Mirei-KT

More like Aion2 (mobile) is coming. 6.0 is here as the transit or "bridge" between PC (now) and mobage (future). It sucks but we've got to accept NCSoft decided to follow in Blizzard's footsteps. It's all about the mobile market now: less effort, wider audiences, and more profits. PC titles are either killed off (Wildstar, MxM) or kept around for a bit longer to try and entice players for the mobile versions. After many years and lately many disappointments I've made up the balance myself, and realized it is time to move on after 4.8, 5.0, and now 6.2. For some trivia, check "Games" on NCWest's website here. There used to be like 6 titles. Now there are just three left, of which one already has a mobile version and the other two were announced recently.

And here I was thinking Aethertechs and Gunners were immersion breaking back in in 4-0-4.5.

I think the main problem here is that the gaps between the new gear grades are immense. People in ulti exchange gear can afk in the middle of a fight against 15+ of your average players, add up a transformation and they are literal godmode. New players and those who didn't (or couldn't) invest in exchange gear ahead of time alike are introduced to an increasingly hostile endgame environment - the first groups have already begun to camp bases and raid the beginner areas to grief others and delay their progression. Yes, it's supposed to be hard. But I think a lot of players would have more peace with the current enchantment rates if the gaps between the new gear grades weren't so obvious and thrown in your face all the time. Being facerolled over and over without even being able to put a dent in such people is a factor that is going to demotivate a lot of players, putting the current enchant rates aside.

Seconding this, especially seems to happen if you glide into the windstream while on a mount (but also if you just glide into it naturally).

No one said anything about needing 100% legendary +15 gear, neither did I write "things were so much better back then". What I wrote is that previous versions of Aion offered players alternative (and by extension guaranteed) means to progress as opposed to being at the full mercy of RNG. Less twisting of words, more actual reading. The bare minimum for PF seems to be about half legendary gear +5 from what I hear and see. Even that can be an endless venue in a 100% rng based progression system. Unless you are now going to tell me you can finish it within a decent amount of time with a full ancient party. But those are just additives. If giving an opinion and providing a suggestion for improvement equals "searching for excuses" to you we have nothing left to discuss.

Gear being untradeable is fine. It being somewhat of a grind is fine too. But to me, gearing up being 100% RNG is not. We are in a new patch, but most of us are running old content (which we already farmed into oblivion during 5.x) because actual new content such as PF and (in 6.5) Senekta is locked behind an RNG wall. People who know their class, can do BoS/FM blindfolded and are ready to move on in every other way can't - simply because they weren't lucky. That just doesn't seem right. 3.0 had the Kahrun Eternal Set (tokens) as an alternative to having to sit in EF/AM for months. In 3.5 we got TS, which also was RNG but was still do-able because there were multiple bosses (=multiple chances) and you got 1 entry per day. 4.x had ancient coins. In other words, there actually were (alternative) means to progress. But right now there are none. Crafting isn't a viable option due to the current proc rates/material costs. You do your 8 runs in FM/BoS, pray to Aion you get through the double-layered RNG on the 2-3 drops that will be usable for you, and then afk until next week. Even adding something like a guaranteed 1 token drop to the BoS/FM final boss and creating an NPC where people can exchange these for Voidsoul at a certain rate would do. That way you'd have at least one guaranteed item and some progress after 7~8 runs. They can, but the people they take along cannot. I should have re-worded that.

Lore/immersion wise it'd have to be 2.X. For convenience, gameplay and entertainment value 3.0/4.0. Everything from 4.8 onwards is a botched experiment; random, panic-driven attempts to keep Aion afloat amidst the rise of the mobage and the decline of MMOs - with every move showing just how much they had lost touch with their own game. And thus we arrive in the present, where we are playing a placeholder to buy them time until A2 is done.

On average PvP gear will give fragments equal to the amount of Kibrium used, sometimes a bit more or less (+/- 1~3). If the prices are affordable I'd just aetherforge the "lesser" pieces the guy above mentioned and extract those. If you get a masterwork proc sell it, those are not worth extracting as they don't give bonus Kibrium and upgrading them into purple for fragments is just a waste. You could also buy PvP gear with Genesis Crystals and extract those, but once you start to approach +10 on your ancient PvP set you'll learn you'll want to buy the PvP enchantment stone bundles always.

The instance reset is part of the system and has been there forever. It's not exactly a secret, and there is little NC can do about it even if they wanted.

BoS started dropping those Harvester Soulstones pretty fast after its introduction. That way you could still progress even if you didn't get a harvester drop per se, as you could just +15 an Apollon piece and then purify it. But such a means of (alternative) progression is absent for PvE in 6.2; it is is purely RNG based. @Cyan Similar to what was done with BoS, please add a token drop or something to the final bosses of FM/BoS & setup an NPC where said tokens can be exchanged for the Voidsoul gear pieces. In other words, a means of guaranteed progression. It is just silly to have people who finish Nergal in under 2 minutes, but can't move on to PF/IDD due to losing rolls or their gear pieces not dropping...and thus sit there twisting their thumbs for the rest of the week. There are many PvE-oriented folks who are already contemplating quitting because of the double-layered RNG factor, something needs to be done if you wish to retain these people for the game.

I just want to add that the current event lets you manually choose your reward from the 35 bundle (not sure about the 20 one), meaning that everyone who partook in it will have 2 guaranteed ancient trans. contracts minimum. By default the means to acquire transform contracts is pretty bad, I agree, but if NC keeps them available through such events it won't be too bad overall. Scrolls I found to be not too much of an issue so far, Luna daily drops 20 of them pretty consistently + another 20 (transparent) every week. Enough for some OW farming and the daily dredge or EC.

We already have the car mounts.

The average Asmodian is a credit card warrior who can 1v10 a group of Elyos with ease. I don't see the problem here. Just give it time, once the 6.2 hype dies down and people start to leave again I'm sure you'll get to see another Asmo domination spree all the way into 7.0.

So let me get this straight. EK should get special treatment and be omitted from the cross-server so they can do their own BGs and arenas vs each other and gear up in peace. What's next, nerfed siege deities so that even the fresh players with +5 ancient gear can capture the fortress with ease? No transformation bundles on the BCM for the EK server only? To me it sounds like what you seek is a private server instead. "Fair" pvp died a whole lot of expansions before 6.0, and while a new server removes the initial gear gap it in no way will shield you from the p2w then Aion is now.

The moment you treat EK as anything more than an alt playground you have already lost.