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Ultimate Aethertech Guide 3.5 [Skills, Gear, PvP, PvE] | Updated for 6.2


Vince-DN

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The Ultimate Aethertech Guide

Version 3.0 Notes: It has been about two years since I've made this guide. With the new 6.2 patch, our class has seen quite a few great changes. I've made changes to the overall layout, made it a bit easier to read and cleaned it up a bit. Content has been added, removed and modified to fit the current patch and new meta AT playstyle. They're still as fun as ever and I highly recommend going through the changes I've made even if you've already read the guide before. Have fun teching out there!

Introduction

Tired of never having an AT to turn to when you want to ask for help because there's barely any other ATs online? There are times I could count the number of other ATs I see online per day; some days I don't even see any at all. Why? It's simply because the class is new, underappreciated and underrated. I've played Aion for a couple of years, but only got into playing an AT around a year ago. It was probably the best decision I ever made in my life. I fell in love with the class so much I dropped all my other (13) characters to focus on it. If you're reading this, you're probably interested in the AT life as well.

Why Choose an AT?

Simple; ATs are powerful, versatile and very tanky. In PvE they can act as great DPS if used well and can tank almost any instance; holding aggro just as well as the average Plate class (although not as defensive as a Templar). In PvP you can literally be a rampaging train that can tear through anything in your way before it even has a chance to fight back; with access to silence, paralysis, short cooldown AOEs and the lovely Nullification Trigger. Their attacks are explosive, flashy and loud; it’s like having a Michael Bay movie at your fingertips.

How can I be a good AT?

I want to say this in the nicest way, but a lot of people simply don’t play ATs well enough. Due to the way AT skills are set up and the fact that they have the SLOWEST auto attack speed in game due to their cipher blades, putting together skill chains on an AT are complex but they are an art form once mastered. I’ll explain further down the post but, just like any class, playing an AT well takes practice and quick reaction times.


Skills

Firstly, allow me to emphasize that ATs are considered to be a MELEE CLASS. However, their damage is calculated off MAGIC ATTACK and MAGIC CRIT, not physical attack and crit strike. Their attacks can be bound, not silenced.

HxpMjKL.png Aetherlock Blade – An instant silence with a short (18 second) cooldown. Tell all casters out there to shut up and let you work.

hnctFn9.png Annihilation Barrage – A gorgeous World War looking attack that attacks in a fan-shaped radius, does a large chunk of damage and knocks everything within range down.

A99chEE.png Backlash – After resisting or parrying an attack, you can stun an enemy up to 20m away for up to 2 seconds! This skill is amazing, especially when immediately followed up with Steam Rush.

2wL62R4.png Bludgeon – A very short cooldown skill that can chain into a 3-part chain series which does extra damage to balaur and can knock down enemies on the last hit! The first hit reduced your target's attack speed and magical accuracy.

ork7TKM.png Boost – Thrust yourself 15m forward. Once you reach a certain level you get another boost that chains off this one which basically gives you another 15m.

A57bnZj.png Charging Activation – This skill has been changed to a passive skill in the recent patch. With this, you have a chance to recover MP with EACH and every attack.

IHMAomY.png Chilling Wave – Fan shaped AoE which is one of an AT’s signature moves. It slows enemies down and has a short cooldown of 12 seconds means you’ll be using this skill all the time. It can chain into Riplash with has a similar effect minus the speed reduction.

FgQmU3K.png Cinder Cannon – Who said you had to switch to pistols to shoot? You can use this skill to run and gun enemies up to 20m away. Then chain into Gattling Gun which can be reactivated twice.

kIrOSPn.png Electric Shock – Paralyze an enemy for a split second and cancel any cast they were in the process of. It’s just your way telling healers and casters to try another time – “Hajevan- shut the hell up”. It then chains into Lightning Tether which binds enemies in place, granting you with a temporary punching bag you can do what you please with.

GiP5lrZ.png Embark – Mount your bastion. While it’ll always stay active while you’re alive, once you die you’ll have to reactivate it to use your bastion once more. Remember that once the skill is deactivated in any way, there’s a 10-second cooldown.

jUc8xZb.png Hypergate Detonation – Kamikaze. Gain 100% HP, teleport 15m backward, make your enemies lose target of you and deal damage AoE damage from the spot you blew up. Always remember that this will dismount you and you won’t be able to use Embark until its 10s cooldown is off. Use it well and you can get out of any situation laughing, use it poorly and you’ll be a Bastion-less punching bag.

kTxcAcX.png Kinetic Battery – One of the major skills that gives ATs their tankiness. You’ll pretty much have it on all the times as long as it’s off cooldown. It’s a very complex skill so there are actually still a lot of people who don’t know EXACTLY how it works. Allow me to cut it into pieces.

  1. It is an active skill that lasts for 1:30 with a cooldown of 30 seconds. While it is activated:
  2. Your shock resistance and parry go up.
  3. You block 30% of ALL incoming damage. When blocking damage, 50% of the damage blocked is deducted from your MP. Think of it as using your MP to shield your HP.
  4. Example: You were supposed to take 1000 damage, but with KB up you take 30% less which is 700. 50% of the damage deducted (1000 - 700 = 300 [damage deducted] then divide 300 by 2 -> 150) is deducted from your MP (you lose 150 MP from that one attack).

Magical CoverUpgraded Kinetic Battery. Take even less damage from monsters.

