Lineage II: So Cheap You Might Want to Give the Grind a Go!

[Signe]

A tenner at EB gives you 45 days of mind numbing, ear ringing, teeth grating grind.  FUN!

Lineage® II: The Chaotic Chronicle™ Epic Collection includes:
- Lineage® II: The Chaotic Chronicle
- Chronicle II: Age of Splendor
- Chronicle III: Rise of Darkness
- Chronicle IV: Scions of Destiny
- Chronicle V: Oath of Blood

• Chronicle 5 sees a dramatic step forward for Lineage® II with even more fantastic game-play opportunities for solo players and those new to the highly competitive world of Aden

• The Lineage® II Cinematic Collection – stunning movies depicting high adventure in the world of Aden

• Concept Art and Screenshot Gallery – beautiful art giving a glimpse of how characters, monsters, buildings and lands came to be

• Behind-the-Scenes Lineage® II Movies – see how Lineage® II came together to become one of the biggest online role-playing games ever!

• Chronicle 5: Oath of Blood Wallpapers – fresh from the very latest huge expansion

• 30 days of play included plus 15 bonus free days of game-play

[Yegolev]

If you say "chronicle" a lot, it starts to sound really funny.

[Hound]

"WAIT! there is more! Order now and we will include a set of 6 Ginzu steak knives and the entire Slim Whitman CD Collection with your order. Just call 1-800-URAFOOL. Operators are standing by""

[Trippy]

Can you solo reasonably well in Lineage II? Or is it pretty much a group-only game?

[Signe]

ChronicleChronicleChronicle 5 allegedly added solo content.  I don't know.  I was in the beta test but didn't buy the game.  I wanted to do the Guildy type PvP but it just seemed like it would take forever so I didn't bother.  Shadowbane gave me commitment issues.

[Hoax]

Solo'ing in the original L2 even at x10 exp gain on a private server was still painful as shit.

[Merusk]

Can you solo reasonably well in Lineage II? Or is it pretty much a group-only game?

The last guy in here who had any in-depth knowledge of the game said to just bot it.  That's what everyone else was doing, so I guess you can solo.


It's a shame this game sucked so bad, because I thought it was really good looking.

[Trippy]

Still for $10 I'm tempted to give it a try just to see what it's like.

[Nebu]

Still for $10 I'm tempted to give it a try just to see what it's like.

Buy a pair of $10 scissors and shove them in your ear.  Similar experience.

[rk47]

I played it up to Chronicle 1 and hit lvl 60 on two chars before I realized I really have no time to grind xp in a reasonable pace once I have to decide between farming materials for equipment or grinding it out with poor grade weapons. Money's hard to come by too, and by then bots + farmers + power levelers are rampant. My clan went the bot route and basically took turns botting the whole clan. I was just letting someone else pay for my sub and not really bothering to play unless they wanted to pvp or siege, and our main crafter char just sat down as the other 7 party member kill fozzle to get him XP.

When WoW came I decided to trade my char for WoW & 6 months sub with a clannie.
My advice? If you can stand grinding, go ahead. But you won't have a fair shot at hitting the upper tier PVP...it's just too much bot/farm/IGE up there to compete fairly.
The lowlevel PVE & Mid game is a joke and it's not really being improved on. They just give some freebie to speed you up to 40...and then it's back to the grind again.

  Have fun 

[Trippy]

I'm not interesting in playing the game long term. I just want to see what it's like. Normally I do that sort of thing via beta testing but I never did it for Lineage II when it was first being tested here in the US.

[Falconeer]

I played for 2 months (more) until last november.

The problem with Lineage is that there's nothing to do as a single player but grinding.

First: there's close to no loot at all. Equip is just bought or crafted or well so hardly looted that you definitely can't rely on drops. More, all available weapons and armours in the game are known and viewable on the website. So if that provide a carrot/stick cause you'll know what to long for (and the looks are so wonderful), on the other hand you'll know that, for example, until you gain 8 more level there's no way you will be able to wear a single different piece of armour. Quite disheartening.

