It's not hard to do a bit of research, please, look at the
articles section,
faq, and beta reports from
Irisviel/
Zyuu/
Shillene/
New Satan, all of those state that Aion is not a grinder, but a beautiful game where you can
level up just by doing quests (which amazingly aren't as dumb as in most of the games, they have cut scenes and great story under them)
About the combat, how is it clunky? Have you watched
CBT2 videos? Check them out, It was compared to WoW's combat by many people.
Also, check out
this developer interview series