AION 2's combat blends classic tab-target MMO mechanics with action-game fundamentals. You select a target, but you also have to actively dodge, parry, and reposition to land back-attack and side-attack bonuses. There is no auto-combat in the current build; every rotation is hand-played.
Core Inputs
Input | Purpose |
|---|---|
Target lock | Tab or click to lock onto an enemy; locks track the enemy through 3D space |
Skills | Hotbar abilities; chains often unlock follow-up skills for a short window |
Dodge | Active directional dodge that breaks out of telegraphed AoEs |
Block / Parry | Class-dependent; tanks block more easily, melee DPS may parry to enable follow-ups |
Movement | Standard run plus glide and powered flight where allowed |
Skill Chains
Most classes have a skill-chain system: using a base skill briefly enables a follow-up skill that itself enables further follow-ups. Chains let players express identity through which branch they pursue: an aggressive damage chain, a control chain that locks an enemy down, or a defensive chain that adds a parry window. The chain system is the primary lever for build expression alongside the Daevanion Board.
Chain windows are short. Missing a window resets the chain, and many class kits include a longer cooldown opener that re-enables the chain after a reset. Reading enemy telegraphs and timing dodges around the chain rhythm is the heart of the combat skill curve.
Positioning Bonuses
Hitting an enemy from behind or from the side often increases damage, applies a special debuff, or pays out resource. Aerial combat amplifies this: position above an enemy and the back arc moves with them in 3D, so a vertical assassin or ranger can chain back-strikes that a grounded melee could never reach.
HP Absorption and Life Steal
The Season 3 patch on April 22, 2026 reworked how damage converts into healing across the entire game. The legacy Life Steal stat now reads as HP Absorption, with a fixed conversion: 5% Life Steal becomes 5% HP Absorption, capped so a fight at maximum effect grants up to 10% of max HP back as a combination of damage absorption and recovery. The intent stated in the dev streams was to make sustain more predictable and to stop snowballing fights where one player out-healed an entire group through life-steal alone.
Item | Heal | Tick | Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
Life Potion | 1% of max HP per tick | Every 2 seconds | Up to 1,000 HP |
Advanced Life Potion | 2% of max HP per tick | Every 2 seconds | Up to 2,000 HP |
Life Elixir | 5% of max HP | Instant | Up to 5,000 HP |
Advanced Life Elixir | 10% of max HP | Instant | Up to 10,000 HP |
Recovery potions and elixirs now scale to a percentage of maximum HP rather than a flat number, with a hard cap above the percentage. Players with very high HP pools hit the cap; players with average pools recover the full percentage. This change rewards stat builds that keep HP near the cap break-even rather than dumping into mitigation.
Breaking through enemy armor restores 1% of max HP per stage, up to several stages on heavily-armored bosses. Class skills that previously had a Vitality Drain effect were retuned: the Sanctuary Corroded Decontamination Facility and the Submerged Life Temple Transcendence content no longer apply Life Steal reductions to incoming healing, so the new HP Absorption math runs cleanly inside those instances. Per-class examples include Gladiator Keen Strike, which converted a 7% drain into a 2% HP Absorption value, and Sorcerer Divine Burst, which converted a 30% drain into a 10% HP Absorption value, with similar adjustments rippling through the rest of the roster.
No Auto-Combat
AION 2 does not include the auto-combat or AFK farming systems common to many recent Korean MMORPGs. Every fight requires manual inputs, which puts a hard ceiling on multi-boxing and changes how grinding feels at endgame.