Second: Dungeons are nice but there are no scripts, no quests, no story and no crawl. They are just rooms after rooms with fast respawn so you just camp one room.. forever. There are exceptions, but overall dungeons are a big wasted chance.

Third: Let's face it, there are no quests. I mean, there are some but they are excuses to make your eyes bleed or just walk (yes walk) from a part of the world to another. Not to mention the class change "quests". Nightmarish.

I wanted to love Lineage 2 and to a certain perverted degree I do. It has a great PvP system for example. How many games let you conquer and control castles and set tax rates over your fief's NPC vendor sales? Not to mention uploadable guild crests, sieges, tons of classes. Well it's a game with LOTS of good stuff and every chronicle adds great content, some of which definitely outside the box. Like the demonic sword Zariche (a random world drop that transforms you in an insta-bloodthirsty raid mob who can literally execute hundreds of players at once until it lasts) or the manor system where you harvest for seeds to sell to the Lord and such. Or the Olympiads, or the dusk/dawn competition and some nice and original guild competitions needed to get unique Guild houses. On top of that all the expansions are free and they are often more significant than some of the paid ones from western games.

No, the real problem with L2 is what is NOT in the game.

Bottom line: if you are in a guild that actively do PvP and sieges and stuff, than it's a GREAT game (and you still have to grind to level 40 at least.. and it's NOT a cakewalk).
If you are not in such a guild, you'll probably enjoy the first month and quit vomiting just after that.

[Falconeer]

I'll quote myself about my last experience in L2:

Out of masochism I recently started playing Lineage 2 with some of my rl friends.
We were looking for some evil PvP action and checked Shadowbane. Uh.. no.. my eyes... (did they downgraded the engine and the UI since 2002?)

So we derailed on L2 with the "excuse" of the new server.

Falconeer's short-range perspective on Lineage 2 in September 2006 - Chronicle 5 era:

The CONS:

- The grind is as bad as you think
- The grind is actually way badder than you think
- The grind is insane
- Quests are a joke
- The colour palette, except for player characters, is a little too medieval (green, brown, gray. That's it)
- The world could use some more points of interest. Or just some without the more.
- You move so slowly. Oh soooo slowly. And there are no mounts for players with a life. Although you could get one if you are a cultist of the Lineage 2 church and live your life along. To meet your friends or go to dungeons and so on you have to walk for hours or pay some VERY expensive (at least at lower levels) teleports. You are "invited" to explore the world in a first generation of mmorpg fashion. Actually I like that, but I am pretty sure no one else does.
- Point and click could be bearable, while targeting is an electronic nightmare, especially during raids or when mobs chase your healer.
- The interface is close to useless. Another joke.
- TO get your "final" class you have to level to 40 (forty). That will take you between 15 and 60 days. Before that you are a close to a generic dummy. Sword, dagger or cast. Not much more than that, no matter the 16 subclasses. That hurt replayabilty. Who in hell would reroll a char when you have to play for more than a month just to get to the first level of your true class? (and that's where the grind gets REALLY evil...)
- There's close to no loot. Mobs drop money and some crafting materials. Anything else is as rare as Magnolia-like frograin.
- Money are EVERYTHING. THey are actually more important than level to a certain degree. And that means BOTS and lots of ubertwinked players that you know bought money on eBay.
- Bots
- Farmers
- Bots
- Farmers
- Bots
- Bots
- Farmers
- FarmerBots
- more Bots
- more Bots
- ok stop Bots...

The PROS:

