AION 2 Patch Notes 2 September 2026: Domination

The AION 2 patch notes from Wednesday, 2 September 2026, kick off the first real open-world faction war: Spacetime Rift: Domination, a battle for thirty strongholds in Verteron and Altgard. That wasn’t the end of it, though. On Thursday, 3 September, and Friday, 4 September, two more rounds of emergency maintenance followed, rewriting a number of Wednesday’s values and bringing balance changes for six classes. Here is the full overview of all three updates.

We’re talking about AION 2 from NCSOFT, not the original AION from 2009. These notes apply to the Korean version of the game. The global version launches in early access on 30 September 2026, so you won’t see this content on Western servers until after their release.

The 2–4 September 2026 patches at a glance

• Spacetime Rift: Domination: a faction war over strongholds, Monday / Thursday / Saturday at 20:00 and 23:00, 25 minutes per battle.
• Entry from Lv. 50 only, with item level 4,500, Combat Power 500.0k and the achievement for clearing all strongholds in both territories.
• 30 strongholds: fifteen in Verteron, fifteen in Altgard, five each in three groups. One group opens at random.
• Watcher Kaira in the Abyss now has a 100% spawn chance and appears every four hours, counted from 1:00.
• Templar and Chanter got a damage recalculation on Wednesday that largely undoes the changes from 26 August.
• The 3 September hotfix shortened boss fights in the Abyss and cut the HP of dimensional cores by 20 to 30%.
• The 4 September hotfix brought class care for six classes: Templar, Assassin, Spiritmaster, Ranger, Chanter and Cleric. The Cleric’s Bolt can now be cast while moving and got +20% PvE damage.
• The same hotfix changed the number of Domination participants from 60–200 to 25–500 per side.

The order matters: the Wednesday notes are a regular update, while both maintenance windows after it were unscheduled and overwrite some of its numbers. Wherever that happened, it’s noted next to the value in question.

Spacetime Rift: Domination, a faction war over strongholds

Domination was announced back on 17 June 2026, and nothing concrete came out about it after that. Now it has a schedule, rules and a map. The idea is simple: each race splits into an attacking and a defending side, and the fight is over whether the attackers capture most of the strongholds in the defenders’ territory. The strongholds you currently clear solo or in a small party become the target of a battle with up to five hundred people per side.

It takes place in the two starting territories of both factions: Verteron on the Elyos side and Altgard on the Asmodian side. Attack and defense alternate weekly: in the first week the Elyos defend in Verteron, in the second week the Asmodians defend in Altgard.

When Domination runs

Parameter	Value
Days	Monday, Thursday, Saturday
Times	20:00 and 23:00
Battle length	25 minutes
Entry window	10 minutes while the portal is open
Player count	minimum 25, maximum 500 per side (4 September hotfix; the Wednesday notes said 60 to 200)

The Spacetime Rift portal opens, the battle itself starts after five minutes of preparation, and it runs for 25 minutes. During Domination you can’t use Expeditions, Transcendence or Sanctums; the game won’t let you into any other instanced content.

Who actually gets in

This isn’t a mass event with a queue. It’s endgame content with a gear check at the door, and you have to meet all four requirements at once:

• character level 50 or higher,
• item level 4,500 or higher,
• Combat Power 500.0k or higher,
• the achievements Verteron Stronghold Sweep VI and Altgard Stronghold Sweep VI, meaning every stronghold in both territories cleared.

The last requirement is the toughest. It doesn’t mean a handful of completed fortified points, but a full run through both starting regions.

How the battle works

Once the preparation phase ends, S-PVP mode switches on automatically. Only characters in this mode can fight each other; field monsters, NPCs and players in normal mode can’t be attacked. Watch out for the field guards, though: they can attack a character in S-PVP. In the settings you can turn on unified nameplates and appearance so it’s easier to tell people apart in the crowd.

