r/aion • u/DieFanboyDie • 13d ago
Is anyone still playing Classic?
To be fair, I am probably in the minority as far as how I played the game - I enjoyed leveling, and story elements, and exploring, and side quests. I liked the PvE which is not the draw for most people, who want to get to endgame ASAP and begin their climb up the PvP ranks. Even though the leveling was pretty lonely I still really enjoyed running alts through low level content. The last time I logged into Classic, months ago, they had gutted low level content the same way they gutted retail before Classic existed - fast track all leveling to get to endgame and abandon low level content, maps and quests. I am guessing that the idea was to make Classic unappealing to encourage people to play Aion 2. Are people still sticking with Classic? Was the removal of low level content an issue for people who may have only been interested in endgame content anyway? Have the changes made to Classic encouraged people to abandon Classic to play Aion 2?
I just miss what Classic was.
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u/Leather-Moment-2892 13d ago
Anyone wanna download aion and run bakarma cave or the anuhart stuff? That was soo fun. OP i have no idea i havent played this game in over 10 years but it was a great one
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u/DieFanboyDie 13d ago
You know, I had even accepted that there wasn't any group content to be had at lower levels, or that the Abyss was deserted, or that no one was rifting; I wasn't a pvp guy, but it did make it interesting that I COULD go through a rift at level 30 or whatever to do quests and MAYBE find another player however unlikely. That still made low level content fun for me.
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u/dreadtear 12d ago
I am about to spin my own server for classic for solo play. A much older version of it.
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u/KinkAndCrisis 10d ago
I haven't really played since before Classic, I tried it once for a friend and wanted to filet myself. I wasn't huge into PvP either, but even the PvE changed so much I couldn't find a reason to enjoy it. I miss the old dungeons, and I even miss the open world PvP, as annoying as it could be. It sucks if they're gutting Classic to push people toward Aion 2. Leveling and exploring were the whole point for me. It's where you make the best friends and just relax. You can't fast-track the part people actually loved.
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u/DieFanboyDie 10d ago
Yeah, the lack of low level dungeon content was definitely a bummer. I remember before Classic but after retail was starting to go downhill, when they were throwing ridiculously OP gear at you as soon as you left tutorial, which took the challenge away, but at least there were always people grouping up for Fire Temple and you could still run it as a dungeon and not a solo instance. You could still pretend that your class mattered, even though the gear was so OP that you didn't need a healer or even a proper tank much of the time. At least you could pretend it was an MMORPG.
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u/KinkAndCrisis 10d ago
Ughhh yes. I miss my tiny character, the ninja jump, and gliding every chance I got. Nothing else has made taking flight feel that good :(
God Fire Temple was always a gamble, you never knew who you'd get, but that was half the fun! "At least you could pretend it was an MMORPG" is painfully accurate. Damn I really miss this game
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u/MisedraN 10d ago
i re-downloaded it yesterday played 5 min and uninstalled.
Wtf did they do to it? This is just Retail again.
There is nothing classic left.
i stopped playing Aion Classic like 4 months after its start in EU. Got to lvl 50
This is just sad. Now if i want to play Aion i need to play on Malware-infested Private Serwers
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u/polaris_light 13d ago
Man I miss exploring Classic but if it’s gone the same way Retail has then oh well, I had been thinking about going back briefly too
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u/MisedraN 10d ago
Yeah dont even think about it.
Its pretty much Retail 2.0
You can't even go to the OG Locations at all.
you just spawn at pandemonium already being a Daeva with OP items that are lvl 50 as a lvl 1
You talk with npc x 30 and bam your lvl 10
And you are sent straight to Gelkmaros.
Like this is just Eur*Aion but without All OG Locations.
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u/polaris_light 9d ago
What, they got rid of Altgard/Verteron and Eltnen/Morheim??? Oh hell naw those were my favorite locations and the reason I started classic a few years ago to begin with
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u/MystiFay 8d ago edited 8d ago
Hey I'm in exactly the same spot as you, I used to play Aion 1 back in like 2012 and I enjoyed playing it really casually and taking time with leveling and progression. I didn't care at all about endgame pvp grinding, for me it was about questing in Verteron and Eltnen, dying to elite mobs, getting new cool looking gear, spontaneously teaming up with other leveling players and just enjoying the new gear and skills that I got along the way.
I played Aion Classic EU when it first released a couple of years ago and it delivered the OG Aion experience as I remember it. I didn't mind paying for the Siel's Aura buff or what it was called for the couple of weeks that I played it. I was tempted to jump back into the game, so I'm super disappointed to hear current Aion Classic has been completely stripped down and old starter areas like Poeta, Verteron and Eltnen are gone??
Is there any way to have the OG experience today, in 2026? Like maybe in another region, another version? Or is there really no official way currently? Doesn't matter if it's low in population, I'll get some friends to play with me which is what matters most to me anyway. I tried Aion 2 and was really disappointed, and now I'd love to play the original again. So yeah, you're not alone.
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u/AdProfessional9544 3d ago
After trying Aion 2 and being severely disillusioned/disappointed once I hit lvl45, Im thinking about downloading classic again.
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u/k0unitX 13d ago
The population is too low to support a significant leveling process. Like you mentioned, leveling from 1 to max is now basically a solo experience, which most people don't enjoy. I guess no one is forcing you to hand in quest EXP if you really want to grind low level mobs all day instead.
Regardless, the type of player who grinds until max level then quits isn't really profitable anyway, so NCsoft doesn't cater to them
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u/DieFanboyDie 13d ago
You are misinterpreting what I said. I like progression. I don't want to be skyrocketed to endgame, nor do I want to treat the game like a long tutorial level. It's the progression I like, not not progressing, not skipping progression.
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u/k0unitX 13d ago
Eh, the leveling process is only ~5% of the "progression" of Aion. Think of the launch of Classic for example - most serious players spent the first 2 weeks reaching max, and the next 50 weeks farming max gear.
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u/DieFanboyDie 12d ago
Like I said - I didn't give a shit about "max gear." I like open world rpgs - not fighting games.
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u/MystiFay 8d ago
Well in the new Aion 2 leveling apparently is a solo experience, but not for lack of players (as of now) but because it's literally designed that way? There is no point in doing leveling quests together, half the time you're teleported into solo scenarios anyway and the mobs die so quickly/are no threat at all that teaming up is pointless anyway. So if "most players" don't enjoy leveling solo (I definitely don't) why would they make it like that :/
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u/kylrnd 13d ago
I had to stop because of bad computer. When I came back my characters name were removed and replaced by weird numbers so I was pissed of so I left again XD
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u/DieFanboyDie 13d ago
I'm pretty sure, in that instance, that you would have found a name change ticket in your inventory allowing you to reclaim your name; that's what they've done in the past, a result of merging/changing servers, I think.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Base370 13d ago
I recently felt the itch and wanted my nostalgia fix, so I logged back on to Classic. I am like you, loved the PvE & leveling experience, wandering the world, the lower level zones, etc. I was completely bummed out to find it had all been gutted. I'm not sure if they're deliberately trying to funnel people to Aion 2, though it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. After all, if I'm not mistaken, in TW they shut down Aion once Aion 2 launched - so I won't be surprised if the same happens for NA.