AION 2 Classes Explained – PvE & PvP Gameplay transcript

Aion 2 currently has nine classes and eight of them, all except the Brawler, will be playable at global launch. In this video, I will show you gameplay for every class and explain [music] its core strengths and identity. So, you can find the right class for yourself for global launch. [music] And I know most of you want to know which class will be the best in all the PvP and PvE content. But, the truth is we don't know what the meta will look like in our version.

The developers are still making major class and balance changes non-stop. So, a lot of things might still change. But, the core identity of each class should remain mostly the same. So, I would not choose your class based on which one currently looks [music] the strongest. Choose the playstyle you enjoy and hopefully this video will help you find it. Let's start with our first DPS class of the Assassin. The Assassin is all about setting up short burst windows and then dealing as much damage as possible before that window ends.

It is not a class that maintains the same level of damage throughout the entire fight. Its DPS really takes off when you line up its important self buffs and use them at the right time. But, the damage will fall off quite a bit once those buffs expire. The most important of these buffs is Elusive Clone. It basically removes the cooldown from one of your main damage abilities, allowing you to spam it at a completely ridiculous speed.

The amount of hits an Assassin can do in the late game is absolutely crazy. And that is really the essence of the Assassin. Prepare your buffs, wait for the right opportunity, completely go off. This makes the class especially strong in shorter fights where that burst window represents a large part of the entire encounter. In longer fights, your damage drops much more noticeably after Elusive Clone expires. [music] So, building a lot of cooldown reduction into your build is going to be one of your main priorities.

Because of that, timing is of course extremely important. You need to know when you can safely commit your cooldowns and when it's better to hold them. Then on top of that, positioning is just as important because you ideally want to attack the boss from [music] behind. You have a bunch of passives and effects that only trigger when you hit from behind. So, you can lose quite a bit of damage if you're not taking advantage of that.

The Assassin does have a lot of mobility though, so getting back onto the target is usually not too difficult. It is simply another thing you need to pay attention to if you really want to min-max your damage. In PvP, the combination of mobility, crowd control, invisibility, and extremely high burst makes the Assassin very dangerous in 1v1s and smaller fights. But, knowing your match-ups is important. You cannot simply jump onto every [music] class and expect to one-tap it.

Large-scale PvP is naturally more difficult because you're a squishy melee class and have to put yourself in danger to deal damage. You can still bring a lot of value, but you need to choose the correct target and wait [music] for the right opening. So, if you enjoy setting up your damage, watching for the perfect moment, and then completely destroying a target within a short window, the Assassin fits that play style perfectly.

Next up, we have the Ranger, which is probably the most complete all-rounder among the classes. It is good at basically everything and has a very few situations where it feels weak. The kit itself is fairly straightforward. You have a bunch of ranged attacks and although most of them are not especially flashy, they provide very consistent single-target and AoE damage. In the late game, it feels much less like you're holding a bow [music] and much more like you're using a machine gun, which is definitely very satisfying to play.

The Ranger also has quite a few important self-buffs that can significantly increase its damage. But, unlike the Assassin, the entire kit does not depend on them. These buffs simply allow the Ranger to further increase its already strong consistent DPS. On top of that, as a Ranger, you do not have to constantly worry about your position to the boss because the class does not receive any positional benefits. That is really the essence of the Ranger.

It is simply your super straightforward range class. This also makes the class a relatively easy to understand and get into, but it's still very satisfying to play and leaves plenty of room for optimization. [music] The Ranger is also extremely good for open world farming, especially during the earlier stages of the game. Later on, other classes can keep up, but at the beginning Ranger is the king. is also strong in basically every type of [music] PvP.

Of course, some one v one match-ups are more difficult than others, but the class has an excellent kit with a lot of different options. You have stuns, snares, knockbacks, and plenty of mobility. If a good Ranger starts kiting you properly, it can be incredibly difficult [music] to get close enough to fight back. And in sieges, you can stay at range, attack much more safely, and continue pumping damage without having to throw yourself into the middle of the fight.

Of course, getting the absolute best performance out of the Ranger still requires healthy hands and a strong build, but the class performs well in literally every type of content. Let's come to our first magical DPS class, the Spirit Master. As the name already suggests, it summons spirits. But the class is not simply about summoning one pet and then letting it do all the work. The real gameplay comes from combining your own abilities with your different elemental spirits.

You have four elemental spirits, water, earth, wind, and fire, and one additional ancient spirit. Each spirit gives you access to different effects. They can deal AoE or single target damage, heal, or taunt. The fire spirit, for example, performs AoE attacks. And whenever you summon one, it immediately performs this special attack. Because of that, you do not always keep the same spirit active. Depending on your build and the situation, you can cycle between them to trigger their attacks and apply different effects on your enemy.

On top of that, you have different abilities that amplify or enhance your spirits. And that is really the essence of the Spirit Master. You combine your own attacks with your spirits to build several layers of damage. In PvE, this makes the Spirit Master especially strong during longer boss fights. It does not immediately explode in the same way as the Assassin, so it can fall behind when the fight only lasts for a short time.

