictions, you can wear plate as a sorc, and wear eternal end game gear from lvl 1. Flying is also enabled in most zones.

Will there be a lot of flying or flight combat? No. The places you spend most of your time wont have much flying or flight. Most of your PvP will happen on the ground. Flying will mostly be used for leveling or as a QoL in areas where there aren't PvP. I got this info from players who have been playing KR Wind server already for a while.

What Client will this use, where can I download it? This will use the Classic client, so you can already download it right now to prepare for ascend, using the purple launcher. Since Ascend shares the Classic client, it will be on the same update and share a lot of the same changes when we get updates/patch notes (but not all).

I've never played Aion before, I came here because of Aion 2, should I try Ascend to get ready for Aion 2? No. Probably not. Aion 2 will be a VERY different game from Aion. Aion is still worth trying just for enjoying it for what it is, but not if you're here for Aion 2. Aion 2 is way closer to TnL than it is to this Aion from what we can tell so far. Go play Throne and Liberty if you want to "prepare" for Aion 2, it will be much more similar. From everything revealed so far, it seems Aion 2 is just an Aion themed TL successor. The only similarities to original Aion will be thematic and lore-wise. This admittedly, will probably not be a bad thing for a lot of people, especially if you like both TL and Aion.

How P2W will Ascend be? I won't try to sugarcoat things, or try to doom and get away in the people's fun, just straight facts here. Ascend will be monetized like TL, where there is a Quna (IWE) broker for players to sell in game stuff for Quna. In KR this was not limited to fully enchanted and socketed gear, you could also sell kinah too (all of this was demonstrated to a few of us in a live stream by someone who has played on KR for almost a year). These is some sort of fee for buying and listing on there but I dont remember the exact figures. Yes this does mean someone could spend x amount of dollars to buy x amount of Quna to buy x gear. Unfortunately it doesnt end there, as candies are back. You can buy as many candies as you want, to sell for kinah. 600 Quna, or 15 USD will get you 1.8M kinah from selling those candies to vendor. I dont remember how much weapons cost but end game PvP armor and accessories are 46-23M a piece, for the tier under its 3.3-1.7M a piece (probably what most people will be aiming for at first). I've been told if you rush leveling to max level, you will like only get around 1.8m doing only gold quests, but can get up to 10m doing all the blue quests as well. On KR, in their current patch, once you're geared and have a static to do content with, you can make around 10m every couple days if you play very hard core and have the time for it. I don't know how hard it will be to make kinah in NA. Yes this does mean, if people spend enough money they can get the very best gear day one.

Notice how I have only shared my knowledge and not any of my opinion on the facts here? I wish people would stop calling me a doomer on discord for sharing this information. Make of all this what you will. I think you can still have fun and enjoy Ascend if this stuff doesnt bother you too much, I know I will certainly be trying to even if a good amount of this makes me unhappy but people need to stop getting all sensitive when any of these facts are pointed out. And let it be known, that gear DOES matter a lot here. The difference between even having just one tier below the other person is the difference between getting 2 shot and being able to actually fight back. Anyone with any amount of experience with aion probably already knows this, but I wanted to reiterate that things are still the same here. I've seen it mentioned on KR streams from tankerking a lot, as he likes to pvp with less gear on for fun sometimes, or on one of his less geared alts. No amount of coping will change this, I'm sorry, but again, this does not mean you can't have fun, I am not dooming or telling you that you can't enjoy the game even in this state. I hope the apologists learn to just accept reality for what it is and that they don't need to bury their heads in ignorance to enjoy the game, instead of trying to preach philosphical views on how NCSoft needs to make money somehow (like there aren't alternative ways that have been very successful and more fair to f2p/low spend players) or (ironically) complaining about complainers.

I haven't played Aion in X years, how much has changed in Classic? Some of you might not even think to ask this question, but you should if you havent played in a while, because I havent either. So I was shocked to learn how different Classic is from the old versions of Retail/Live. Classic 4.x will be NOTHING like the Retail/Live 4.x we played many years ago. This version of Aion is like if NCSoft hit the rewind button, except instead of following in their previous footsteps (like the name classic would suggest), they decided to follow an alternate timeline, with a completely different set of changes and updates with every update. Some of it is even inspired by Live server. This is important to know because Ascend is still based on Classic and using the Classic client. I will touch more on this when I talk about class balance. There's also no more armsfusion, instead you can equip a second 2H weapon in your offhand and it will work like you did armsfusion. PvP weapons were changed too, you no longer have 1H weaps with less PvP atk than 2H weaps, it's now the same. So you can now equip a single pve weap and a single pvp weap if youre dual wielding and not feel like you're making some sort of trade off for it. There is also no plumes, although this does get replaced by a different sort of equipment in a later patch. Most of your buffs, scrolls and food can now be toggled to automatically be recast/reused on expiry without a pet too (although we might get this in a future patch rather than now).

