Game settings
What to change in the settings on day one: controls and targeting, keys that are easy to miss, what to show on screen, FPS and mass PvP.
From two settings videos: Whelps (a Ranger main) and Grobs. Setting names are written as in the English client; the values are theirs — treat them as a starting point. Where the two disagree, both options are given. Every block links to its moments in the videos. WhelpsGrobs
- Change these first
- Combat → Controls
- Combat → Target Scanning
- Combat → Looting and Auto-use
- Key Settings: keys worth binding
- Info Display: what is shown on screen
- Graphics → Optimize: FPS and mass PvP
- Graphics → Camera / Direction
- The other tabs
Change these first
If you only have two minutes — these are the settings that change the most. Details and the reasons are in the sections below.
Key Settings General
Macro
bind a key — usually the right mouse button
It has no key by default, and without one the in-game macro simply does not work.
Separate Defiance Hotkey
ON + its own key
On Space, Defiance shares a key with jump and glide — mash it under control and you take off gliding.
Fly Up, Fly Down
comfortable keys
The defaults are Ctrl+R and Ctrl+F, and you need both all the time.
Interact
a second key: F + Z
Tap the two in turn — quest dialogues skip much faster.
Combat
Auto-use → Buff Auto-use Conditions
In Combat
Buff scrolls stop burning while you run around town.
Controls → Skill Queue
ON
The macro works best with it.
Target Scanning → Preferred Search Direction
Front of Camera
Tab takes the target you are looking at.
Target Scanning → Detailed Settings
Priority Ranking, Hostile Players first
For PvP: Tab takes players before mobs.
Info Display Combat
Aggro Range Display
ON
You see where a mob will aggro.
Display Boss Orientation Indicator
ALL
You see where the boss's back is.
Graphics Optimize
Effect Quality
Very Low
The biggest FPS gain and far less flashing on screen.
Player Particle Effect Display
Self Only
Hides everyone else's skill effects.
Identical Player Appearance, [Abyss] Display as Tier Icon
ON
A must for mass PvP.
Graphics Camera / Direction
Teleport Effect Color
Dark
No white flash on every teleport.
Camera Shake Effect During Combat
OFF
No shaking in combat.
World Map Transition Animation
OFF
No animation every time you open the map.
Combat Controls
Control Mode: AION 2 or AION 1? AION 2 is the action mode: the aim sits in the middle of the screen and the camera follows the mouse. AION 1 is the classic one: a free cursor, the camera turns while you hold the right mouse button. It is a matter of taste, but AION 2 is friendlier to the macro — in AION 1 mode the left and right mouse buttons cannot be rebound. ▶ 0:08
Control Mode
AION 2
Better for the macro on a mouse button; see above.
Display Distance to Aimed Target
ON
Shows the distance to the target above its nameplate.
Adjust Aim Position
to taste
Moves the aim up or down on the screen (188px in the video).
Select Aimable Target
Hostile Target
Otherwise the aim also picks allies. You rarely need to target an ally — it is better to stay on the one you are attacking.
Pursue Targets with Skill Activation
OFF for ranged, optional for melee
When ON, pressing a skill out of range makes the character walk to the target and then use it. OFF gives more control.
Auto Target Upon Skill Use
ON for open-world farming (default: OFF)
With no target selected, a skill picks the nearest one: run around holding the macro and it goes from mob to mob. Grobs always turns it on for farming, above all on ranged classes; Whelps keeps it off outside farming.
Set Main Target Upon Attack
two ways, see below (default: ON, both clicks ON)
Whether an attack locks the target. Whelps: ON with left click ON and right click OFF. Grobs: OFF on melee.
Skill Queue
ON
A skill pressed during another one is queued. Gives the best result with the macro.
Soft lock and hard lock
Aim at an enemy and a white circle appears around it — a soft lock: skills go there, but the target changes as soon as you aim elsewhere. Two arrows on its HP bar mean a hard lock: the target stays until you change it. By default any attack hard-locks; Tab always does. ▶ Grobs 0:39
- Set Main Target Upon Attack → OFF (Grobs, melee): attacks no longer lock, so you jump from target to target without stopping — good for packs of mobs. On a boss lock it with Tab.
- ON, left click ON, right click OFF (Whelps, Ranger): the left button picks and locks the target, the right one — where his macro sits — never switches it by accident.
Combat Target Scanning
Preferred Search Direction
Front of Camera (default: None)
Tab looks for targets where the camera points, so you control what it picks.
Target Scanning Detailed Settings
Priority Ranking (default: Closest First)
If you PvP: targets are picked by your own priority list instead of by distance. In the Abyss there are mobs and players side by side — Tab must take the player.
Priority order for PvP
- 1–2. Hostile Players, then Players Attacking Me. On global the default first place is «targets you attacked or aimed at» and players come only 2nd and 3rd — moving Hostile Players to the top is the minimum; Grobs changes nothing else. ▶ 2:34
- 3–8. Targets you already hit, then monsters and NPCs in the default order.
- 9–10. The players' spirits (familiars in the global client) — at the very bottom: these are the Elementalist's spirits. On global they sit 4th and 6th by default, above the monsters, so in PvP Tab keeps landing on them.
Both authors set these two the same way. Only do PvE? Closest First is fine — Tab simply takes the nearest target; Front of Camera is still worth it.
Combat Looting and Auto-use
Looting → Obtaining Gear / Obtaining Item
All, or filter
You can stop picking up a gear grade (Common, Rare …) or an item type (potions, shards, crafting materials) — useful when the bag fills up on a farm.
