Guardian General

A Guardian General (also known as a Guardian Deity General or Guardian God General) is a legendary-grade NPC that defends fortresses against members of the opposing race during Sieges. These tall and behemoth beings act as the final line of defense before a fortress is lost, and require any amount ranging from a few alliances to a full league or beyond to bring down.

Defeating the Guardian General will immediately end the "vulnerable" state of a fortress and transfer ownership of the fortress to the leader of the alliance/league that did the most damage and his faction. The leader's legion will be also listed as the conquering legion of said fortress, and receive additional benefits.

Forms[]

Guardian Generals are introduced by the game as "adept warriors that have been versed in combat since birth". They use of a type of divine transformation, similar to what the Empyrean Lords use, to gain their massive size and power. In this "Guardian General form" they can easily hold their ground against hordes of Daevas but are surprisingly vulnerable against Dredgion commanders, whom they will need to be defended against by the players.

So far five Guardian General transformations have been identified. Their appearance vary for each of the races and displays typical features of said race. The known Guardian Generals are:

Dux (Elyos)
Stallari (Asmodians)
Ulsaruk (three forms) (Balaur)
Orissan (Balaur)

Player Transformation[]

Using <Seed of Transformation>, players holding a 5-Star Officer rank or above are able transform into a weakened version of their faction's Guardian General and tap into a fraction of its powers. While in this state players gain a tremendous increase in HP/MP, as well as a greatly improved auto-recovery rate and resistance to all or most altered states (depending on the transformation level). Furthermore, transformed players get a damage bonus when attacking enemy players and gain access to several special skills which can lay waste to entire groups.

There are a few things to keep in mind when transforming into a Guardian General:

The transformation is very demanding of Daevas and is therefore limited to a period of 10 minutes every 1 hour. (Formally limited to 2 hours)
If the player is killed while in this state the transformation wears off instantly and the 1 hour cooldown period is initiated.
Although there is an increase in HP/MP and attack power, the defense stats remain unaltered. This gives limited room for errors, especially for classes that use cloth/leather.

NPC Transformation[]

Aion_Soundtrack_-_Guardian_General_Battle — Aion Soundtrack - Guardian General Battle

The strength of the NPC Guardian General defending a Fortress is based on two factors:

Fortress: The Guardian General's level scales with that of the fortress it is defending. Capturing a fortress in the Lower Abyss will thus be significantly easier than capturing a fortress in one of the higher level areas.
Influence Ratio: The higher your race's influence ratio is, the weaker your faction's Guardian Generals will be (and vice versa). Weakened Guardian Generals versions have less HP, do less damage, and use fewer skills (and at a lower frequency); the opposite holds true for stronger versions. If the influence ratio factor is applicable, the Guardian General will have a prefix (either Weakened or Veteran/Seasoned) to indicate its combat strength.

Skills[]

The default Guardian Generals (Aion 1.0-4.8) have access to the following skills, many of which can hit up to 48 targets.

Curse of Deity General
Encouragement of Deity General - (Nearby friendly players receive a PvP damage buff to help kill nearby enemy players.)
Ferocious Strike
Fury of Deity General - (Instantly kills a randomly targeted enemy player. Unavoidable.)
Summon Illusion Gate - (Usually cast at 25% HP. The gate will periodically summon elite-grade NPCs until it is destroyed.)
Wide Area Aerial Snare - (AoE Aether's Hold. Followed by Crashing Wind Strike.)
Wide Area Cleave Armor - (AoE Damage with Defense debuff)
Wide Area Crashing Wind Strike - (AoE Damage that does extra damage to targets in Aether Hold.)
Wide Area Crippling Cut
Wide Area Pull
Wide Area Rage - (The Guardian General casts a damage-reducing shield on itself. Can be dispelled.)
Wide Area Soul Freeze (AoE Silence)
Wide Area Swoon (AoE Stun)
Wide Area Wrathful Strike
Wrath of Deity General

In the 4.9 update a new type of Guardian General was introduced for the Balaur. It was first seen used by the Beritra army stationed in Wealtheow's Keep (Kaldor), but has since also been used by members of the Ereshkigal army on a widespread scale. This variant is primarily deployed to the Upper Abyss fortresses, but it also appeared during Dredgion Defense.

Compared to the original Ulsaruk, this version trades in its auxiliary skills (e.g. buffs, summoning adds) for a full focus on damage, featuring many AoE-based attacks. Orissan also uses the below skill set, despite being a rather irregular Guardian General.

Trivia[]

Although Guardian Generals were originally deployed to captured fortresses, the Elyos and Asmodians later on also began deploy Guardian Generals on other occasions. One is sent to support the offensive in the Eternal Bastion, another can be seen protecting the first "hold" of both races in Cygnea and Enshar. Additionally, a Guardian General will spawn at the nearest gate when a Volatile Rift opens.