2G5esF8.png Kinetic Slam – With a short cooldown of 12 seconds and no MP usage, it becomes a practical and dare I say mandatory skill to use in all situations. When fully charged it can knock down opponents. In PvE it’s great for DPS and keeping down annoying mobs, while in PvP it’s needless to say that keeping your enemy on the ground helps a lot with bringing down the hurt. Remember that this is a charge skill and enemies aren’t always gonna wait around for you to fully charge it. It’s best used on enemies that aren't paying attention to you or are rooted/cc'd.

Idium Strike - Upgraded Kinetic Slam. Applies a movement and attack speed buff after releasing at certain charge stages.

hcx5dj4.png Magnetic Wave – A fan-shaped taunt skill. While it doesn’t do any damage it helps really well with holding aggro and when used in PvP it has a chance of making enemy players target you, to keep the heat off your healers or squishies.

Rage Wave - Upgraded Magnetic Wave. Adds AoE damage and can be used while moving.

gBtQeFg.png Mounting Frustration – You’ll gain additional enmity with pretty much every skill you use. Mobs won’t be able to stop lusting over your big black bastion. This skill also increases your PvE defense by 800 to make your tanking life so much easier (at the cost of 200 Magical Attack).

jU09t0G.png Nullification Trigger – Use 2% of your MP to parry or resist one attack. When tanking this can allow you to do something Plates can’t, by being able to completely nullify large attacks instead of face-tanking it. After you successfully parry or resist you can chain into Backlash and chain into Steam Rush. This is a simple PvP rotation which you can use as the start-up for deadly combos.

juccva0.png Overdrive Trigger – A wonderful 2k DP buff that boosts your speed, attack speed and magic attack for 1 minute with a 1:30 cooldown. When used in Instances and PvP it can help to skyrocket your DPS.

Transcend Limit - Upgraded Overdrive Trigger. Grants 20% movement and attack speed with an even greater magic attack and accuracy bonus. It's still a DP skill, but it becomes a toggle skill which drains DP over time. You can even use it with as low as 100 DP.

neRvOik.png Recharge – Instantly heal a huge amount of MP and HP. Yup, it’s just as much of a lifesaver as it sounds, regardless of the situation. Just use it wisely as there is still a 3m cooldown.

Remove Shock – Once activated you can chain into one of either skill:

  • QbrldDm.png Protective Shell – Replaces the remove shock’s buff effect, but increases your resistance to movement-related effects, magic resist and reduces damage taken from players for 8 seconds.
  • Li6pb4b.png Uppercut – Inflict damage and knock down an enemy.

n2qlJpc.png Repair Protocol – Remove movement related debuffs. Good for getting out of roots and traps.

heGlUpF.png Rocket Punch – One of our low cooldown main damage skills. Does additional damage on balaur and can chain into Heat Burst which does another major amount of damage (+ more to balaur) and into Flame Emission which can shoot moderate damage up to 20m away.

1vrhCdj.png Siphoning Slash – It doesn’t matter what you hit or how much you hit for with this attack, you will always gain a portion of mp after using it. 

  • DCFWJj8.png Conversion Pulse – Deals AoE damage on enemies within range and absorbs 50% of ALL the damage you dealt on all enemies as HP and 100% as MP. You can target a group of weak mobs or training dummies and regain a huge amount.

NmLnPD5.png Stability Thrusters – You gain magic attack, Shock Resistance, Resistance to Movement debuffs and removes any attack speed related debuffs upon activation. It does however use 4% MP every 4 seconds for up to 30 seconds – it basically drains 30% of your MP over time.

Combat Prowess - Upgraded Stability Thrusters. Now also increases attack speed by 10% and grant bonus damage against players. Consumes less MP.

CNjwtlR.png Steam Rush – Once your enemy is stunned or knocked down, you can thrust yourself right on top of them as long as they’re within range and even if you weren’t the one to stun them. It’s wonderful for keeping on top of classes that love to kite. You can Nullification Trigger -> Backlash then use this skill, a very effective combo.

2sKNWv4.png Sundering Blade – Might not look like it at first, but this skill right here is a tremendous debuff. It reduces the target's magical and physical defense by a ton. This can benefit your entire team when used on priority targets in PvE or for burying in PvP.

 

Daevanian Skills

dDsC7hl.png

These skills enable you to augment your current skills and give them varying effects. They're extremely useful and will always be better than the default versions of your skills. As of 6.2 we only have 4 skills we can augment and only 3 with two options. You can obtain the skill books required to learn these skills from all end-game PvE instances except Mirash Sanctum (CoE only drops the skill books for Deflecting Fire).

Backlash

It1eQg4.png Type 1 - Deflecting Fire: Halves the cooldown of steam rush when used. If it deals critical damage it will reset the cooldown instead.

Protective Shell

gApxGfm.png Type 1 - Protective Shell: Similar effect, but resets the cooldown on remove shock! [PvP/PvE]

TcV0lg9.png Type 2 - Resistant Protective Shell: Much greater shock resistance and duration with a shorter cooldown. [PvP]

Gattling Gun

d7tNDdZ.png Type 1 - Steady Barrage: Similar damage, but multicasts up to 4 times instead of 2. Inflicts damage to nearby enemies.[PvE]

pxXY1if.png Type 2 - Detonating Shot: Replaces the multicast effect with a single hit that applies a bomb. When the bomb detonates, the target and surrounding enemies are stumbled and damaged. [PvP]

Idium Strike

814DFKI.png Type 1 - Idium Slam: Greater damage with an additional AoE effect. But most importantly... YEET! (Can be launched up to 25 meters. Talk about throwing punches.) [PvP]

5qfo8iO.png Type 2 - Idium Barrage: Greater damage with an additional AoE effect. Reduces the cooldown of all your AoE stigmas by 50%. [PvE]


Stigmas
ATs have a lot of fun and flashy stigmas, some you can tell were JUST made for PvE or PvP. As you level up, some of these stigmas gain or lose their usefulness. When putting together PvP setups, you’re free to be creative and build a skill set that can help you combat your weaknesses, but I’ll be demonstrating the setups I use.