Auto-use → Buff Auto-use Conditions
In Combat
Buff scrolls usually sit on auto-use. With the «in motion» option they are used the moment you move, with «always» — all the time. Both waste scrolls.
Auto-use → Life Potion
ON, 83% in the video
Potions are drunk automatically below the chosen HP.
Melee, careful: a melee class can swing without a target, and one left click in town already counts as combat — the scrolls get used. A Ranger needs a target to auto-attack, so it does not happen to them.
Key Settings: keys worth binding
The keys are his — pick your own. What matters is that these actions have a key at all.
General → Separate Defiance Hotkey + Set Defiance Hotkey
ON, key ` (left of 1); default: OFF
By default Defiance (breaks control) is on Space together with jump and glide. Spam Space under control — and you start gliding, which ruins your next move: a boss mechanic or a PvP fight is lost.
General → Fly Up, Fly Down
side mouse button for Fly Up; defaults: Ctrl+R and Ctrl+F
Flies straight up or down without tilting the camera — in PvP the camera stays on the target. You need both all the time, and nobody presses Ctrl+R for that: rebind them on the first login and get used to them.
General → Macro
right mouse button; default: no key
Without a key the macro does not work at all. It is held down all fight, so it goes on the most comfortable button — for most players the right click.
General → Target Hostile Players
Caps (Whelps); e.g. the middle mouse button (Grobs)
Targets enemy players only. In the Abyss Tab keeps landing on mobs — this key does not. Grobs does not use it himself: for him Priority Ranking is enough.
General → Switch Control Mode
/
Switches between the AION 2 and AION 1 modes on the fly.
General → Combat Analysis
Ctrl+X
Opens the built-in damage meter.
Menu → Display Cursor
Alt (hold)
In AION 2 mode: hold it to get the cursor and click the interface.
Quickslot
two keys per slot
Every hotbar slot takes a main and a second key.
Marker
numpad sets a marker, Ctrl+1 selects marker 1
For group PvP with voice chat: the leader marks a target, everyone selects it with one key.
Skipping dialogues faster
Every action in Key Settings has two key fields. Give Interact (F by default) a second key next to it — for example Z — and tap the two in turn: quest dialogues fly by about twice as fast as with one finger on F. There is a lot of dialogue on the way to 45, so it adds up.
Info Display: what is shown on screen
Combat → Aggro Range Display
ON
Select a monster and you see a blue circle — step inside and it attacks.
Combat → Display Boss Orientation Indicator
ALL
An arc around the boss: the blue part is its front, the yellow one its back. Helps to stand behind it.
Combat → Display Skill Range
ON
Shows the range of your skills.
Common → Performance → Display Network Status
ON
A ping indicator in the corner of the screen.
Common → Pets → Display Other Players' Pets
OFF
Your own pet stays, everyone else's disappear — they only cost performance.
Common → Nameplate
to taste
Hide the nameplates of other players, their spirits and monsters to clear the screen. Your own nameplate cannot be hidden.
Floater → Combat Floater Display
ON, with a smaller UI
The flying damage and healing numbers. They can be turned off, all or one by one (damage on me, heal on me, damage on target …), but then hits feel empty. Grobs keeps them and makes them smaller with UI Proportion — see Graphics.
Graphics Optimize: FPS and mass PvP
Quality presets depend on your PC — these are the settings that matter regardless.
UI Proportion
Small (default: Medium)
Scales the interface and the damage numbers together: a smaller UI means smaller numbers, so they stop covering the fight.
Effect Quality
Very Low
Hits FPS harder than anything else (Whelps keeps the rest on Very High) and removes a lot of particles — much easier on the eyes over long sessions.
Upscaler
DLSS
On an NVIDIA card.
Frame Generator
off in PvE, on for mass PvP
Frame generation adds input lag, and input lag is lost damage. In big fights smoothness matters more.
Player Particle Effect Display
Self Only (Grobs); Self and Party (Whelps)
Self Only hides the skill effects of everyone else, teammates included: less clutter and a clear FPS gain. You will notice it is missing now and then — worth it.
NVIDIA Reflex
BOOST
Lower input delay.
Volumetric Light Scattering, Volumetric Fog
OFF in the video
Set on his screen; he does not comment on them.
[Abyss] Display as Tier Icon
ON
Enemy nameplates in the Abyss turn into small rank icons — far fewer labels on screen.
Identical Player Appearance
ON
All other players get the same simple look; applies at once. The game is not optimized for sieges and other large-scale fights — without this they are close to unplayable on any PC.
Next to it there is [Domination] Display as Tier Icon — the same switch for Domination; it is OFF in the video.
Graphics Camera / Direction
World Map Transition Animation
OFF
Otherwise an animation plays every time you open the map — it gets dizzying.
Teleport Effect Color
Dark (default: Bright)
The bright version is a white screen in your face on every teleport.
Camera Perspective
Default, or over the shoulder
The second option puts the character slightly left of the centre.
Camera Shake Effect During Combat
OFF
Both authors turn it off. A matter of taste — some like the shaking.
Display Weapon Outside of Combat
ON (default: OFF)
Purely for looks: the weapon stays visible instead of disappearing outside combat.
Display Equipped Title Effects on Nameplate
to taste
The frames of special titles around names. OFF removes them; there is also «on my nameplate only».
The other tabs
- Accessibility — font size and chat colours, subtitles. ▶ 8:43
- Notification — game alerts and requests; invites can be declined automatically. He left everything at the defaults.
- Miscellaneous — interface and voice language; under Account — the field for coupon codes.