- It's PvP oriented, definitely. When you die you lose XP and CAN LOSE one of your item. Equipped too, uber super fabled epic too. There's no insurance here. And you can loot that stuff too, of course.
- The character visuals are still unbeaten in my opinion. Gorgeous. Little stiff, a bit robotic, but you'll get great screenshots Smiley
- The world, although bland and empty for the most part, sports some nice vistas and the whole thing really looks medieval, not fantasy. Cities, shops, buildings and everything it's not bland empty forest looks great. Score for me.
- Sieges look fun (too soon for me tho)
- 31 classes are the higher number in any mmorpg for all I know, and they fill their roles very well. Plus all the classes got some rebalancing after Chronicle 5 so now they "are supposed" to beat each other according to a Rock-Paper-Scissor mechanic. Has to be verified. Oh, you can't walk through players and mobs. They are all, mmh, very solid. Griefers love to corner you.
- Servers are always full, in a positive way. The world, actally all of them, feels alive. And I especially love the no-auction house policy. That's not user friendly but it's fun. You have to browse the market stalls and looks for the best deals. Again, UO nostalgia. VENDOR BUY!
- Clan structure has just been revamped. The Clan management is fascinating and the whole "politics" part of the game is apparently well served by the clan system, clan wars mechanics and new alliance rules.
- Fighting other guilds over a (unique) Guild Hall can't be boring.
- The interface is useless, as stated before, but elegant.
- The mechanic surrounding the "enchantment" of weapons and armours is EVIL to the core (everytime you try an enchantment your weapon could get stronger and gain a glow, or get broken and trashed), but addictive. It's like Russian Roulette in a videogame. Too bad people who buy eBay money screw this.
- That "old mean feeling" from preTrammel UO. You go out, you watch your shoulders, you get chased, you get ganked, you gank back.. you lose your uber Armor, you loot back a Super Staff of looting. All that eclosed in a "political setting" where you can wage war on opposing guilds, threaten them to give your mercenary support to their enemies on the next siege, exact tributes from nearby villages and things like that. Some of us love that.
- Franz, a new server, just started. We are there, and we get into this just for that. a "new world" with castles still to be taken and economy still to be screwed.

Bottom line:

This game requires friends. RL friends are even better.
If you manage to play with Teamspeak, chatting and joking while doing the grind part, then you can survive L2 to the point where things *can get* interesting. Another good tip is to use the phone. I recently discovered that I love to grind while I am on the phone. It's just like drawing mindlessly or simply dangling my slippers... it's so automatic and catatonic that it's a perfect subconscious activity. So whenever you pick up the phone, start L2 and grind. It works, really.

It helps the fact that about 6 "expansions" are out for this game. Every chronicle added lots of things and they are definitely there. Lots of "minigames" and other special mechanics introduced with every update (the Manor syste, although often exploited, is a very interesting and unique one) definitely add to the content side of Lineage 2. So maybe they are not so honest when they say "6 expansions", but those 6 chronicles could count easily as 3 EQ2 retail ones.

But that said, Lineage 2 is too grindy and too money driven (meaning too bot infested and eBay friendly) for being seriously considered as fun. It has "aspects" that are unique and very fun. I am just not sure that there's actually room to see those if you are not really into it with a bunch of friends to ease the pain.

EDIT: If you are not red (if you are not a PK) you can't lose items upon death anymore. Just the experience.

[Venkman]

A guy at work swears by L2 up and down. They don't let him out of the darkest corner of the computer department often.

This is his first MMO, so I can cut him a little slack, but even Vision-era EQ1 was a better paced experience with more to do.

I turned him on to CoX. It's a significant upgrade in leveling speed and in-combat fun, and that's saying something given the state of CoX

[Sairon]

I've heard it's possible to PL like crazy in L2. First of all you have the enchanted gear which makes truckloads of diffrence. Then there's über buffs which aren't lvl locked. Doesn't really earn the game any merits in the PvE apartment, but if you just want to skip that, there's possbilities if you have some friends already playing since a while back.

[WindiaN]

Even with buffbots the grind is pretty bad.

The huge upside is that if you are an upper level clan (which I was) the game is amazing. Castle sieges are incredibly fun and somehow L2 manages to run smoothly despite people hundreds of people, something WoW still can't do. It's pretty intense leading a couple hundred people over vent attacking a castle defended by hundreds of other players. There are also huge pvp fights that break out between large alliances sometimes after sieges sometimes randomly that can last awhile and take a lot of coordination. Also, since you can kill anybody you want to as long as they are outside of town you can legitimately lock-down XP spots from other players and gold farmers. My guild ran a perma-red with infinite karma and we'd kill anybody we didn't like and sweep popular hunting spots for farmers. Once you take the castles (which costs a shitload of money) you can raise and lower taxes on the towns (we had all the castles so we maxed out every tax and pulled in millions of adena every week) along with a bunch of other good shit that makes owning a castle a huge bonus.