Normal Stigmas

RH043QQ.png Aether Recharge – A charge skill that can nearly fill up your replenish your MP with a full charge and only has a minute cooldown.

NJNJJx5.png Aimbot Assist – Boosts your magical accuracy for 1m! It helps you hit those over geared players and people with MR sets.

dbvJIPL.png Drillbore– An AT-must have! Not only is it instant and stuns targets for 2 seconds, but it removes most shields! In PvE you can stun pesky mobs and remove particular shields from mini-bosses (some are still impenetrable). In PvP you can remove nearly all protective shield effects. This includes:

  • Gladiator – Dauntless Spirit
  • Templars - Iron Skin and Eternal Denial
  • You can also remove a Templar’s Bodyguard from their protected target! Useful for when a Templar tries to protect their cleric.
  • Sorcerer - Stone Skin and Boon of Iron Clad
  • Spirit Master – Stone Skin and Spirit Protection
  • Songweaver - Protective Ode and Winter
  • Cleric – Blessed Shield, Immortal Shroud and Impervious Veil
  • Chanter – Protective Ward

7oHF1rr.png Leeching Steel – For 10 seconds, enemies that attack you lose MP per hit, no matter their distance! Physical classes and Gunslingers burn through their entire MP gauges if you use this at the right time; confusing them and leaving them vulnerable.

hmOlVhz.png Particle Whip – A charge AoE with a similar range as Chilling Wave. Has a chance to stun targets as well at stage 3.

C0z2i04.png Riplash – Chains off of Chilling wave. Covers the same range and does additional damage. It’s quick, effective and pretty awesome looking. It’s a freaking chainsaw on a whip.

RfITI8j.png Life Support Trigger – Increase maximum MP and increases natural HP and Mana treatment.

S9U8iNt.png Steel Storm – A charge skill which fires a beam and spread the damage to a moderate AoE on stage 3. When fighting single targets, you'll only ever need to charge it to stage two.

xPKNMiD.png Ravager Cannon – This skill is a powerful PvE tool in all instances. Charge a beam which damages all enemies, no matter the number, within the beam range for up to around 4000 damage. This skill also does even more damage to balaur, completely wiping away waves of adds. Even though it's an AoE, it's still very effective against a focused boss target. Also very useful in group PvP.

Greater Stigmas

yVWWMP7.png Aethercharged Steel – Boosts attack speed, magic attack, and deal additional damage to players for 10 seconds.

3u94P64.png Convulsion Beam – Can bind a target up to 20m away and immobilize them. They’ll be freed once you attack them but you can use this to stop people from running away.

D4hNopl.png Debilitating Blade – Cripples your opponents physical and magical attack.

eFCQGgq.png Rain of Knuckles – Chains off of Sundering Blade and can be activated 3 times. A must-have skill for PvE in my opinion since it gives you some steady DPS and helps maintain your cooldowns.

Mkct9QY.png Mobility Thrusters – While it grants you a speed boost of 35% for 10 seconds with only a 40 second cooldown, it drops your physical defense and immobilization resist slightly. Might not be the best choice against physical classes, but it’s almost harmless to you when used against magic classes. You don’t even have to use it in battle, just using it to get around is fine too.

7zXaJMP.png Trauma Plate Trigger – Increase Parry, Bind and Fear resist while also decreasing the overall damage you take from PCs for 20 seconds.

Major Stigmas

TATszsB.png Meteor Strike – Simply a damage skill. Useful in PvE rotations to maintain consistent DPS.

wMARNQ2.png Kinetic Bulwark – Its shield effect only lasts 30 seconds, but acts as a better Kinetic Battery – Blocks 50% of damage from all attacks and only deducts 10% of blocked damage from MP. It has a poor cooldown of 5m, but charging the stigma can severely reduce it. Extremely useful in PvP. Using this will disable Kinetic Battery if it is active.

Recommended Builds

The main 6 stigmas are the most important. Consider the two on the side luxury stigmas if you're able to get the 6 core ones to +9.

PvE 1: Explosive Exhaust

kgVkBJn.png

http://aion.mouseclic.com/tool/stigma/k9A9G9H9J9M9N9K9P75

PvE 2: Nerve Pulse

3itYowo.png

http://aion.mouseclic.com/tool/stigma/k9A9H9C9J9M9N9K9P75

PvP: Nerve Pulse

NsY4jvU.png

http://aion.mouseclic.com/tool/stigma/k9B9G9D9J9M9Q9K9P75

 

PvE

Gear:

ATs use MAGIC CHAIN. DO NOT Confuse their gear with chanter chain. Look for the chain with magic attack.

  1. Simply followed the new streamlined leveling system by completing campaigns (yellow quests). Follow the path of the story and complete any and all dark blue quests you find. You should eventually reach level 80 without any issues or hiccups as long as you complete all yours quests. These quests will provide gear which you use throughout leveling up. While useless at end game, at least there's no need to grind for mid-level gear.
  2. Once you are level 80, begin doing the Lakrum quests along the west side of the map. These will give you "Starter Gear".
  3. With your new starter gear, do simple instances like Mirash Sanctum and Cradle of Eternity until you get ancient accessories and armor which you can then begin enchanting. Enchanting the Lakrum starter gear is not recommended at all.
  4. With your new ancient gear (preferably all enchanted to at least +5), you can apply for Frozen Monolith and Bastion of Souls. These instances will give you legendary gear, which you can use to help you successfully complete end game instances such as Primeth's Forge and Infernal Drakenspire Depths.

