AION 2 – Arcana / Card System Guide

Arcana

Arcana is a card system that provides stats and skill levels. There are currently 10 different types of Arcana Cards and 7 different sets.

Arcana Cards can be thought of similarly to gear in an MMO. Different card types provide different stat or skill pools, while Set Effects provide additional bonuses for specific combinations of cards.

Arcana Cards provide a Pantheon Stat and up to 4 lines of Stats or Skills from a specific pool.

Arcana Card Types

Arcana Card	Pantheon Stat	Possible Lines
Chalice	Pantheon Stat	All Skills & Passives
Parchment	Pantheon Stat	Half of your Active Skills
Compass	Pantheon Stat	Other half of your Active Skills
Bell	Pantheon Stat	Half of your Passive Skills
Mirror	Pantheon Stat	Other half of your Passive Skills
Scale	Pantheon Stat	All Skills & Passives
Key	Offensive Stats	Offensive Stats
Hourglass	Defensive Stats	Defensive Stats
Dice	Offensive Stats	Offensive Stats
Lantern	Defensive Stats	Defensive Stats

Arcana Cards also have different Set Effects. There are 7 different Sets available.

Global Launch will not have all of the Arcana Cards and Sets. Asia launched with 5 Arcanas, from Compass through Mirror, and 2 Sets: Primal Vigore and Magic Armor.

Upgrading Arcana

Farming Transcendence Dungeons provides Arcana Cards and Training Arcana. You can feed Arcana Cards into the Arcana Card you have equipped, or use Training Arcana to level it up.

Each level grants +1 to a random Skill line already present on the card. If there are no Skills on the card, each level instead grants a small increase to a random Stat.

An Arcana Card can be upgraded to a maximum of level 5.

Replacing an Equipped Card

You can feed your equipped Arcana Card into a new card if the new card has better lines. However, you will lose a percentage of the experience invested into your current card because the EXP does not transfer at a 1:1 ratio.

Transferring the experience can still be worthwhile when the new card has better lines. You also gain bonus experience when feeding the same type of Arcana Card.

Crafting Arcana Cards

You can craft your own Arcana Card through the Transmute section. This allows you to choose all of your lines for most Arcana Cards at a cost.

Crafting your own cards costs Crystals, and different Arcana Cards require different Crystals.

Crystals can be Substanced Morphed by consuming the Shard versions of the Crystal. These Shards are farmed from Transcendence Dungeons, with different dungeons providing different Shards.

Arcana Card Priorities

Identify your highest-value Skills and which cards they come from. Your priority should be getting your key Active Skills to level 20 as soon as possible.

Depending on how content is released and your group, you can use or put together a cheaper Arcana set that may not have the exact Best-in-Slot lines but helps your Active Skills reach level 20.

Once your key Active Skills reach level 20, you can continue using that setup while farming more Transcendence to craft your 4-line card.

Chalice and Scale

Chalice and Scale have the most possible lines, making them the most difficult cards to get perfect lines on.

The other cards roll 4 lines from a pool of 6, meaning the likelihood of getting your ideal lines from a dungeon drop or a random craft is relatively high.

If you are planning to do a 4-line craft, craft Chalice first.

Chalice and Scale have the biggest value because they can roll any Active Skill or Passive Skill. Scale costs twice as much and will not be available at launch.

Best-in-Slot Set Effects Setup for All Classes

5-Card Setup

There is some flexibility with the early 5-card setup. At this stage, there are only 2 Set Effects, and both provide less value than the Pantheon Stats attached to the cards, so the Pantheon Stats are prioritized.

Parchment and Compass can be from either set, but try to have 2 Primal Vigore cards to activate the 2-piece passive.

The recommended setup is:

Primal Vigore

Set Effect:

• 2-piece: +60 PVE Attack when HP is 70% or more

Cards:

• Chalice (Time)
• Parchment (Life)

Magic Armor

Set Effect:

• 2-piece: Restores 1,500 MP when MP is 20% or less, with a 30s cooldown

Cards:

• Compass (Death)
• Bell (Destruction)
• Mirror (Wisdom)

In a perfect setup, Parchment and Compass are arranged as above, but swapping them is not a major issue.

The 3 most important lines in this setup are:

• Chalice (Time): Combat Speed
• Bell (Destruction): Attack Increase %
• Mirror (Wisdom): Double Chance

8-Card Setup

Punishing Overture

Set Effects:

• 2-piece: +5% Boss Damage Tolerance
• 4-piece: +60 PVE Attack and +10% PVE Damage Boost when HP is 70% or more

Cards:

• Chalice (Time)
• Parchment (Life)
• Key (Attack Bonus)
• Hourglass (Defense Bonus)

Protected Soul

Set Effects:

• 2-piece: +5% Restoration
• 4-piece: +5% Weapon Damage Boost
• 4-piece: Grants a protective shield that blocks 10,000 damage for 5s when HP is 30% or less
• Shield cooldown: 2 minutes

Cards:

• Compass (Death)
• Parchment (Life)
• Bell (Destruction)
• Mirror (Wisdom)
• Scale (Destruction, Destiny)