OK, I've played many MMOGs and I've found my way over here. The game is gorgeous and seems pretty solid. I do however have some questions that you all can hopefully assist me with.
1. Class Types - I'm going through all of the skills to see what I like. I'll tell you what I typically like to play and perhaps there will be some suggestions: in WOW I liked the druid, hunter and rogue - druid because of shapeshifting and variety in play, the rogue for dualing and huge dmg, and the hunter for pets (I enjoy taming new pets - finding unique pets no one had) and of course damage. Im curious about the summoner type classes but nothing tells you exactly what they summon.... very strange. Also, one of the movies seems to show a dark-clad figure with some strange 4-legged pet/summon. I think she was sword wielding as well- any idea what that would be (didn't seem to be wolf or hatchling)
2. Bots/Farmers - I see many chars with names like SKJEW77S and such in the newbie towns. I assume these are bots or something because (like badly programmed bots would) they continuously attack the guards. My question is this - sometimes when the guard whacks them, they drop loot - is this fair game for me to pick up? seems like I could make some quick cash this way... just checking as I have no idea what ettiquette provides for - the game is touted as hardcore so I assume I can loot this junk with impunity.
3. Race/Class combos and balance - Of course its always best to play what you like, but I also don't want to play something that is extremely tough or a combo that has a tremendous disadvantage. Is there a de-facto list of class combos that are well-known to be more difficult/easy?
4. Game Guide - is the Prima guide any good? since its Chron 4 now I wonder if its worth picking up? I bought this game as a 2 month game card so it had no documentation so I'm trying to learn as much as I can.
5. Quests and Questgivers - will they always have a yellow ! above their head or do I need to speak to every NPC to find what I need?
6. GUI mods/other tools? WOW and EQ had some customization with regards to the GUI - is there stuff like that for L2? What's legal/not permitted? I'm not a hacker or interested in hacking - I just have no idea whats out there and what is not cool so I know whether I'm getting embroiled in any issues with other players etc.
The bots are actually programmed to suicide on the guards. I don't know if you know this already, but you lose xp when you die. They are doing this, to stay in level range of a certain profitable quest, or mobs that drop good stuff.
The prima guide is supposedly good for looking up basic things, but there's no way of knowing what has changed since it was released. You can get the info you need from this site or fan sites. If you wanr to know something specific, just ask your questions in this forum. People here are usually very helpful :)
Sorry GUI = Graphical User Interface - so the interface. Sorry - I'm a tech so I forget not to use computer jargon :D
I didn't know about the suicide bots - is it cool to loot their 'leavins'? I mean I did it on a lvl 1 char and sold the stuff and it seemed like I got some pretty good cash.
Yep, it is very much ok to loot droppings from bots / those committing suicide on the guards. Actually alot of people make their adena by training bots. (making a pile of mobs run after them, then they drop them on bots who take the aggro and get killed by being overwhelmed by them). Warning they do this to regular people as well, so always keep your eye open.
Scamming/everything else is pretty much ok in this game. That being said, never drop/give anything to anyone that you don't want to lose. There are scams where people say they will enchant your weapon for you if you give it to them. They may enchant the weapon, but you will never see it again. If you message the GM's on this they will just say its part of the game.
As far as pets are concerned. There are classes with summons, if you want a summon. However there are a few animals you can take as pets. Main ones being Wolves and Hatchlings/Striders. A few weeks ago some new animals were added to the game, which you can take as pets, and they are available to give small heals.
As far as the prima guide is concerned. Not worth the paper its written on. It is way out of date. Everytime a new chronical comes out (we are at 4 now) things change dramatically in the game, from class strengths, weapons/armour, mobs that drop certian things, even how the mobs attack, their power, if they are aggro, etc. read as much as you can in the forums, in the Library/New Player guide, and on fan sites, such as Stratics. If in doubt, ask in the forums.
As for classes, all classes have different challenges. Do you want to solo, or be a party type player? Do you like doing massive damage, but are easy to kill, or do you want to be a meat shield, and slowly kill off your targets? If you want to raise pets, the meat shield char is good, as some of them have a skill called Hate, which draws the aggro to the char and away from your pet, keeping it safer.
Changes to the GUI are extremely limited. Pretty much WYSIWYG.
As for quests, they have made a few changes that makes the yellow marks appear above the NPC's head if that quest is in your lvl range, etc. But I have found some useful quests by asking NPC's that had no yellow marks above their head. Best advice, check the quest guides, etc. and read the forums. You will see alot of quests mentioned that just aren't worth the effort, and some that are worth doing. If your a glutton for punishment like I am, then you will probably try them all, and be ticked about 80% of the time from what you recieve.