Tips:

  • Start your rotations with Sundering blade and always keep it on cooldown.
  • Keep Kinetic Battery activated as much as you can. Disable it when there isn't much going on, or the target is in a cooldown phase.
  • Rocket Punch, Kinetic Slam, Bludgeon combo and Meteor Strike are your main DPS skills.
  • Siphoning Slash combo should be used when your MP is around 40% or lower.
  • Stability Thrusters and Aethercharged Steel should always be in constant use. These buffs help you perform sudden bursts of damage, keeping your DPS up. You can also use Overdrive trigger to further amplify your damage output.
  • When tanking, you’re going to want to have Mounting frustration activated and weave Magnetic/Rage Wave into your DPS rotation.

Rotation:

PvP

Gear:

  1. Complete weekly Lakrum artifact, PvP and or mob killing quests to earn Genesis Crystals, which you can use to purchase ancient PvP gear. When inspecting the NPC in Lakrum, you'll notice he's selling two types of the same type of chain or magic accessory. Be sure to purchase the Inquisitor cipher blade; it's the only inquisitor weapon you should buy. ALL other pieces (armor and accessories) should be Vindicator.
  2. Each piece of gear requires a certain amount of Fighting Spirit Fragments, Ridium and AP to purify into the Legendary and Ultimate versions. Participate in sieges, instances server pvp and farm open world mobs (including elites) to obtain materials. You need to be willing to put in the effort, unlike you'd prefer to purchase most of the materials on the broker.
  3. Fighting Spirit Fragments can be obtained from crafting ancient PvP gear and then disenchanting it. Farm the materials and perform the cycle until you have the materials you need.
  4. You can also craft *at least* a legendary PvP pistol which you can when out of your bastion after a Hypergate Detonation.

Tips and Good Habits:

  • Be selective of your battles, remember it’s always okay to retreat if you feel outnumbered or threatened. Sure, it’s not always the best thing to cower from fights, but taking a few moments to collect yourself and prepare for battle helps keep up your confidence and break anxiety; that way you’ll end up making fewer mistakes. But of course, this is very basic knowledge no matter what class you’re playing.
  • Nullification trigger should be used when you see the enemy casting a pretty nasty skill or CC, or at the beginning of a battle to avoid early battle debuffs and activate backlash for an easy stun. Follow up with steam rush and keep your enemy pressured.
  • Once you close the gap between you and your enemy, you can quickly silence them and then use the electric shock combo to keep them in place. Once they’re in place and cannot react due to the silence, provided they haven’t potted and ran, quickly fully charge Kinetic Slam and knock them down – follow up with Steam Rush if it isn’t on cooldown. If they managed to start escaping your grasp before you can fully charge, use the KS at whatever stage it’s at; since it’s better to do little damage than no damage at all.
  • Rocket Punch combo and Meteor Strike help to burst targets down.
  • If you’re facing a slippery opponent that likes to kite, use Chilling Wave before they get out of range to slow them and make it easier for you to catch up again.
  • Use your protective stigmas such as Leeching Steel and Trauma Plate Trigger at the right time. A tip would be to use them at the beginning of the battle if you’re not sure.
  • You can only chain Uppercut off Remove Shock once you’re within a certain range, if you’re too far just use Protective Shell to help you defend yourself while you try to close in the gap.
  • Use boost to close the gap or run away from enemies, just be careful not to overshoot your enemies if you’re trying to get close to them.
  • Cinder cannon is wonderful when enemies try to run away. It can even be used when you’re closing in a newly encountered enemy to break their shield or just hurt them.
  • Siphoning Slash doesn’t do much damage but you may see your MP dropping harshly in long battles, so don’t be afraid to use it. Look around for nearby mobs, since their defences are usually lower than a player's and you will do deal much more damage, thus gaining greater value from the drain.
  • I mentioned earlier about the use of a pistol in PvP. Basically, after using Hypergate Detonation in a PvP situation, you’ll be at a slight disadvantage for 10 seconds. However, you can quickly switch to your pistol and use Direct Shot to reduce the cooldown of Embark. Once Embark is off cooldown, switch back to your cipher blade and resume the onslaught.
  • Recharge, use it when your HP is near 50% -- not too low, not too high. Always keep abyss potions and recovery potions/serums since you’ll need sustained amounts of HP and MP to survive in PvP as an AT.

Tips Versus Other Classes:

Gladiator (ozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.png)

It's like looking in the mirror (a physical mirror). These guys also specialize in lockdowns and a whole lot of stumbles. They're one of the only physical classes that can bind you, so keep that in mind.

  • Keep your distance when they activate their protective and offensive buffs like berserking; even with your shield up some glads can facetank your damage with their buffs up.
  • Only use repair protocol for ankle snare, keep them running and have them waste their buffs.
  • They tend to usually start with cleave, so use nullification trigger to backlash onto them. Beware of their remove shock stumble.

Advantage: They can't kite you as well as other classes. Most times it's a head to head fist fight, so be sure your buffs are preserved and ready.

Disadvantage: Try to avoid them in flight combat. Their ability to move while using a lot of their skills is superior since we need to stop moving for a lot of ours.

