What (Guides) do You Want to See?

Note: There’s a poll at the bottom – be sure to vote before you navigate away!

I don’t know how I still manage to have any free time these days. It’s getting absurd just how much work I have on my plate, yet I still somewhow find the time and energy to take one friend out for brunch, spend an hour plotting how to break into a locked room with another friend (to write a paper about the room for class, no less), and meet my parents for dinner. It’s busy as all hell, and I still manage to play a bit of Aion when my computer isn’t trying to fry itself.

Perhaps the strangest thing is that I’m not feeling stressed by everything. Indeed, I’m not here to whine or anything – I’m loving the work, and all the free time feels that much better because of the work I have to do to earn it. Rather, I’m looking for more direction in what I should be doing with this little corner of the Internet.

I set up a few stubs for guides on this website. If people are interested in learning more about any one of those topics, please let me know. I’m going to start by working on the “Character Design Guide,” which will aim to provide insight on which manastones you should use to enhance a certain element of your character’s performance. It’s not going to be a min/maxing guide, nor a guide on what a class needs to socket for. Instead, it’ll examine some more general character goals (more survivability, damage output, group viability, etc.), and discuss how to handle these goals for any class. After all, you can sculpt your character to be whatever you want – that’s the magic of manastones (and stigmas, coming soon).

Additionally, I have plenty to say about the playstyle, pros, and cons of Chanter play. It keeps creeping up between posts from my experience, which is fine, but I’m sure some viewers would love to have a single, consolidated file of all the goodness in a guide. Again, don’t expect me to explain a min/max strategy for Chanters: I really don’t believe in that playstyle, so I’ll be focusing instead on realistic, rounded performance improvement. Also, there are some quirks to keep in mind whenever playing a Chanter (positioning, balancing healing with offense, reactionary skills, etc.) – those will be covered in depth.

I even have some things to mention about the world of crafting. I don’t have full recipe lists, but I’m sure that Aion’s Powerwiki has a full compilation of those lists as it is. But understanding the inner-workings of crafting, especially those success-failure races? Yeah, there’s more than simply chance at play there. Rer of (Insert Awesome Aion Name) had some commentary on this topic a while back, and I wanted to expand upon it in a more thorough, comprehensive guide for permanent reference.

The question for you, then, is which of these topics would be most helpful for you? Generic Classes, Chanter-Specifics, Crafting Assistance, or something completely different? I’m open to suggestions – if there’s something you don’t understand, I’d be happy to investigate and provide whatever explanation I can. So, please, give me some feedback – vote in the poll for the field you want to hear about most! Also, if you fall in the “Other” category, please elaborate in a comment or E-mail (if you prefer privacy).

Thanks in advance for the input. I’ll be back in a bit with some storytelling fun; I’m aiming to keep posts distinct, so it’s time for a double. In the meantime, let me know what you want to see!