Five strongholds in the defending side’s territory form one group, and each time the event starts, one of the three groups opens at random. A stronghold falls when you destroy all three monoliths in and around it. The attackers win if they capture three or more of the five; the defenders win if they still hold the majority when time runs out.

You can leave the battle with a button and return through the UI after a while. If you die and resurrect on your home server, or return to it after a disconnect, your participation is held for a short time; once that time runs out, the system automatically removes you from the event.

Rewards, Event Keys and a new Kisk

You earn contribution for destroying monoliths, killing stronghold guards and killing players of the enemy faction. Only those who pass the minimum contribution threshold get a reward, though, and it’s paid out based on the contribution ranking within your class. So you’re not competing with the whole zone, just with other players of your own class.

Participation is capped by a currency called Event Key: three are refilled automatically every week, and one is deducted the moment you receive a reward. There are six battles a week, but you get paid for three at most. You sign up through a UI notification, and the [Participate] button is only active while you’re standing in the defending side’s territory.

There’s also a special Domination-only Kisk, available from the General Goods Merchant or Breeze Trading Company. Anyone can register with it regardless of party or legion, and it holds more people than a legion Kisk. Only the attacking side can place it during the battle.

One warning is easy to miss: kills inside Domination don’t count toward open-world achievements or the counters of the Spacetime Rift seasonal mission. If you’re working on those missions, do them outside the event.

All 30 strongholds by rotation group

The English names come from the game client, not from our own translation, so this is exactly how you’ll see them in-game.

Group	Verteron (Elyos defend)	Altgard (Asmodians defend)
A	Ugaros Marauder Campsite, Miros Post, Poacher’s Base, Cohta Outpost, Deserter Encampment	Graverobber Den, Corrupted Forester Ruins, Blades Temporary Outpost, Sanctum Outskirts Watch, Logger’s Rest Ruins
B	Mantasch Patrol Base, Sehna Outpost, Sabga Balaur Campsite, Maktashan Outpost, Romlon’s Hideout	Rubek Thieves’ Occupied Territory, Forest Marauder Campsite, Legion Base Ruins, Flauke Legion Outpost, Latrima Outpost
C	Gargos Thieves Campsite, Canyon Thieves Den, Forest Shade Execution Site, Renegade Hideout, Plateau Hill Base	Barahta Extermination Unit Outpost, Andsha Forward Base, Amurahta Surveillance Base, Detlef Thieves Camp, Granach’s Hideout

Abyss: you can now schedule Watcher Kaira

The most practical change outside Domination concerns the Abyss. The boss Watcher Kaira in the lower layer of Reshanta used to have a 20% spawn chance. Now it’s 100%, and it appears every four hours. The spawn location is still random, and there’s no difference in probability between the individual spots.

The original notes counted the cycle from midnight; the 4 September hotfix shifted it, and it’s now counted from 1:00. In practice, a hunt that relied on luck becomes an entry in your calendar. Expect Abyss traffic to move to those fixed times.

3 September hotfix: boss fights get shorter

The Wednesday notes said boss and dimensional core stats were “once again significantly increased” and gave no numbers. By the very next day, though, NCSOFT had backed off. The emergency maintenance on Thursday, 3 September, brought the following:

• The distance at which a boss resets combat was greatly extended: the fight holds even when the boss moves much farther than before.
• Bosses move smoothly even when surrounded by other characters.
• After ten minutes of combat, the boss starts taking increased damage.
• Anyone who contributed to killing an artifact or boss receives a contribution reward based on their class ranking, at the moment of the kill, for all characters on the same map.
• Dimensional cores in the lower layer have 30% less HP, and 20% less in the middle layer.

Read it for what it is: the Wednesday increase overshot, and on Thursday it was being pulled back. This is the fourth week in a row that the Abyss has been tuned without published values.

