This is our new logo - a shiny kinah for the first person to identify what it is and where it's from in the shoutbox!

It's been a long time coming, but this morning Obsidian finally took the plunge and upgraded to Rank 3, increasing our member limit to 90. Also, we've removed all inactive players (30 days or more previous login) so we've cleaned house and will be beginning an active recruitment strategy over the holidays.

The fun continues as Asmodae finally levels to the point of being competitive with the LOLyos. A few of us were there for the successful siege of Sulfur Tree fortress and while we faced tremendous lag, spontaneous disconnects and white feather rape - I managed to snag some sweet shots.

Here's us making the final push at the Fortress Gate. It took a while because the Elyos were picking people off from the rooftop.

A thing of sheer beauty...

This is us inside Sulfur Tree taking out the Gate Guardian Stone. The thing lasted a whole 10 seconds.

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Sadly when I got to the bottom chamber, every attempt I tried to screenshot the Guardian Diety General resulted in me crashing to desktop so I thought i'd show you this postcard instead!

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Since then we've managed to take Eastern and Western Siel on and off with the Elyos. Last night we made an attempt to check out the fortress instance in East Siel and found it filled with some bad ass Balaur.

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We managed to 3 man the solo mobs for a crazy 40-60k xp each. We even managed to grab a few chests before the timer ran out. No gear but a decent chunk of change from most of them.

In other news, Orm and I decided one night - what the hell, let's go clear Fire Temple. So we got a group together (yeah I know, I usually hate PUGs too) and totally fucking trounced the place. Here's a screenshot of us taking Kromede to task.

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Sadly the wiley bitch didn't drop any of her gold weapons, only a green quality chain helm that went to the cleric. Though it goes to show that in an instance that concludes in level 37 elites, a good group of 30-32's can clear it. We got some pretty boss xp doing it too.

Now if only some of our more "casual" members would actually level up, we could do some content instead of leveling alts. I swear if Saadora and I finish the Daevanion armor and weapons quests before we have a solid level 30 6 man team i'm going to hurt someone....

Its been a little slow this week as we wait for everyone to level. While I believe the worst is behind us regarding the server queues and crashes, there are still some issues that NCSoft is addressing in regards to RMT (Real Money Trade) and bots. Here is their latest communique to the players regarding their efforts.

Also, there's some great news coming down the pipe regarding the next patch for Aion. While not a major content patch (1.2, 1.5 etc.) this sub-patch is going to have some exciting adjustments and additions. Its ALOT of information, so instead of trying to recreate the notes here, you can view the entire news story here - Aion Test Realm Patch.

I know the calendar has been empty for a few days now, and its mainly due to the fact the majority of our membership is still leveling to 25. However,
several of us did manage to enter and complete Nochsana Training Grounds.

Overlooking the landscape of Nochsana Training Grounds.

Entering the Fortress Itself.

Defeating the Teleport Guardian that defends the outer wall of the Fortress.

Face to face with the Nochsana Training Grounds General. He's a big nasty Balaur who drops phat lewt.

Greatsword of Nochsana Training Camp Chief - Arliman

As folks level into the 25-28 gap we're trying to make sure that they have some assistance with getting groups together to complete the instances.
Not to rest on our laurels, four of us braved Sky Temple Arkanis to complete the Abyss Key quest which is the attunement to Fire Temple.

The Sky Temple of Arkanis floats above the mouth of Musfel Volcano.

Inside Sky Temple itself. We fight along gilded platforms suspended outside some kind of fortress you can see in the background.

Things went fairly smoothly until the last platform, where we had several deaths, but we managed to reach the Abyss Key Guardian and nab the third and final key for the attunement. Fire Temple here we come!

Last but certainly not least, a few of us tried to participate in the siege of Western Siel Fortress till this guy showed up. The Dredgion showed up, dropped its load and raped the defending Elyos. Sadly we could do nothing to retake it.

In other news, I'd like to let all members know that we now have a Gallery added to the website where you can upload some of your best screenshots to our existing Events gallery, or your own personal gallery. Show us your eye for detail!

Since the server is being a little bitch today... again. I thought i'd put up some screenshots of our Kumbaron fight on Sunday. Sadly we didn't have a chance to kill him more than twice because he was being farmed out in every channel and had close to a one hour respawn. We didn't get many drops, but Khaz and Miyuuki walked away happy.

Dogpile on the Kitty!

Kumbaron DOWN!

Belt of the Black Claw Tribe - Khazmo
Black Claw Chieftain's Dagger - Miyuuki
Flurry I - Miyuuki

Grats guys!

Next planned event is the first Abyss dungeon - Nochsana Training Camp. Check the Calendar for details!

Aion head start and launch has come and gone, and we've weathered quite a storm. From hours long queues to players having to wait hours/days to create an Asmodian on Azphel, we've had a bumpy ride. Despite all of these hurdles, we've seen the blossoming of a promising community of players. Alot of old friends from FFXI have joined us, as well as more players than I anticipated from WoW and our current roster (sans alts) is over a dozen with more planning to join shortly. In fact, we're going to be upgrading to Legion Rank 2 sometime next week once a collection is taken.

While we've weathered the worst of the storm, there will be ongoing small tumbles as NCSoft works to stabilize server populations and deal with some of the server crashes and lag spikes that are the birthing pains of every new MMO. This too shall pass. I do ask everyone to be patient and try to be supportive of this budding persistent world. The only smooth MMO launch is a dead launch, and Aion is very, very much alive at the moment. Our new landscape will probably be pertinent for quite a while.

The hot topic that will be emerging in the legion is whether to remain on Azphel for the duration or move our occupation to one of the new servers when they are opened (not if, *when*). Keep you eyes on the forums as i'll be putting up a poll asking people's opinion on this matter.

Starting this Sunday i'll begin planning group content for those players who have reached the first outdoor dungeon milestone. As we level as a legion, I plan to have more group content scheduled as we go so I encourage everyone to start signing up on the Calendar for events, so we all get in the habit. If you're unable to sign up, you'll need to register on the forums and let me know via PM or ingame to add you to the roster so that you use the Calendar.

That's all for now, and I wish everyone a happy and healthy weekend. I'll see you on Sunday!

~Arliman