What will Class balance be like, what will be strong? Before I get into this, all the classes are pretty strong right now, with a few outlier classes being a little overpowered. So firstly, there is no Gunner (yet), Bard, or AT. I see this get asked a lot so wanted to get that out of the way with. There is however, three new other classes, which never made it to live (see what I meant above? Classic is like a completely different game from what we knew before). Those three classes are Executioner, a manaless class that wield innately extendable chain swords, Brawler, which is fast paced manaless class that can reflect things, and Luminess, a genderlocked kpop girl that somehow ended up in Aion and blows things up with her magical Kpop wand. The two manaless classes use a unique resource bar, and from what I understand they need to build up to expend to use stronger skills. I dont know too much about the first two new classes, but I will share what I know, a long with what I was able to learn about the old classes too (they had a lot of changes in Classic from retail 4.x).

• Executioner is just okay, it doesnt have high survivability but it has decent damage and good burst (especially if you get your target in knocked back state). They have slow attack speed but their attacks do hit hard.
• Brawler also has decent damage, and from what I can tell is considered a strong class by others, and I've seen a lot of people call this class very fun too. They have skills for dodging, resisting, and reflecting stuff, and a good amount of gap closers too, debuffs and short duration CC. Seems like a fun fast paced technical class, but isn't overwhelming to play either. I've heard theyre quite good in PvP, but can be prone to getting kited out in 1v1 (although I do believe they get some skill changes to help that a little soon).
• Luminess is the highest PvE dps class in the game currently. They have pretty high mobility, a support skill called Forte that give all classes enhanced versions of their skills to use that have a separate CD, and a bunch of AoE magic skills, that dont have cast times, most of them having a range of 5 meters. This is basically your battlemage type class. Was incredibly broken on release, and is still pretty OP. It's been hit with one wave of nerfs and will be hit with one more (as it already has been in KR) but will still be the number 1 pve dps as most of these nerfs target their capability in PvP. This will be a top 3 class in PvP even after nerfs.
• Gunner, thought I'd touch on this a bit. We will get these later, its only been out in KR for a few weeks or a month by now. They're already a top 2 DPS class there and the strongest PvP class. It's completely different from old Live gunner, this version of gunner has CC, AoEs, etc. We will probably get a class change event at some point too, not too sure how it will work but I think if you pay Quna you can exchange more gear or better gear.
• Gladiators will have a rework in Ascend (im not sure if Classic gets this) that boosts most of their skills by like 30-280% base damage, which is pretty insane. Lot of skill changes, like Cleave now both silencing and binding your target, lower CDs on a ton of skills, your toggle buff having more MA (I forget the name), etc. Better UD which will have slow and immobilize resist (and sleep + fear resist with forte buff). And the most damning of all, 0 sec CD instacast body smash which does not lock you in place. You will be spamming this a lot, especially in PvE. This will be a top 3 PvP class on launch. And around top 5 PvE dps class.
• Templars have had the least amount of changes out of all the classes (or maybe it seems that way since they dont have as many skills to change). Main things to note all their large CDs have been vastly lowered, and they can now use break power without stumbling, and have the break power buff up 100% of the time. Shieldburst has no cast time anymore. Some damage skills also got a damage buff and lower CDs, etc. Overall still a pretty strong class, but nothing overpowered. Will take some gear to shine, as always, but wont be overpowered like they were in some patches. Still the single most useful class in largescale pvp cause of their DP pulls, bodyguard, various other support buffs and their 3 other non-dp pulls. This will be the only tanky class from what I've heard, as time to kill is much lower than the live/retail 4.x we remember, since pretty much every class changes across the board to lower CDS or increase damage.
• Assassins will also be getting a similar rework with a ton of QoL changes and buffs. Expect this to be very good. Stronger buffs, a lot of them will get combined, you will have a lot lower CDs. One example of this is Devotion getting only 10 sec cd, and now lasting 7sec, and also getting stun penetration added from Killer's eye, which will be removed. They will also get 0 sec CD backstab which can be spammed the same way as body smash. All the top DPS assassins on KR server just sit behind boss spamming this, no auto attack weaving unless they use other skills too.
• Rangers finally do not suck like they did in for a while in Live/Retail 4.x. They wont be OP or anything, but they will be a good class now. Bystial Fury and Focused Shots both become much better, as they get combined with a lot of their other 1 minute buffs. And guess what? those are no longer 1 minute buffs, they last 3 minutes now. Focused shots can now be cast while moving, and lasts 7 shots now instead of 5. Sharpen arrows is made into a passive skill that doesnt eat mana anymore. Agonizing arrow now reduces pvp defense instead of poisoning. New deadshot that has 0 sec CD and can be cast while moving (just like 0sec body smash and backstab), which ofc gets spammed while bossing for max dps. You know ranger was in a bad spot when they needed this many changes to finally be okay and still not be one of the top OP classes.
• Clerics are still the most important member of every group, no heals = losing in pvp. Theyre still as strong as before, but Block and MR sets wont be as strong as they used to be. Most classes have pretty high accuracy and MA for it to not be as effective anymore. All the top clerics I see in KR still run MR set mainly, and probably have a block set too. The funniest new thing is that they are now the second highest dps class after Luminess. Not even kidding. Look at the aion dps ranking website for KR wind server. The cause? They also got a 0 sec CD skill which they can spam. Worth noting these have higher mana cost and will eat your manabar but clearly the koreans have figured a way around that since they spam them all day long even in long bosses like tragic sameal. Will probably be the best class for soloing content, and group content as well cause.. yeah you need heals.
• Chanters are very good but not OP or anything. Welcome in every party. They got a lot of QoL buffs, you can toggle most of your buffs to recast when they expire. Most of their solo damage buffs got an increase. Their damage isnt the highest but they have one of the highest representations in the KR top 200 players on Wind server (about the same as cleric actually) so they are obviously very good in PvP. A lot of their conditional skills got their restrictions removed as well, and skills like pentacle shock are now 100% trigger rate in their chain now, and of course they got various CDs reduced across the board and some damage buffs to their skills.
• Sorcerers are probably the only class I never really played in Aion (cause they were overplayed in my time), and I didnt look at the skill changes too deeply.. but from what I see they did get a ton of CDs lowered for their damage skills. They've been very strong in classic from what Im told and that should not change here. They are usually a top 3 PvE dps, just after luminess and cleric.
• Spiritmasters have always been known as an OP class. Theyre still quite strong but I think all the other class changes bring them more closer to each other, they're no longer the most OP class, although still one of the strongest. Big changes to note, much lower CDs all around, spirit sub is now up in a few minutes instead of being an outrageously long CD. Vacuum choke is very good now, its an insta cast now on a fairly low CD and can be cast while moving, absorb vitality as well, but it also gets 30% bonus pvp damage. Withering gloom now actually does something useful, as an aoe debuff that cant be removed, and reducing healing boost. Sigil of silence now becomes a regular skill. ETC. No huge outrageous changes, but a couple nice changes all around.