Class changes from Wednesday, 2 September: half of the August balance is reverted

The 26 August update was the biggest change to the combat system since the game’s release. The Wednesday patch takes a large part of its numbers back. Two days later another balance pass arrived; you’ll find it below in the class care section.

Templar

NCSOFT says it wants to offset the efficiency loss when chaining through Vicious Strike and redistribute damage so that pressing more skills pays off.

Skill	Change
Vicious Strike, Decisive Strike, Desperate Strike, Threatening Blow	PvE damage +30%; cooldown reduction for Punishment at spec. 4 from 1 s to 2 s
Judgment	PvE damage +15%
Punishment	PvE damage +20%
Pummel	PvE damage −10%
Punishing Strike	PvE damage −20%

Compare that with last week: Pummel and Punishing Strike got +30% back then and are now going down. Judgment lost 10% and now gains 15%. Threatening Blow lost 35% and now gets 30% back. The redistribution reversed direction within seven days, so if you play Templar, assume your rotation hasn’t settled yet.

Chanter

This change is more interesting, because it alters how the skill itself works.

Skill	Change
Spinning Strike	becomes a ranged area skill with a 20 m range; PvE damage +50%; cooldown 15 s ▶ 30 s; mana 100 ▶ 250; groggy gauge damage 10 ▶ 15
Incandescent Blow, Bursting Blow	PvE damage +50%
Impactful Crush	cooldown 10 s ▶ 15 s

Three of the four numbers on Spinning Strike are exact reversals of the 26 August changes, when the cooldown went from 30 s to 15 s, mana from 250 to 100 and groggy damage from 15 to 10. All of it is back, including the cooldown of Impactful Crush. What’s genuinely new is the 20-meter range and +50% damage. For Chanter, this means you’re no longer forced into melee in dungeons, but you lose the cheap, spammable version of the skill.

Gladiator

A bug is fixed where a passive effect didn’t work if the character held a Stigma effect below a certain level:

• Protection Armor: didn’t work with the Armor of Balance buff below level 15,
• Experienced Counterstrike: didn’t work with the Wave Armor buff below level 10,
• Murderous Burst: didn’t work with the Wave Armor buff below level 15.

If you’re a Gladiator and upgraded those buffs later, the passive looked active in the UI while adding nothing.

Class care on 4 September: balance for six classes outside the regular patch

The Wednesday notes announced changes for four classes “for next week”. In the end they didn’t even wait until Friday. NCSOFT pushed them out in an emergency maintenance on 4 September from 04:30 to 06:00 Korean time and added Ranger on top. The reason was stated openly: a new sanctum, Snowfield of Lament, is scheduled for Wednesday, 9 September, and the publisher didn’t want to release new content and a balance pass on the same day.

The actual notes are more detailed than the announcement and differ from it on several points.

Cleric: Bolt can finally be cast on the move

Skill	Change
Bolt	usable while moving by default; specialization 2 no longer grants mobility but +300 accuracy; PvE damage +20%
Prayer of Amplification	base cooldown 90 s ▶ 60 s; specialization 1 grants +20% PvE damage amplification and +10% in PvP instead of a 30 s cooldown reduction; specialization 5 changes these values to +10% amplification of all elemental damage

Until now, Bolt was a skill you had to stop for. Mobility by default turns it into something you can fire continuously, and +20% PvE damage is the biggest single boost Cleric has received this year. You pay for it with a specialization, though: the slot that used to unlock mobility now gives accuracy. Prayer of Amplification shifts from cooldown savings to permanent damage amplification, and its base cooldown drops by a third, so you can keep it up almost all the time.

