While
working on the
Aion
class interviews, I did some research on each of the classes
so I had a lot of time to get to know them before even stepping in game.  I tend
to play DPS fighters in MMOGs so I was still very up in the air about whether I
would go full DPS and utility with the scout or stick with my typical play style
and roll up a fighter.  I think I made level two with my fighter before starting
my scout, and I never went back!

Players
who enjoy being active in melee combat, exceptionally useful in groups, and
completely viable as a solo player, will enjoy the flexibility and versatility
of a scout. As with
any class in any game, there are pros and cons to playing a scout, most of which
I will try cover straight away. 




The Good

You are
playing a scout, so the first thing that'll you will notice is fights are fairly
quick.  Even starting out, you do a nice bit of damage. Just don't compare
yourself to the early mage, because they gave me a little bit of damage envy.

You have
the skills to carry a sword or a dagger, and it is your choice which you decide
to equip.  I'll get into the differences between these two weapons a little
later on.  You also get the dual wield skill as a scout, which made me all sorts
of happy.

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In the
first 10 levels you are granted a hide skill that is very handy, a buff that
boosts your evasion, and another buff that boosts your attack.  The buffs saved
my rear repeatedly and you will want to use them often.

Positional attacks are a mainstay of the scout and Aion has them!  My favorite
thing about these is that they aren't position conditional.  Meaning, you can
use a positional attack from the "wrong" position and still do damage, but you
get a bonus if you do it correctly.  After playing EverQuest II for many years,
I can tell you it is nice to not see a positional error notice when attacking!


The Bad

There
really wasn't much I didn't like about this class but as expected, the leather
wearing scout is a bit delicate.  While definitely not as bad as the mage for
survivability in melee combat, that health bar will get a little too low for
comfort's sake quite often.  I hear this gets better later on after you’ve
chosen to specialize as a Ranger or Assassin.

You also
don't get ranged attacks right off the bat.  Half the appeal of playing a scout
is being able to do some damage at ranged, but this is something else they have
saved for the specialization levels.


New to the
World

After
making your character and popping into the world, you'll find yourself equipped
with a few basic items and skills.  You get a dagger, minimal armor, a slash
skill, an avoidance buff, and a bandage skill.

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You'll
find that you will really rely on your bandages.  I like to make the most of my
gaming in the short free time I have so I'm not terribly big on combat downtime
and the scout ends up with plenty of it.  Since you will end fights generally on
the low end of the health bar, using your bandaging skill will get you up and
moving far quicker than waiting for it to tick up on its own.  As you progress,
you'll definitely want to make use of edibles for health regeneration and
potions for those in combat "oh crap" moments. 

While
you are bandaging you will probably notice fighters blowing by you and taking
mob after mob without even breathing in between.  It's okay.  You are better
looking than they are, and someday I promise they will bow before your superior
DPS… just not today.

At level
3 you will get a positional attack that will make your heart melt the first time
you use that baby.  Luckily enemies at this point are non-aggro so you can
easily position yourself behind the mob and whack away.  You don't have the
ability to stun and re-position for a flank attack so it needs to be your
opening skill but you'll be very happy for the additional damage it provides.


Moving on
Up!

At
around level 5, things start getting mildly tougher.  You may be playing against
enemies that have that frustrating feature known as social aggro.  While the
scout can usually hold his own against a single mob, two are three enemy friends
jumping in to help whatever you are killing tends to be bit much so learning the
art of pulling a single mob is important!  You don't have anything you can
distance pull a mob with, so using the tactic of spanking the mob and stepping
back to a safer area is the best way to go.  This is also one of those times
when you'll really want to have health potions on hand as you can generally
manage to take on two mobs if you have them available.

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At level
5 you will get one of your main utilities, your hide skill.  While it's fun to
play with at this point, it won't be until around level 6+ when you will see why
you really need it!  This is when you will start dealing with enemy aggro and
while stealthing through a group of angry creatures is a nice skill to have, it
is not its most useful application.  As mentioned before, you will want to use
your positional attacks to open your battle which impossible to do when the
enemy can clearly see you coming and wants to beat you senseless if you get too
close.  Having a hide skill allows you to stealth yourself, and then sneak in
behind the mob to unleash your flanking attack.  Yes, it takes a little extra
time to set up, but the extra care in using the positional attacks will benefit
you greatly in damage and survivability.

Around
this time you will gain the dual wield passive skill.  Passive skills still need
to be purchased from the trainer, so never forget to check back often for these
very important features. 

Being
able to dual wield brings up all sorts of questions regarding what a scout
should carry for a weapon.  A scout may choose to carry a single sword or a
single dagger when they first start out.  Which you choose to equip in the first
few levels doesn't make any real difference, but it will soon and it's a good
thing to start thinking about at this level range.  With dual wield you may
equip two daggers, two swords, or even one of each! 

Which is
better?  I read up on it while I was trying to decide for myself and found many
different schools of thought but there were a few things that made a difference
when I actually tried various weapon combos in game.

It seems
that only the primary weapon slot triggers critical damage.  In theory then,
having a dagger that hits more frequently thus giving more chances of a crit
would make sense and would overall allow for more damage.  This reasoning is why
I chose to carry a dagger rather than a sword through my first several levels
and it does seem to ring true. 

This
left me with attempting to see which weapon type I needed to use for my
secondary slot.  I didn't see a tangible difference when equipping a sword
versus a dagger of equal quality in my secondary slot.  This may, of course,
change in later gameplay but at least in early levels you can pretty much put
whatever you'd like in your secondary slot without taking a big DPS penalty.

Another
Aion feature you will want to start paying attention to are the
manastones. 
These nifty little stones that you will likely pick up everywhere add attributes
to your items.  Things like accuracy, health, parry, attack, and evasion bonuses
are particularly useful for the scout and you can add one or two stones to each
of your major armor pieces.  All you need to do is put the item in your
inventory, right click on the stone and then click on the applicable item. 
Adding a second stone gives the possibility of destroying your item, but I
haven’t had that happen yet.


Closing in
on Level Nine

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The
scout continues to play along the same lines as it has in the previous levels. 
You'll gain some better damage skills, including one with a small stun effect
and by now you will be feeling more comfortable and will be able to take more
risks.  You will now have a couple of chain attacks in your arsenal.  Don't
ignore these!  Being a light armor wearing class means you have to focus on
optimizing your damage output and chain attacks are a great source of damage.

At this
point, I had a whole skills groove going that seemed to work well.  Open with
the stealth and flank attack.  Cast your evasion buff and the following chain
damage skill.  Follow that up with the slash and its chained skill.  Continue
using your slash chain throughout the battle and watch your health!

As you
near level 10 and continue to make your way through the dangerous world, the
most important thing you can do for yourself is to keep your armor updated.  You
may wear leather or cloth, but obviously you will want to focus on gaining
leather pieces.  You can find basic armor pieces on the armor vendors but always
check out the player stores because often better armor comes from mob drops.  If
you are the questing sort, Aion's storyline quests give some nice rewards that
include armor pieces.  Keeping your defense as strong as possible will greatly
aid in survivability, and make your life as a scout a lot less painful.

Once you've finally reached level nine, you can complete your early adventure an
ascend, thus earning your wings.  It is at this time when you will start
your class career as a 
Ranger
or an 
Assassin
.  Be
sure to check back here at Ten Ton Hammer for future info on those two classes
(I'll be checking out both for sure) and for more
Aion coverage
!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Aion Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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