Templar (ozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.png)

They pull you in and then kite you off. It's like a girl playing hard to get, except they're trying to kill you.

  • They have lots of shields. Most of the time you'll want to kite them off, but if you have drillbore handy, try saving it for iron skin since it's their longest lasting defense buff.
  • They can pull you every 30 seconds. Be mindful of that when charging a kinetic slam to hit them. A good Templar will try to cancel it with a pull.
  • They don't have the range advantage that gladiators do so it's a lot safer to bind them in place.
  • If they don't have their greatsword out, chances are they're in a defensive stance. You can land a couple test shots on them to see how much you hit for (and if at all).

Advantage: They don't have much range, which is the reason for their pulls. They only don't usually use extendable weapons for melee classes so be sure to keep your distance.

Disadvantage: They *can be* the game's most top-tier PvP class. With enough sets it becomes extremely difficult to predict their movements or even do much damage to them. You need to be mindful of whatever weapons they're using and avoid being stumbled at all costs.

Assassin (ozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.png)

Slippery targets will always be an issue for our class. While manageable, these guys love to hit and run and use their practically passive movement speed advantage to stay out of harm's way.

  • A well timed leeching steel when they commence their burn rotations can melt their MP and leave them vulnerable. However, they have MP support from their improved slayer form and may pot immediately if they need to. But having them use their utilities to preserve their mana can make them vulnerable later on in the fight.
  • Try not to use mobility thrusters since it will bring down your physical defense and make life a lot harder for you.
  • Try to use trauma plate trigger before using remove shock. When you do use remove shock, chain into protective shell to further reduce damage.
  • Use RS mainly when locked in the air since it's the longest altered state they can keep you in. Boost away once you do since a good assassin may be expecting this.
  • Use bludgeon and/or cinder cannon to use up their focused evasion and aether twisting. Save your hard hitting skills for when they're vulnerable. Kite out these buffs if you can by boosting away.
  • Once they're vulnerable, bind and silence them in place (with a sundering and debilitating blade bury if possible) and begin using your 6-8m attack range to your advantage.
  • Keep them marked, in case they port away.

Advantage: Their attack range is short and they don't have much hp recovery besides potions. Keep them pressured as long as they aren't using buffs that will negate your attacks.

Disadvantage: They're fast on their feet and can resist a ton of magical attacks which makes being a magical melee class a bit annoying.

Ranger (ozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.png)

Almost as stun savvy as their dual-wielding cousins. How you can get knocked back and put to sleep with a bunch of sticks is beyond me, but this is Aion; a land where ships fly and Daeva's can't swim.

  • Unlike all the other classes above, they're a ranged physical based class; so binding them in place won't stop them from attacking. It is of course always a good thing to be up in their faces as much as possible since they have very low defense.
  • Leeching steel also works well against rangers, but it may not burn them out as quickly as an assassin. They have a low mp pool however, which can block out a lot of their utility skills.
  • When slept, there isn't much you can do except prepare to use trauma plate trigger to reduce the damage on their incoming rotation.
  • Use repair protocol when caught in their snare. You can pot off their movement speed debuff, but countering the debuff with mobility thrusters is risky against any physical class.
  • Keeping them silenced is the key to reducing their utility (ports, buffs and speedups).
  • They stand still for most of their attacks, so boost up to them when they aren't stunning you. Good rangers do hop back occasionally to maintain distance. In this case, it's best to get behind them and cut off their path.
  • Keep them marked, in case they port away.

Advantage: Very squishy and buff reliant. Keep them silenced, bound and pressured.

Disadvantage: Attack from range and have a lot of stuns, making remove shock predictions difficult.

Chanter (ozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.png)

Strong and versatile in both PvE and PvP. They feel like fighting a glad for a few seconds then a cleric the next.

  • It's hard to tell whether their stumbles are the most annoying or if that title should go to glads. Regardless, their stumbles are short, but plentiful. Trauma plate and remove shock early help a lot.
  • They can bind you every so often, so save your greater healing potions for that.
  • Use stability thrusters when your attack has been reduced (which will happen at some point or another when fighting any chanter).
  • Drillbore works well against their protective ward.
  • Their DPS isn't as high as other melee classes, but some chanters are geared to pack a punch. Keep them pressured and bind them down. Attack from as far away as you can.
  • They don't have skills to resist your attacks, but have many utility skills to heal and tank through your damage. Silence is our best friend when fighting them or any of the classes listed below.
  • Few chanters are geared and dedicated enough to have defensive PvP sets. If you see them pull out a shield, assume they're in one of these sets and treat them as a Templar in this situation.

Advantages: You have the silence advantage while they have the bind advantage. Ensure you don't give them a chance to heal.

Disadvantages: They're tricky to kite, because the moment you leave them alone they're going to heal. I don't recommend kiting any healer unless under extreme conditions.

Cleric (ozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.png)

Clerics are ridiculous. They can deal lots of damage while dancing around, cleansing and using servants. You won't have much fun fighting a cleric at all, but that's why you need to be aggressive.