Templar: the biggest rewrite of them all

Skill	Change
Shield Smite	usable while moving, improved animation
Vicious Strike, Decisive Strike, Desperate Strike, Threatening Blow	specialization 4 now reduces the cooldown of Warding Strike by 2 s instead of Punishment; PvE damage +20%
Pummel, Punishing Strike	specialization 4 reduces the cooldown of Punishment by 1 s on a Punishing Strike hit instead of Warding Strike; PvP damage −7%
Judgment	PvE damage +5%, PvP −7%; fixed not triggering during invulnerability
Punishment	the Executor buff lasts 20 s instead of 10 s; PvE damage −10%
Warding Strike	cooldown 25 s ▶ 30 s

For Templar, this is the third recalculation of the numbers in ten days. The cooldown reduction swapped between two skills in both directions, so the rotation you set up on Wednesday no longer works on Friday.

Assassin, Spiritmaster, Ranger and Chanter

Class	Change
Assassin	Illusive Clone: base cooldown 120 s ▶ 90 s; specialization 4 grants a 50% chance of additional damage on critical hits for the duration instead of a cooldown reduction. Ambush Stance: fixed the passive during invulnerability
Spiritmaster	Elemental Fusion: PvE damage +20%. Flame Blessing: specialization 5 raises damage against targets immune to immobilization from 50 to 100%
Ranger	Deadshot: specialization 5 raises additional damage on hit from 30 to 50%
Chanter	Onslaught: fixed the non-working cooldown reduction of Spinning Strike for specializations 3 and 4. Dark Crush: fixed not triggering during invulnerability

For both outages NCSOFT handed out the same compensation: a bound Deva’s Special Supply Box with three life crystals, two resurrection stones, three combat scrolls and two small Odd Energies.

Other changes and fixes

• The seasonal missions Pride of the Elyos / Asmodian Army and With the White / Black Banner Flying are merged into one. The counter goes up for killing an enemy anywhere in Verteron, Altgard, Eltnen or Morheim, but kills inside Domination don’t count.
• Maximum stack sizes are increased for bound materials (Amplify Stone Fragment, Sync Stone Fragment, Transfer Stone Fragment, Arcana fusion crystals, Unstable Stigma Shard). The new limit only takes effect after you use the inventory sort function.
• The sell price of Mysterious Crystal, Harmonious Crystal and Noble Crystal at the General Goods Merchant is corrected to 5,000 Kinah.
• Dismounting from a pet while falling now blocks you from using skills, just like any other fall.
• Fixed the mismatch between animation and hit timing for the boss Atiel in the Expedition Consumed Deus Research Base and in the Transcendence Deus Research Base.
• A failed Abyss entry due to full capacity now shows a system message.
• Combat and flying no longer block entry to Dimensional Invasion; in the mobile client this will only be fixed on 9 September.
• If the bulk-sell bug from 26 August used up a recovery in [Item Recovery] > [Items Sold to NPC Shop], your recovery count is reset.

What applies to the global version

Nothing yet, and that’s an important distinction. All three updates concern the Korean server, which has been running since 19 November 2025 and is months ahead in content. The Taiwanese server got the same changes, just with its own maintenance times. The global version launches in early access on 30 September 2026 with the full free-to-play launch on 5 October 2026, so Domination and this balance pass will only reach Western servers after release, and NCSOFT may still adjust them before then.

The week of 2–4 September is also a good example of how quickly the numbers change. Within three days, Templar got two different adjustments to the same skills, the Abyss was first buffed and then nerfed, and the participant counts for the new faction event shifted from a range of 60–200 to 25–500. If you’re building around numbers today, expect that they may not hold a week from now.

There is something to take away, though: NCSOFT has clearly shown its direction. It removed two achievements for killing players in the open world and instead built large scheduled content with a fixed timetable. The open world is shifting from random encounters to organized battles, and it’s worth keeping that in mind when you pick a class and read the roadmap.

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FAQ

The source is NCSOFT’s official update notes from 2 September 2026 for the Korean version of AION 2. The English skill names are matched to the Korean originals via skill codes in the game data. Our PDF (in Czech) contains a full translation of the entire notes, including the table of all thirty strongholds. Information verified as of 4 September 2026; you’ll find more update overviews and the rest of our guides in the AION 2 guide.