But once the fight continues and the Spirit Master gets all its damage running properly, its sustained DPS becomes [music] extremely competitive. In PvP, the Spirit Master becomes a very interesting class with a lot of different tools. One of its tools comes from the [music] Earth Spirit, which can taunt another player and force them to attack it. [music] With enough cooldown reduction and correct spirit cycling, a good Spirit Master can almost permanently taunt lock an enemy.

[music] It can be very, very funny. But the class needs time to get everything going. If the Spirit Master starts the fight on its own terms and is allowed to set up, it can be extremely difficult to deal with. [music] But if another class jumps onto the Spirit Master before ready, recovering from that can be much harder. That makes knowing when and how to start a fight incredibly important. So, if you enjoy managing pets, building pressure over time, and controlling your fight through several different tools, the Spirit Master is probably the magical DPS class for you.

Next up, we have the Sorcerer. This is probably the closest thing Aion 2 has to a traditional glass cannon mage. Its abilities are mainly divided between fire and frost, and both elements serve a slightly different purpose. Frost gives you more utility and some of your stronger burst damage, while fire is mainly responsible for your consistent DPS. But what really defines the Sorcerer is how all these abilities work together.

A lot of other classes have only a few abilities that make up the majority of their damage. The Sorcerer is different. It uses a much larger part of its kit, and many of these abilities are directly connected through cooldown reduction. So, you will use one ability, which reduces the cooldown of another ability. You then use that ability to reduce or reset something else, and this continues throughout your rotation. Once everything starts working together, you're constantly moving from one spell into the next one.

That is really the core essence of the Sorcerer. It's not about spamming one main damage ability or waiting for a single self-buff. It's all about understanding how all your different spells interact and creating this continuous chain of abilities. This also means that the Sorcerer needs some time before the class fully comes [music] online. A lot of these cooldown effects only become available after you have properly leveled all your skills.

So, the Sorcerer might initially feel slower or less complete than other classes, but the further you progress and the more you invest, the more the entire kit starts to connect. In PvP, the Sorcerer has a surprisingly large number of tools. You have slows, pulls, and different crowd control effects, including a polymorph. This gives you several ways to control an opponent and set up your damage. If you connect your full rotation and everything lands, the Sorcerer can deal absolutely crazy [music] burst damage.

The difficulty is creating that setup without getting interrupted or killed yourself. The Sorcerer has a very limited survivability. If another player gets on top of you, it can be very difficult to fight back. So, if you want a traditional elemental mage with a large number of interconnected abilities, the Sorcerer delivers exactly that. It takes some time and investment before everything comes together, but once it does, you get a fast rotation where almost every spell leads directly into the next one.

That's it for the DPS classes. Next, we come to the tanks, starting with the Templar. It is the traditional main tank of Aion 2. You have a sword and shield, you hold aggro, you can pull enemies together, protect and amplify your teammates, and you are of course incredibly difficult to kill. But the important part is that Templar also deals a lot of damage, and I do not mean just good damage for a tank. The class can deal genuinely high damage, and if you build more offensively, you can almost compete with some of the bigger damage dealers.

So you can be the tank your group needs while still contributing a crazy amount of damage yourself. In PvE, it's all about holding aggro and amplifying your team's damage. You can reduce the [music] enemy defense, so everyone deals more damage. And when you correctly block certain boss attacks, you will activate a damage buff for your whole party. So by actively blocking attacks, you directly increase your group's damage.

Besides that, Templar also comes with a bunch of defensive tools, not only for itself, but for the whole party. You can even redirect damage from your teammates to yourself. This can [music] be incredibly helpful when progressing through raids. Templar has a lot of different tools. A really good Templar knows boss patterns, amplifies the damage, keeps everyone alive, and still deals a crazy amount of damage. And because you're so incredibly tanky, making a mistake or forgetting to block something is usually not a big deal.

You will not die immediately. And despite being a main tank, no worries, the Templar's also completely fine in all solo content. You have no problem with solo open world farming or solo bosses. In PvP, you can either become an almost unkillable tank, annoy everyone, and keep people CC'd forever, or build fully offensive and kill people yourself. This can work both in 1v1s [music] and in large scale PvP. Templar is just always good.

So if you want to be an incredibly tanky tank [music] that supports the team both offensively and defensively, and has a role in pretty much every type of content, [music] Templar is for you. Now, Templar is a traditional main tank, but Gladiator is a complete alternative. A lot of the Gladiator skills and aggro, and the class can tank everything from normal dungeons to end-game raids. It can be a little bit more difficult because you do not have the same level of defensive mitigation as a Templar, but it is absolutely capable of doing the job.

But the identity of Gladiator is also damage. This is not a tank that happens to deal okay damage. Gladiator is a bruiser that can compete with the strongest damage classes in the game. But at the same time, you still get a lot of tanky passives. So, the class is much more forgiving than most of the other damage dealers. A huge part of that survivability comes from the great sword and its lifesteal. As long as you can stay on the target and keep attacking, you recover a lot of health and become very difficult to bring down.