The high taxes combined with repeatedly killing farmers literally thousands of times earned our server a footnote on an ebay auction selling adena: "The price of adena on gustin is $10 dollars higher due to EA (my guild) pigs." I haven't seen another game where a group of organized people can have a large effect on the machine that is gold farming. The boss of a Chinese farming crew offered us something like $500 a week to let them farm in peace.

The only problem is, getting into that organized group can take months if you don't know anybody, and that should be enough not to buy the game.

[HaemishM]

I'm not interesting in playing the game long term. I just want to see what it's like. Normally I do that sort of thing via beta testing but I never did it for Lineage II when it was first being tested here in the US.

It's like all those other Korean grind games with pretty graphics. Hit auto attack, hit your 1 special skill that you get for the first 10 levels (20 if you're a dwarf), watch screen slack-jawed and drooling until monster is dead, move to the next one. OVER and OVER and OVER again until your eyes bleed.

And that's just the first 5 levels.

[damijin]

Hey it's Windian! And he got my bragging about how awesome EA was out of the way, so I guess I can skip that!

Here's the skinny, if you don't have much time, and you do have much money, and you think end-game L2 might be your cup of tea. Just buy a character, buy some adena, and pimp yourself out.

Yes, the early game is a total bore, but the end game with politics, sieges, EPIC raids (the boss monsters are insane and the top ones can require hundreds of players to kill), and just every day PvP is just awesome.

You could bot yourself a character, but the time invested in learning the character and chances of being banned and all that crap really amount to it not being worth it if you don't know what you're doing. It took about 2 months for my friends to bot an entire 9 man party of perfect DDs to *almost* max level. They got banned about a day before hitting 78. You see, the politics of the game are so much a factor that if you run a bot party, chances are pretty good that one of the top guilds will see you, think you are their enemy and trying to level up support characters, and report the shit out of you.

On my server (and most servers), L2 is an awesome struggle at end game. There isn't much one clan domination like back in the old days. Even if you can't get into the top guild of the server, theres a good chance that you'll still be able to make it into a guild which owns a castle or clan hall, or are very closely allied with a guild who does. Even though I quit L2 a looooong time ago, I still come back every 2 weeks to fight over those castles. It's just one of the most fun things I've ever done in an MMORPG.

So anyway, if you think you might want to purchase a character for Lineage here are some tips:

Get a character that's close to level 76, I wouldn't go much lower than 74 in level. If you're 76 you'll be able to take part in what's called the "Subclass quest". When you subclass you'll get to pick an entirely new class for the same character and that class will start off at level 40. It's like having an alt built into your character. It's pretty neat too since you can go dagger class on a dwarf, or archer class on an orc which you normally can't do.

So once you subclass you can be whatever you originally wanted to be, regardless of whatever level 76 character class you bought on the cheap. Now that you're what you want to be you can play that class very casually whenever you have the chance to, and you'll probably have no problem getting into at least a decent clan even though you're an ebaying scumbag who no one likes. Most clans would rather have more members to fight an ongoing war, than really squabble about ethics.

You're boned if you buy a character with a bad reputation though. I've seen that a hundred times, and even if you're nothing like the idiot who sold you the account... people are still going to hate you and PK you all the time.

It truly is a fun game when you get into the community with all of the drama and "Oh my god did you hear so-and-so left enemy clan x? Yeah I heard the leader gave that +16 sword of orc smashing to his 40 year old girlfriend that lives 3000 miles away instead of upgrading his highest level orc smasher, rofl!". The castle sieges are something that I've never quite been able to experience in any other games, and the level of intensity that the players show makes it one of my favorite games ever. Give it a try if you can get past the f13 social stigma of "LAWL KOREANS ITS A GRIND, I'D RATHER DO *SOME EXAGGERATED DISPLAY OF SELF MUTILATION* THAN PLAY THAT."


[EDIT FOR PROTIP: If you for some whatever reason actually read this and said to yourself "Yes, I will do that!", then make sure to buy another game or get a free trial or something on the same PlayNC account that you purchased right after you bought it. Adding an extra CD key to the account will prevent the person who sold it to you from recalling their account after you've paid them.]

