Misunderstood strategy game. Lag isn't an issue, its an element of strategy.
The most common goal in this game is to level up, increase clan ranking, and just plain old become an elite player.
Addressing the issues, the foremost being, lag. First I'd like to point out that you’re an absolutely naive to think that an online game will be free of lag. All games have lag, Some games it doesn't matter, an example would be a turn based strategy game where there is ample time to send data over a slow connection. But this game requires so much data to be sent to everyone. To take an archer for example. You are sending to everyone, your position (XYZ) what angle your looking, what attack your doing, what angle your looking at (in case of arrows) to maybe 20 other people in some matches. Plus you are downloading this information from all other players as well. An hour of Rakion will download almost 300 megs of data on average. That's a lot of data. ADSL users will have an especially difficult time playing because of their very low upload and fast download. You will run into situations where you can't hit anyone but you get hit easily. This is because your attacks aren't being sent, but attacks against you come in fast and clear.
No strategy? Are you crazy, again taking archer into example (that’s what I play with). Say I'm fighting a skilled mage. Then I know, don't bother shooting, cause the mage is to hard to shoot. Don't try any high delay attacks. Wait for the mage to try an ice attack or some other high delay attack. Also, lag, everyone's favorite challenge, is strategy. When I Shoot someone, I have to first account for arrow speed travel time, and account for lag. This can make shooting someone very difficult or almost impossible in some cases. Same with swords, If I lunge and someone, I have to lunge ahead of them because that is where they really are. Check people's lats. If they have a lat of 250ms, gripping them will be very difficult. If they have a lat of about 80ms, you can potentially grip them even while they just walk by. This entire game is strategy. I always work to avoid ninjas because they are faster than me and can easily kill me. Focus my fire power into large groups, or pick off Mages as they are doing the same. Against a back smith I know to just let them attack because all their attacks are high delay. A blacksmith has very little chance against an archer.
Can't join any games or games not in your region
Well, I can't join large games, because more often or not there is someone with a crummy internet connection. But that’s ok. and as far as other regions go. I live in Canada and play on the Europe server all the time. It is a bit laggier, but I like that. Lag makes it easy for me to dodge grip attacks and focus more on arrows.
To further strategy, choose the correct character for you.
Warrior – For people that are moderately fast, like the idea of gripping but don't want to focus on it. Hate trying to throw anything. Like to be in the battle. You should try to have minimal lag to be a warrior or most of your hits won't land. Warriors have a strong chaos, but it is easily dodged by Archers and ninjas.
Blacksmith - The ultimate killing machine. Be a black smith for moderate laggers because even if not all your hits count, when they do, they hurt. A blacksmith is very slow and often gripped by faster characters. Making lag an asset. You can also be what's called an axe thrower. a sort of made up class that is just a black smith that uses axe's more than the hammer. Axe's are the strongest ranged weapon, but also the slowest moving. An axe thrower can stand up to an archer very effectively. A blacksmith has the strongest defense. Blacksmiths have a very strong chaos.
ninja – if you are fast on the keys and mouse, and have very little lag, then this is for you. You primary attack is grips. and your ranged weapon does little more than annoy people. although a ranged ninja can be quite powerful. Ninjas have the most useful chaos.
Archer – for medium laggers. Archers have significant delay after all but their arrow attacks. making the arrow the primary weapon. an archer that is a skilled shooter is extremely effective in battle and will often win solo death matches. The archers invincible attack is very effective. so even if you grip misses, you still stand a chance. If only slightly. Archers sword attacks are comparable to a warriors, just a lot slower. Chaos archers can be killing machines, there charged 5 arrow shot can kill most characters in one shot if all arrows hit them.
mage – a very deadly character in the right hands. mages can accel in every mode they play in. They are great for high lag people because their homing fire balls will hit people they cannot even see. fired into groups, and you will see why mages get so many kills. the downfall of a mage is they have extremely low health and unskilled mages often play a kill and be killed game. they get some kills inn and piss off someone that comes and effortlessly kills the mage. a mages staff attack may seem week, but it is very fast and attacks in a half circle around the mage, making them very effective to slowly kill any other character type. mages grips are superior to all other grips, having almost no delay on their front grip. The front grip incases the victim in ice allow the mage to continue attacking. the mages jump attack can hurt frozen victims no matter where they are. Mages chaos is the strongest of all. Two shots from the ice attack can kill even the strongest of characters. the ice attack ignores armor and goes right for where it hurts. and the homing fireballs target and fire twice as fast making them very hard to dodge. lastly a chaos mage can heal party members that are standing around it. a skilled chaos mage is a force to reckon with.
Character weaknesses by character
Warrior – Warrior
Blacksmith – Ninja, Archer
Ninja – Archer, Ninja
Archer – Ninja, Mage, Archer
Mage – Mage, ninja, Blacksmith, Warrior
As you can see, the mage is strong against an archer, and weak against all others. but their splash damage attacks are extremely effective. And remember any skilled player can turn the tables. With my archer I have out witted several mages by simply waiting for them to use their ice attack and miss.
Now if you are thinking this is a standard hack and slash game, you are half correct. First of all. its free ha-ha. Well that’s really about it. The game plays kind of like quake, but instead of running and shooting, you actually have to get in their face and fight. In the end the most skilled fighter will win (unless of course a level 1 takes on a level 99 in a match where levels count).
As far as skill to master is concerned.
you can sort of judge by this:
Warrior – Blacksmith
Archer – Mage
Ninja
But of course, if you are a very fast moving person, it might look more like this
Ninja
Warrior – Archer
Blacksmith – Mage
If you are completely unskilled at this sort of game, it might be more like this
Blacksmith – Archer – Warrior
Mage
Ninja
So its very hard to judge. But I can tell you it is about strategy and skill. entirely.
I will give an example:
Archer and a warrior (team A) are facing two other archers in a team (team B) death match.
Well A's archer can't do her job very well because she will be taken down by the other two archers. And the warrior can be easily over powered by two archers. Even working together, Two archers can beat one archer and a warrior. But one good solution, play defensive. have the warrior stand in front of the archer and defend, blocking incoming arrows. Allowing team A's archer to shoot back easily. The warrior can also prevent one of the archers from attacking with a weapon. That is one example of strategy.
Another could be golem matches. Do you kill all other enemies or their golem, which are you more likely to succeed at? Are you the last one alive? Do you kill yourself so that the enemy gets less experience and gold, or let them win, or die trying? That’s the sort of decisions you must make.
Rakion is a great game, but you either love it or you don't. Remember the game is still beta, and that can influence hackers. But they are making progress. When I first started, a chaos archer exiting chaos could actually walk through a wall and shoot from inside. basically becoming untouchable. They have since fixed this.
Try the game, you might like it, its free so its no skin off your back. And if you find lag to be a problem, its either your connection, your skill, or your character selection.