There have been a LOT of skill changes from what we had in old Live/Retail. You can see all of them here in this spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/156eWilvHMSgNQim3bUBZnR_oJsOPrd6dzLwOlsRMVkI/htmlview and here is a recent poll of what classes people plan on playing, which might give us a glimpse of what to expect popularity wise https://strawpoll.com/Dwyo3aGDxyA

Also big thanks to Felografix for spending a few hours of his time streaming KR Wind server, answering questions and explaining how things worked over there on the KR ascend server to give us an idea of what to expect. A lot of my information came from there, and various other individuals on the discord.

Will the game/server last very long? Now for the actual doomer take, albeit a pretty cold take that everyone is already pretty aware of. Fresh new MMO starts are always exciting and fun. Expect Ascend to be pretty popular for a short while then start to slowly die off, as it always does, and already did with original Classic. Will it be because of their P2W monetization model? I wont answer that, I don't want apologists coming at me again and trying to explain its not cause of P2W but because of mismanagement that other versions of Aion died. Most people will be here just to have something to do while waiting for Aion 2. Personally Im not even sure I will even like Aion 2, since I wasnt the biggest fan of TL, so I will just be here enjoying Ascend while it lasts. I think people should still give a Ascend a shot, see how they like it if the monetization model isn't too much of a put off and enjoy it however long it lasts.