Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Whether you're an Elyos Gladiator, an Asmodian Assassin, or a living version of Napoleon Dynamite, you can't get anywhere in Aion without any skills. Sure, you have an auto-attack at your disposal, but if you’re relying on that to fulfill your destiny as an almighty immortal you might want to just quit now. Skills are the source of all your power, to both heal and destroy. Without them, not only will you fail in your quest, but you'll also never discover the pure, unadulterated joy in unleashing a chain skill upon your enemies.

I Don't Have Any Skills

This is essentially true in the beginning of your Aion adventures, no matter which archetype/class you choose. You'll start out with a couple of basic skills and be sent out into the world. This early in the game, the skill system works the same way every hotbar-based game in existence does without exception. Simply set the skill you want to use in the hotbar of your choice, then either hit the corresponding key (1, 2, Alt+1, etc.) or click on the icon with your mouse and you'll be on your way.

As you level, you don’t gain skills automatically. Skills come in the form of books and can be obtained in one of three ways. You can buy them for your class trainer, acquire them through drops yourself (after level 10), or purchase them from other players. This last option can be done from the player private stores scattered throughout the land, or through the Auction House.

No matter which method you choose to gather the myriad of books that will reveal the pathway of your destiny, the same technique to harness their power applies to all of them. Once a book is in your inventory, simply double-click it and voila! You have now learned the skill. Pretty simple, eh?

Skills Basics 101

To see which skills you have at any time, click the up arrow beside your hotbar for the game menu list, or hit the "k" key by default. Once there, you'll see a number of different tabs. The three you should be the most concerned with are the Active, Passive, and Actions tabs. The Crafting and Emotes tabs are also available to you, but unless you have a special interest in either one, there's little or no need to use them.

The Crafting tab displays the amount of skill you have in a given craft along with its current maximum rather than any actual abilities you would need. The Emotes tab displays all the emotes available to you in the game. Who would have guessed? For those that use a few of these on a regular basis, being able to move them to a hotbar for easy access actually is useful for them. These aren't the two tabs I wanted to go over with you though.

The least used (but no less important) tab out of the three major players I listed earlier is the Actions tab. At first glance, the abilities on this page appear useless, but before you close the tab in disgust, you may want to move the Rest skill to a free spot on one of your hotbars. I've heard players complain for weeks about not being able to regenerate health and mana at a reasonable rate, even if they're sitting down. It's important to understand that as far as the game is concerned, there is a huge difference between sitting down and actually resting. It may look the same as sitting to you, me, and every other player in the world, but unless you actually use the Rest skill, you're going to be there a very long time waiting for anything to regenerate.