Settings and performance

Control style

Press / to switch between the two control styles:

Mode	How it plays	Best for
AION 2 mode	Keyboard moves, mouse turns the camera, crosshair targets. Hold Alt for the cursor	Damage dealers: fast macros and positioning
AION 1 mode	Click to move and target	Healers watching party frames

Put your macro on a mouse button (right button or a side button) so your left hand stays on movement. Sprint is also your dodge (it has invulnerability frames), so bind it where your thumb is.

Targeting

Everything here is under Settings > Battle > Target Scanning. The default Tab picks the closest enemy wherever you look and puts targets you already hit first, which feels random in a pack or in the Abyss.

Setting	Set it to
Preferred Search Direction	Front of Camera (every guide we checked agrees). Front of Character if you turn the character more than the camera
Target Scanning Detailed Settings	Priority Ranking
Search range	Default for melee. Ranged classes can go to 40 or 50 m

The full priority order (ten entries, moved with the arrows)▾

#	Entry	Why
1	Hostile Players	Tab always takes a player over a mob
2	Players Attacking Me	Whoever is hitting you now
3	Targets Already Hit or Aimed Hostile Targets	Stay on what you were killing (the default puts this first)
4	NPC and Monsters Attacking Me	Clear what's on you before pulling more
5	Hostile Unique NPC, Monster	Elites and bosses before trash
6	Aggressive Hostile NPC, Monster	Mobs that will aggro anyway
7	Hostile Quest NPC, Monster, Object	Quest targets
8	Hostile Common NPC, Monster	Everything else
9	Hostile Player Spirits	A Tab press on a Spiritmaster spirit is wasted
10	Player Spirits Attacking Me	Same reason

Some PvP players swap 2 and 3 so Tab never leaves the player they're bursting.

How skills pick targets (Battle > Controls)

Option	What it does	Pick
Pursue Targets with Skill Activation	Out of range, you run to the target	Off (every source)
Auto Target Upon Skill Use	With no target, a skill picks one	Sources disagree: on for open-world farming, off for bosses and PvP
Set the Auto Target when there is a Hit Target	What your skill hits becomes the target	On
Set Main Target on Left/Right-Click Attack	Clicking a target makes it the main one	On for your macro's mouse button
Camera Lock-On to Target	The camera follows your target	Personal. Many melee players leave it off for back attacks

Camera, display and sound

• Camera distance at max and field of view 100+, to see adds and markers behind you.
• Camera shake and motion blur off. Shake hides cast bars.
• Boss facing indicator on (Information Display > Combat), for positional classes.
• Teleport Effect Color: dark. The default flashes white on every teleport.
• Hide other players' damage numbers. Keep only your own. Less CPU load, clearer boss markers.
• Sound: music down, skill effects and voices up. Many bosses call out a big unmarked attack a second or two early. Hidden Cubes make a sound you can hear from far away with effects up.
• Auto-use consumables "only in combat" so they aren't spent while traveling.

Graphics and FPS

First find what's holding you back. Watch Task Manager or MSI Afterburner in a fight:

What you see	Cause	Change
GPU at 95 to 100%	Resolution and effects	Upscaling on Quality or Balanced, lower shadows and reflections
GPU at 50 to 60%, CPU maxed	Too many players to draw	Lower Player Density, Identical Player Appearance on, shorter character render distance

Setting	Value
Upscaling (DLSS / FSR)	Quality or Balanced (about 20 to 40% more FPS)
Shadows	Low or Medium
Reflections, water	Low
Effects	Medium (attack markers stay readable)
Player Density	Low in the Abyss and raids
Identical Player Appearance	On for big fights. The client says it "greatly improves performance in large-scale battles"
Player Particle Effect Display	Self Only, or Self and Party, at field bosses
View distance	Medium

Ping and your PC

When	Damage lost to high ping
August 2026 (KR)	about 50% at 200+ ms (Divium)
Since the late September patch	about 5 to 10% at most (Divium)

Kanon's later tests still found 150 to 200 ms more ping costing a lot of damage on fast classes, because ping eats Combat Speed. So it still matters most on fast attackers.

Class	Ping it wants
Assassin	under 50 ms
Gladiator	under 50 ms
Templar, Chanter, Ranger, Brawler	50 to 80 ms is fine
Sorcerer, Cleric	under 100 ms is fine
Spiritmaster	least affected: the spirits attack on their own

• Wired, not Wi-Fi. Packet loss is damage loss.
• Divium's PC advice: 32 GB RAM, a 6+ core CPU (Intel 13th gen or Ryzen 5000 and newer), Reflex and DLSS on.
• Paid ping boosters sponsor many videos, so we don't use their claims.

Sources

We wrote this guide from these creators' videos and pages and checked what we could against the game.

• FrozenCloud, Essential Aion 2 Settings You NEED To Change Right Now (Oct 9, 2026)
• DrybearGamers, STOP Playing AION 2 With the Default Settings — Fix These NOW! (Oct 1, 2026)
• FRESHY, Dramatically Increase Your FPS With These Optimized Settings in AION 2 | Ultimate FPS Guide (Oct 5, 2026)
• Divium Furor, Aion 2 Guide for ULTIMATE POWER (UGLY TRUTH) (Aug 16, 2026)
• Divium Furor, I Played Aion for 2000 Hours, so you don't have too... (Sep 25, 2026)
• Game8, best settings
• Mobalytics, best settings
• couga54, settings guide