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

There are a couple of different ways you can go about getting your skills up. The first (and possibly most boring method), is to grab the first work order from your trainer (skill of 1 required) and continue to repeat it until your trainer no longer offers it to you (skill of 40). This method will save you some much needed cash, but may not be worth the cost in sanity since as you progress closer to a skill level of 40, your skill-ups will come less and less often.

Unlike some other games, the trainers in Aion do not limit you to only having one active work order from them. This brings me to the second method of gaining skills and the route I chose to pursue. Be warned that this method gets expensive quickly, so be prepared to take the occasional break to go out there and do some hunting to replenish your ever-dwindling coin purse.

By taking every available work order (more will open up every 10 points you progress in your profession), it not only saves trips back and forth between the loom and your trainer (though this is a miniscule distance), but also grants you better rewards. With this method, you'll be gaining progress at a steady rate instead of trudging through the lowest order to save some money.

Every work order past the first requires you to provide some of the materials yourself. Everything I needed for the first tier of trainer (skill of 1 to 99), I found on the Sewing merchant right near the looms. You'll be amazed at how quickly the costs of all this adds up. I know I certainly was. As I mentioned earlier, be ready to go do some hunting and you'll make back the cash in no time. Fortunately, it doesn't take too long to gain a decent amount of money in Aion. This is a good thing, because to progress past a skill of 99, you're going to need 18,000+ kinah to do it.

For those old-school players of EverQuest, this method of crafting and gaining skill will feel very familiar. Unlike other games, if you fail in the creation of your item, you will lose the materials you were using to create it. This is no big deal in the very beginning, but imagine how much more painful that system is going to feel as you get closer and closer to the top, losing both expensive and rare materials alike. The system may be simplistic, but that doesn't mean those players at the top tiers didn't pay their dues along the way.