  • Save drillbore and use it when you see they're about to cast splendor of recovery; that heal over time gives them the freedom to DPS you. They can go from 5% hp to 100% if they use enough buffs prior, so if you see them use buffs such as Sage's Wisdom or Amplification, they're most likely doing to use splendor or Call Lightning.
  • Good clerics are hard to bury since they cleanse every time someone quits the game (that's often in case you didn't get the joke). So before attempting to bury a good cleric, try to keep them stunned or stumbled first. Watch for their remove shock.
  • If they at any time pop impervious veil. Silence and bind bury them completely, then use drillbore to remove their shield. 
  • They have many instant cast skills so if you plan on getting out of their attack range or rushing up to pressure them, you need to reduce the amount of damage you'll take on your way.
  • Run away from their servants and fight them one versus one. Those things do enough damage to be considered another player. Ensure you lure them out the servant range before you engage them. If they're camping the servants, just leave them be and get some distance while recovering your cooldowns. There's no shame in it.

Advantages: Cannot silence or bind you. Once you manage to lock them while their remove shock is out of commission then you're set for some good damage. Be sure to use your hardest hitting skills immediately after you lock them down. Fighting a cleric is burn or heal.

Disadvantages: They have a short cooldown on their root. They usually use their DPS skills after rooting you so it's a good chance to use nullification trigger and repair protocol (or pot off the root) into a backlash combo.

Sorcerer (ozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.png)

Sorcs are a tricky class, but the most fearsome ones are those you can't see. If a sorc is out of your sight, you're in trouble. It's like a sniper taking free hits. When in groups, ensure that even if you aren't engaging the enemy sorcerer, you know where they are. From my experience, they can be either very destructive or very easy to take down, depending on the player.

  • Watch and listen for their buffs. You can tell by the icons which they're using, but they mostly grant power boosts. Their MA buff won't really matter all that much since you're most likely going to get hit by most of their skills.
  • If you're at a far distance, but don't have much room to run away, the best thing to do is to pressure them; even if it means facetanking some damage.
  • The most important thing is to always keep them in your sight. Failure to react quickly enough can result in an easy sleeplock for them. Some of them will sleep you long enough for their cooldowns to reset.
  • During a sleeplock there isn't much you can do except try to get rid of the silence or get some distance to recover yourself.
  • You won't need to use drillbore to remove their regular shield. Boon of iron clad only blocks physical damage, but their vision stigma shield blocks all damage; it's pointless to power through it. If you cannot drillbore it, wait for them to exit with a CC rotation ready.
  • Save your greater healing potion for a strong root. Use repair protocol to get out of the first root, if they root you again pot it off.
  • Keep them marked, in case they port away.

Advantages: It's easy to take advantage of inexperienced sorcs. If they lack fast reactions, ports and have predictable rotations, they shouldn't be a problem for you at all. Provided you don't screw up along somewhere along the line :^). Don't slack off though, keep them slowed and pressured as you would any high threat target.

Disadvantages: High DPS sorcs can wipe you before you realize they're around. Keep in mind the names of your target. If they're a sorc known for their high damage, keep them at a high priority and take them out before they can get to your teammates.

Spiritmaster (ozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.png)

Fear no class except a class that can fear. SMs are a pain for any and every class in their own way because of their skillset. They have the ability to lock down short range classes and support the alchemy economy by borrowing your scrolls. As painful as they may be to fight, nothing's impossible for an AT. Just stay focused and ensure that you don't accidentally use drillbore too early.

  • Remove their slows with your repair protocol, you're going to want to save your greater healing potion for their bind.
  • At the very beginning of the fight ensure they're slowed by chilling wave. If they pot it off that's their own loss since they won't be able to get rid of your silence bury.
  • Use mobility thrusters to keep yourself up to speed with them especially when they use one of their thousands of speed debuffs (okay maybe not thousands).
  • Trauma plate trigger increases your resistance to fears, but don't pop it too early because they may remove the buff (they usually do this at the beginning of the fight to give you a slow start).
  • The most important rule is to save drillbore for their spirit protection. Doing so will completely negate their last line of defense. This makes gives you a key role in group PvP, since people will be relying on you to remove the SM or Templar bodyguard. I know drillbore is a lovely skill to watch and the stun is lovely, but hold onto it; you'll thank me later.
  • Keep them marked, in case they port away.

Advantages: You're able to remove their bodyguard, which most other classes struggle with getting rid of. If the SM you're up against doesn't know how to bury or spends most of their time trying to spam cast fear, don't give them a second of breathing room.

Disadvantages: They have access to bind, silence, roots, slows, attack speed debuffs and can remove your buffs. Basically, prepare to start the battle as crippled as possible and use your null trig for fears.

Gunslinger (ozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.png)

In open spaces, they're pretty tough to deal with depending on how much damage they deal with their pistols. They're the most mobile class in the game, so keep up or get killed.

  • Cannons are the mark of danger; it's where a heavy amount of their burst comes from and most of it is instant. If you see them pull it out you'll want to keep them silenced. They usually do this while you're stunned or CC'd, if they're smart.
  • They're the only ranged magic class that can still attack when silenced. So there's not much you can do to stop them from using their pistols.
  • Pistols don't do as much damage as their aethercannons, but come filled with stuns, debuffs and mobility.
  • The most manageable gunslingers to fight are slow ones. Keep them within your range at all times with chilling wave's slow. If they resist you can use mobility thrusters to keep the pressure applied.
  • Keep them marked, in case they port away.

Advantages: They're sqiushier than most leathers, so silencing them severely reduces their survivability. Keep them within arms reach-- I cannot stress how important that is.

Disadvantages: Their cannons do heaps of damage and can easily destroy any class if you don't react quickly enough. High dps gunners can also do a lot of damage with their pistols which makes their ability to dance around even more chaotic.

