Who knew falling out of the sky could be... so tactical? In this portion of our Survival guide, we go in-depth with the concepts you need to know to survive in Atreia

Knowing Thy Enemy

In reality, this "catch me" problem occurs in most melee classes except the Assassin, who has a nice amount of stuns to keep his or her enemies in place. Ranged classes, like the Ranger, Sorcerer and Spiritmaster also have a high number of crowd control spells - as well, being ranged, these classes do well, regardless of latency, and this is why Rangers and Sorcerers are considered to be the best at solo-PvP - because they are self-sufficient in damage and control, and healing can be made up via potions (the same cannot be said about, say, solo Chanter PvP).

With that being said, unless you are completely out geared and out leveled by your opponent, chances are high that there will be "windows" where your enemy will be unable to snare, stun or slow you for a few moments. One of the key aspects of surviving in Aion is to keep track of what control spells or abilities your opponent is using, and then make your break (pop a Curing Potion and a Run Speed Scroll) when they have nothing to catch you with. Of course, this does require intimate knowledge of everyone else's abilities, and for many players this is just too much work for the brain.

A better way to approach this is to simply understand your opponent. Even if you know your opponent has more stuns, snares and slows that he or she isn't using, often times catching him or her by surprise can lead to a successful escape. Of course, it's always nice to know the major abilities of each class - for example, if a Spiritmaster roots you, you could always chug a Curing Potion and run in the opposite direction, because the Spiritmaster will inevitably follow up on that Root with a Fear (Fear being one of the Spiritmaster's longest and most effective control tools.) More often than not, however, Spiritmasters tend to throw in an extra spell during a Root, and then they follow that up with a Fear, so sometimes you could even allow yourself to stay rooted for a moment, tricking the Spiritmaster into thinking you have no Curing Potions, and when he decides to start casting a different spell, cure the Root and start running - chances are high that they'll have a tough time catching you.

Ultimately, timing is incredibly important in PvP, especially when it comes to survival, as a well timed escape is almost impossible to stop, unless you have superior numbers.

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Falling is Living!

While aerial combat in Aion is a very interesting tactical addition, the one recurring problem with flight is the additional Z axis can make hit registration for melee characters an absolute nightmare. Korea, where Aion was originally developed, doesn't have too much of a problem with flight combat because their latency is unnaturally good. North America, on the other hand, just has a new axis to be outranged on.

In this regard, if you've ever watched some successful PvP videos where the creator kills three other guys by himself, chances are high that you won't find a good Ranger, Sorcerer or Spiritmaster amongst those three guys. This is because flying, gliding and falling are three incredibly evil tools to use against melee classes.

Flying is a big problem for melee because many of our melee skills "stop" us to execute the skill. A Chanter's "Incandescent Blow" skill, for example, makes the Chanter stop moving to deal a multi-hit blow, but the same cannot be said for your opponent. If your opponent is smart, he or she will simply keep on flying, building a nice safety zone while you "recover" from your attack. The same could be said for combat on the ground, but this is just magnified when in flight because there are no shortcuts that can be taken to catch your enemy - you must simply fly after him or her.