No. Although AION 2 takes place around 200 years after the first game and reuses many locations, races and terms, the story is designed so that newcomers can start without prior knowledge.
At Global launch, eight classes are available: Gladiator, Templar, Assassin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Spiritmaster, Cleric and Chanter. They cover traditional roles such as tank, melee and ranged DPS, healer and support. More on that here.
The two factions have different origins, regions and cultural identities. Players begin in separate areas depending on their chosen faction. Later in the game, the factions meet primarily in Realm-vs-Realm combat and Abyss PvP. The choice therefore affects more than just your character’s appearance, although it does not fundamentally change the available class selection.
No. NC has explicitly described AION 2 as using a manual combat system without auto-combat. Attacks, positioning, dodging, skill chains and timing are controlled directly by the player. This clearly distinguishes the Global version from many mobile MMORPGs.
It is playable with a controller, but full official controller support is currently not available. According to the current launch information, AION 2 can be played with a controller, but controller support is not yet considered fully supported at launch. Mouse and keyboard therefore remain the primary control method on PC.