Aethertech

Once a year you'll probably come across an AT. Once every 2 years you'll come across an enemy AT. When you do, you're probably too confused and have no idea how to properly fight them. This is the same for every class that barely fights ATs. To this very day, some people still think they're physical. Winning an enemy AT encounter is half RNG, half raw skill, half gear, and half realizing these are actually quarters.

  • You can both drillbore each other's shields. You can use this at the beginning of the battle to give them the disadvantage. If you have Bulwark socketed, use it as soon as they do the same to you so you have protection during Battery's cooldown.
  • Use your paralyze to interrupt their Kinetic slams. If you're ever bound by their tether, use repair protocol.
  • You can use boost to get some distance if you've been slowed by chilling wave and you don't want to use repair protocol right away (which is a good idea).
  • Like any class, you'll want them slowed by chilling wave.
  • Use your greater healing potion for whichever debuff seems to be most bothersome.
  • You'll notice you both aren't getting stunned and debuffed as another class would. This is because of the passive Embark resistances, so this is where RNG comes into play.
  • Keeping them locked down is still practical, just try to stay at a range while you abuse their inability to move. They have the same attack range, so going close will make it feel like they're not locked down at all.
  • You can't bind them, but you can both silence each other; which only really hurts your utility skills. You can silence them after removing their shield to reduce their chance of recovery.

Advantages: You get to fight a cool robot and combat gundam style. Seriously, it's super fun to watch.

Disadvantages: They have all the tools you do. The only differences may be stigmas; but most ATs carry drillbore, riplash and leeching steel along with their combination. Keep these in mind.

Songweaver (ozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.pngozsV3PZ.png)

Somewhere along the line, the developers thought it would be funny to smush sorcs and chanters together. The punch line is they can heal their own MP as well. Well, we heard the joke boys; it's not funny. They have much higher burst than a spiritmaster, but their toolkit is nearly the same if you replace spirit skills with heals.

  • Approaching them is similar to any healer. You can't give them too much breathing room or else they'll simply heal and put you at a disadvantage.
  • As long as you can outspeed them or at least keep up, you give them less confidence to use their charge skills. They'll usually only use these when you're at a great distance, slept or rooted.
  • After using their instant AoE sleep, they'll usually follow up with freestyle. There's a moderate chance of you resisting either of these skills. If they both happen to catch you, the songweaver usually follows up by burying delayed paralyze and silence along with a bind, leaving you befuddled the moment you exit sleep. Provided you're still mobile, the best thing to do is get out of attack range since your greater healing potion can only do so much. Hopefully, you resist one or two of the skills in the obvious rotation.
  • Lock 'em down the same way you would any sorc or healer. Unlike sorcs they can dispel.
  • Hold your greater healing potion for their bind. You've noticed me say this a lot, but binds are horror stories for ATs.
  • Ensure your shields and trauma plate are ready before engaging. Trauma plate for reducing overall damage and chance of being bound.
  • Keep them marked, in case they port away.
  • They're pretty, I guess...
  • Pretty annoying...

Advantages: As long as you've memorized the steps to fighting both a sorc and chanter, most songweavers aren't much of a challenge. It's a bit funny considering how simple their toolkit is; you'll barely find a songweaver that knows how to use it correctly.

Disadvantages: But hoo boy, when you find a songweaver that knows what they're doing, you're gonna hurt a lot. If you're having trouble applying pressure or they're doing too much damage for you to attempt a lockdown, you may want to retreat and recover.

Disclaimer:

These reviews and difficulty ratings are based on personal experience and skills. No offense is intended to any class or any individual that plays them. Your experiences may vary; these are only meant to be a guideline to help during your encounters.

 

Personal Stuff

A couple people asked about my personal customization settings, so I decided to share them here in case you're confused on where to start. Remember, these are my personal choices and you're free to put together whatever makes you play more efficiently. 

Skill Chains

2018-11-10-02-09-51-AION.png

Skillbar and Binds

2018-12-08-04-00-00-AION.png

 

_____________________________________________________________________


Thank You!
I really hope this was able to help at least one person and opened many eyes! Be sure to ask any AT or Aion related questions you have; I'm always willing to help. Whisper Vince in-game any time you have a question and I will always answer (whether or not you're from Danaria server).

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On ‎15‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 6:20 PM, Worseluck-BR said:

You might wanna add bind resist (lockdown, binding word) for Trauma Plate trigger. That's what it means when it says 'blockade' but otherwise good guide.

You can't edit posts after like 5 minutes.

This is the best guide I've seen for any class, in fact its just really well laid out that people can enjoy playing aethertechs just by reading this.

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The best way to describe aethertech is a jack of all trades, master of none.

They tank great, and their aggro passive and naturally high damage let them hold aggro pretty easy, but they lack the defensive abilities of a templar or even of a gladiator, and fall short compared to them.

They DPS great too!, but they can't compare to the 3 kings of sorcerer assassin and gladiator.

They boost everyone else's damage from sundering blade!, except most geared mages will have overkill amounts of magic boost so reducing msupp won't help as much as reducing elemental resists would.

The two places they stand out are in AoEing, where they rival a gladiator, and PvP, where the jack of all trades dynamic means they have tools to cover all bases, and they can melt most players in 5 seconds flat if given the opportunity to combo properly, and since nobody plays AT, nobody knows how to fight against them. You can usually get away with null trigger -> cinder cannon (+gatling) -> (resist into) backlash -> steam rush -> completely bamboozle the opponent. It's a nice engage combo you can do once every 30 seconds, so if you didn't kill them the first time, now they don't have remove shock and you can let the burst shock really just explode forth. You lower msupp more than any other class can, you basically can't be resisted outside of a full MR templar with AA and shield stance, you break barriers, silence, paralyze, root, slow, all without cast times.