[CadetUmfer]

Hmm...if I didn't try it when it was free and with 7x XP on a private server... :mrgreen:

[Cheddar]

I am resubbing in 5... 4... 3... 2...


1.

[Cheddar]

I tried downloading a new copy from D2D, and now have an option on my account to DL L2 (besides the original option, which I paid for).  It does not work. 

I want my money back.





NM, the download option link IS broke... hrmph.  May wanna fix that one, NCSoft.

Disregard.  The interface has changed, is all.  The download option is not in the second part, like other NCSoft games... it is under the first block of account management.  Oopsy!

Aaaaaaand my account is broke.  I bought the game via serial code ages ago, but it wants a serial code before I DL.  Wonderful way to waste 15 dollars :) 

Come on Lum, I know you are not billing, but shit.  Why would you do this to one of your shills?


edit.  Hysterics broken by reality.  HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO IMPULSE GAME WITH THIS STRESS?  Resigned.

[damijin]

right so...

[Lum]

Come on Lum, I know you are not billing, but shit.

You're right, I'm not (nor do I have anything at all to do with L2). I'd recommend calling billing support if you got double-billed.

[Cheddar]

Come on Lum, I know you are not billing, but shit.

You're right, I'm not (nor do I have anything at all to do with L2). I'd recommend calling billing support if you got double-billed.

I still blame you. 

[Cheddar]

I am actually looking forward to this.  Anyone else want to join me?

[Rasix]

I am actually looking forward to this.  Anyone else want to join me?

God, if my short amount of time playing Grando Espada has taught me anything..

I'd rather scour my testicles with steel wool and then dip them in bleach, lemon juice, and hydrogen peroxide in rapid succession.

And Grando Espada has 3 characters and fluffy costumes.  That doesn't disguise the complete linearity and soul crushing grind of this type of game.

You need less impulse and more game.   

[Cheddar]

You need less impulse and more game.   

I have not played an MMO in months;  4 months, I think?  Due to RL I have had 0 time.  Looks like I will have some spare time here shortly.

I enjoyed L2 before and hope to find a few people to play with!  I am ever the optimist.

[damijin]

Do you already have a character on some server Cheddar?

[Cheddar]

Do you already have a character on some server Cheddar?

Yes, but I think I am gonna start with a fresh character.

[DataGod]

I played L2 for about 1 week aftyer release, click2move = no can do

[damijin]

Do you already have a character on some server Cheddar?

Yes, but I think I am gonna start with a fresh character.

As bored as I am waiting for some of the 2007 games to come out, I don't think I'm going to start a new character in L2 until the Chaotic Throne starts. That's when they're introducing the new race of winged...elf... people.

That's probably going to be 6 months away or more though :/

[Hoax]

Seriously play the same crappy game for free, play Rappelz or one of the other f2p clones.

[Signe]

I think most people who play L2, probably play for the large scale GvG wars that you have to grind your butt off to reach.  If you decide to play one of the Asian PvP games, be careful.  Many of them use dangerous amounts of pastel colours.  I refer to them as Massive Multiplayer Online Roll Playing Baby Showers.  They could drive you insane.

[Nebu]

I think most people who play L2, probably play for the large scale GvG wars that you have to grind your butt off to reach.  If you decide to play one of the Asian PvP games, be careful.  Many of them use dangerous amounts of pastel colours.  I refer to them as Massive Multiplayer Online Roll Playing Baby Showers.  They could drive you insane.

They make me feel like every day is Easter in Miami.

[damijin]

Seriously play the same crappy game for free, play Rappelz or one of the other f2p clones.

With L2 you're really paying for the community. You could play a free grind mmo, or you could just play an L2 private server, but nothing really compares to the pay to play community. People want those items so bad, and want those castles with such intensity... it just makes the whole game better when everyone is taking it way too seriously.

Also, 'Interlude' (new update) Public Test Server starts next Friday. They'll be boosting everyones levels probably and it'll be a few weeks of mostly all-out-brawl PvP, can't wait for that.