It has this real bruiser feeling. You deal crazy damage, you can take a few hits without dying, and you constantly heal yourself by attacking. Similar to Templar, Gladiator also rewards you for blocking attacks at the correct time. A perfect block activates the same damage buff for the entire party. So, by timing your blocks correctly, you are not only protecting yourself, but also directly increasing your group's damage. >> [music] >> And I already mentioned that the class has crazy lifesteal, but it can also provide additional lifesteal to the whole party, which is incredibly strong.

So, Gladiator can tank end-game content, helps sustain the group, and still be one of its strongest damage dealers. Templar is usually preferred while a group is still learning a raid because the additional mitigation makes progression safer. But once everyone is comfortable with the mechanics, Gladiator can become just as good and potentially even the better option if the group wants more damage. But no worries, my PvP annies, because the class is also incredibly strong in PvP.

On top of everything we already talked about, the tankiness, lifesteal, and crazy damage, Gladiator also has a ton of CC. That makes Gladiator extremely strong in pretty much every type of PvP content. The is simply a beast. So, if you want to feel like a true bruiser, the Gladiator is for you. Now, we are moving on to the two support classes. [music] The Cleric is the dedicated healer in Aion 2. Other classes can provide healing or help the group survive, but the Cleric has by far the most complete healing toolkit.

You have direct healing, healing over time, cleanses, defensive abilities, and even the ability to resurrect other players. [music] And since people will die left and right in dungeons, having the ability to resurrect someone is incredibly valuable. But playing Cleric is not simply about spamming healing abilities whenever someone loses health. The real gameplay comes from understanding when damage is going to happen and deciding which of your tools you actually need to use.

Sometimes a smaller heal is enough. Sometimes you need to remove a debuff. And sometimes you need to commit one of your major defensive cooldowns to stop the entire group from dying. You can really feel the difference between a good Cleric and a bad Cleric. At the same time in Aion 2, you're not just a healer. You are also a damage dealer. A good Cleric is not going to stand around doing nothing while everyone is at full health.

You can still contribute respectable damage whenever the group is safe. Especially in harder dungeons and late game raids, the value of a Cleric becomes much more obvious. Playing without a Cleric is not always impossible, but it can make the content much harder. Then for PvP, you might think the class does not have enough damage in 1v1s, but the bigger problem is not simply your damage. It is the lack of reliable crowd control.

You can keep yourself alive for quite a while, but you have a very few ways to stop an opponent from staying on top of you and recovering through life steal, which makes it difficult to win a lot of 1v1s. Group PvP is a completely different story. Here a good Cleric can do unbelievable amount of work and completely change the outcome of a fight. Everyone loves having a good Cleric in their group. So, if you enjoy taking the responsibility for the group, reacting to dangerous situations, and being the player who can prevent the fight from completely falling apart, the cleric is the support class for you.

The second support class is the chanter. Just like the cleric, it can take care of the group's healing, but the two classes provide their support in different ways. The chanter has fewer abilities that are purely dedicated for healing, but compensates for that with shielding and a much wider range of utility buffs. The core of the class is its different mantras. For example, power of the storm increases the group's damage, while sprint mantra provides movement speed and additional sustain.

Those buffs are incredibly strong. They can make a huge difference because movement speed, for example, does more than help you travel faster. It can also make certain boss mechanics much easier and give the entire group more room for mistakes. That is really the essence of the chanter. You are still capable of healing the group, but you are also improving its overall performance through damage buffs, movement speed, shielding, and other forms of utility.

For all the normal dungeons you're going to run, the chanter is completely capable of being the group's healer. You have enough healing and shielding to keep a party alive. This makes the chanter particularly strong if you have a good group and want to speed run dungeons. [music] You bring enough healing to keep everyone alive, powerful buffs for the whole party, and a very respectable personal damage on top of that.

Chanters are just insane in all group PvE content. The limitations become more noticeable in harder content. During difficult [music] raids or progression fights, where the group takes constant heavy damage, the chanter does not have the same tools as the cleric. It can still provide additional healing and shielding, but it becomes much harder for the class to keep the entire group alive by itself. But, the chanter and cleric can also complement each other extremely well.

Some of their damage buffs do not fully stack and can override each other, but the healing, shielding, cleanses, and defensive utility can still combine to make a group incredibly tanky and powerful. In PvP, [music] the Chanter brings the same mixture of healing and utility. It is not one of the absolute strongest duelists, but it is definitely capable of competing and [music] winning plenty of match-ups. In group fights, its value increases significantly.

Its mantras can help the group engage, escape, while its healing and shielding provide additional protection throughout the fight. So, if you want to support and heal your group while also providing some of the strongest party buffs in the game, the Chanter might be for you. And that is all eight classes that will be available at global launch. Let me know in the comments which class you are planning to play and why.

And if you're still unsure between a few classes, tell me which ones. Maybe we can go into some of those comparisons [music] in a future video. I will also be covering much more Aion 2 as we get closer to release. So, subscribe if you do not want to miss that. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.