 

I'm sorry that ncsoft didn't let casting-speed cypher blades get passed the test server. If those were readily available, ATs might be stronk enough to make people want to play them.

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On ‎24‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 3:22 PM, Disregard-TM said:

The best way to describe aethertech is a jack of all trades, master of none.

They tank great, and their aggro passive and naturally high damage let them hold aggro pretty easy, but they lack the defensive abilities of a templar or even of a gladiator, and fall short compared to them.

They DPS great too!, but they can't compare to the 3 kings of sorcerer assassin and gladiator.

They boost everyone else's damage from sundering blade!, except most geared mages will have overkill amounts of magic boost so reducing msupp won't help as much as reducing elemental resists would.

The two places they stand out are in AoEing, where they rival a gladiator, and PvP, where the jack of all trades dynamic means they have tools to cover all bases, and they can melt most players in 5 seconds flat if given the opportunity to combo properly, and since nobody plays AT, nobody knows how to fight against them. You can usually get away with null trigger -> cinder cannon (+gatling) -> (resist into) backlash -> steam rush -> completely bamboozle the opponent. It's a nice engage combo you can do once every 30 seconds, so if you didn't kill them the first time, now they don't have remove shock and you can let the burst shock really just explode forth. You lower msupp more than any other class can, you basically can't be resisted outside of a full MR templar with AA and shield stance, you break barriers, silence, paralyze, root, slow, all without cast times.

 

I'm sorry that ncsoft didn't let casting-speed cypher blades get passed the test server. If those were readily available, ATs might be stronk enough to make people want to play them.

Good post, pretty damn accurate especially the overkill in magic boost. Sundering blade these days would be better to reduce all elemental defense, I mean early game that magic suppression reduction definitely helps groups and alliances and sell back when the level cap was 65, but with the archdaeva skill upgrades that Aethertechs can get when high level especially the 75 skill; they will just have too much magic boost and attack speed.

Its important to note that having maxed magic boost and attack speed isn't a bad thing, it adds reliability to the class and still makes it fun and balanced. As a pro 75 glad, seeing all these other badiators knowing only how to spin to win especially when they go in blender groups makes me wish I had gotten an Aethertech to 75 instead.

I'm just curious how cast speed cipher blades even benefit Aethertechs. I'm fairly sure attack speed is the value that affects charging chills for Aethertechs.

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1 hour ago, Johngunmad-SL said:

I'm just curious how cast speed cipher blades even benefit Aethertechs.

attack speed and cast speed both affect charge speed regardless of class. if you are capped on attack speed, swap your gloves or scroll for cast speed for a slight performance boost.

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4 hours ago, Disregard-TM said:

attack speed and cast speed both affect charge speed regardless of class. if you are capped on attack speed, swap your gloves or scroll for cast speed for a slight performance boost.

No it's not,cast speed do not affecting charging speed of gunner and AT,Momomo already show cast speed ain't affecting AT and gunner skills.

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5 hours ago, Amiteah-SL said:

Is using Steel storm stage 2 good for single target DPS, it feels faster to pull off than say meteor strike.

I personally use Ravager Cannon over Steel Storm. Ravager Cannon has higher base damage than Steel Storm at stage 3 and also deals additional damage to Balaur making it even better for PvE. 

My PvE stigma build:

yLQdgeb.png

Meteor Strike and Rain of Knuckles are essential in PvE because of their good damage output. I take Riplash and Drillbore for more constant instant-cast DPS and providing more AoE along with Ravager Cannon. Aethercharged Steel is also good mainly due to the attack speed buff it grants you.

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18 hours ago, Bedrock-SL said:

Is Aethercharged steel really worth picking up, cause 5% pvp attack, 300 magic boost and 10% attack speed ain't much especially when 3 of the Aethertechs archdaeva skills make you attack speed cap.

Learn to rotate buffs. And Aethercharged Steel is pretty much a must-have with all other buffs if you're fighting any MSup gladiators or knowledge-whoring magics.

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If only the PvP attack was much more or it had crit spell instead of magic boost. Back in 4.5 it was a good pickup because that attack speed and magic boost always helped especially if you're under geared. Now with Kinetic Slam, Stability Thrusters and Overdrive Trigger having powerful archdaeva upgrades that gives massive attack speed that any one of them makes you cap. Combat prowess (upgraded stability thrusters) already does what Aether charged Steel does but better, 10% PvP attack, 50 extra shock resist, less mana upkeep and 10% more attack speed from the upgrade. Now you have Transcend Limit (upgraded Overdrive Trigger) giving an extra 1% attack and movement speed, 250 magic boost and 400 magical accuracy and is now a cheaper toggle there is no good reason of picking up Aether charged Steel over another stigma that will actually help.

I mean the 400 magical accuracy bonus from Transcend Limit mean you can dedicate more into having really high magic boost and Aethertechs are the best for counter magic suppression as they still have sundering blade to reduce 500 of it. Times have changed where like someone mentioned before its better to replace Aether charged steel with Steel Storm and use a quick charge to stage 2 for solo PvP. It does good damage and is ranged.

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Super thrilled this guide actually helped and inspired you all! It makes the time it took to make it worth it. I would answer a lot of your questions and add a lot more content to the guide but I cannot edit the original post for whatever reason (it may be due to the forum rules); but, I'll be making a part two to the guide in just a few days once I finish some more school related things. Thank you all for reading the guide!

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