DE healer - the nuker lover, with vr (heals melee as u deal dmg)
EE healer- PvP healer uber fast casts, no bufffs
bish healer-power healer, heal anything with huge heals
proph-buff [censored]
WC-buff whole party at once, some offensive skills
nukers
spellsinger-low dmg high cast
sorc -medium-medium
SH high dmg low cast
melee DD
ELF any class - speed (atk speed too)over dmg
DE- damage over HP
orc- hp and dmg per hit over speed
human middle of the run
dagger... its a dagger chance to miss on specials
archer
tanks
support
Sws- gives 2 min defensive and crit buffs to party stack with healers
BD- gives 2 min offensive buffs, stacks with healers
summoners
DE-debuff mobs
warlock-buff pt for dmg
ES-buff pt for mp regen and heal cure debuffs
late lvl parties =
buffer (proph or WC), healer, sws, BD, sleeper (a nuker sorc or sps best with aoe sleep), summoner, and DD's up to 9 people if u want
Great info - I just found the character that I saw in that movie - at lvl 40 Dark Avengers get "Summon Dark Panther" :
Summons a Dark Panther capable of agile attacks. When summoning it, 1 Crystal: C Grade will be consumed. Afterwards, 1 additional crystal will be consumed at a regular interval for 4 times. 15% of acquired Exp will also be consumed.
That's probably what I saw - looks pretty nice - though I need to research DAs to see if that's my thing.
Thanks for all of the info - looking forward to it!
Also one last thing - do the races have natural animosity towards each other? I.E. will I be killed by guards of any city for getting too close?
druid because of shapeshifting and variety in play
Imxo, a class with most wariety in play is Ork Mystic (War Cryer and Owerlord). Owerlord is often refered as a hard to play class. Both WC and OL have good phisical abilities and magical abilities (damage dealing, debuffing/cursing, buffing/blessing). WC are good at solo, good at smal and large parties, especialy at later lvls when they get their buffs. Main distinction between OL and WC is that OL has everything at larger scale: ally wide buffs, compared to party buffs, area effect curses and poisons, compeared to single target dot's of WC.
The class with some black sumon you described is probably Dark Avanger, human tank they have a summon Dark Panter.
To learn more about sumoners and pets try these for sumons and pets (l2pets.com) pets mostly (http://www.l2danceswithwolves.com/) .
2.Bots are illegal so you can take their loot without any pity for them. Many players actualy pull large numbers of mobs to kill bots, to pick up thier loot. But returing gear to players is considered a "good thing to do" by majority of players.
3.Dwarfs are hard to level, and althought they generaly give more adena, you dont have to play a dwarf to get yourcelf enoughf adena. The means of profit awalable to everyone are manor, some quests, playing market, crafting (craftshops in big towns or just a friendly dwarf). Also Ol are kind of hard to find groups outside of ther clan and friends (as many Ol claim it's party because not everyoner understans their class and what they are good at). But allmost all the clases are good in right settings.
4. There isnt a oficial guide, and prima guide is largely outdated. For quest information and guides on many aspects of the game you can look here (lineage2.stratic.com) Also you can ask on the forums here, many players are realy helpfull.
5. All the quest starting NPCs have a yelow ! above their heads when you are in the apropriet lvl range for those quests.
6. The only means you are alowed to change anything in your's game are options in game. Any modifications of the game client are against the EULA and can get banned those who use them.
As for the movie, it was a pretty fast segment, but am pretty sure that is a Dark Avengers summon, which is a Dark Panther. They one thing that I never did like from that clip. Why is it heavily based on BSOE'ing everywhere. All you really see is BSOE, next clip BSOE. No action at all, yet, bam!!! another BSOE.
Oh and no animosity from any race. Then again no saftey from any race either, including your own. As soon as you leave town, you can pretty much be killed by anyone anywhere. Also not sure if you've entered any dungeons yet, but L2 has no instanced places. It is nothing new for a person/party to come kill you while your in the middle of killing a raid boss, etc. Not to scare you, just making you aware. ALWAYS look behind!!!
having played a druid and hunter in Wow a little while myself (got very old very fast, that game..) and comparing a bit, i would say if your interested in pets in general go for a class that has a summon rather than doing a pet quest, 'pets' in L2 cannot be resummonned after they die if you fail to stand them back up within the time limit, or in other words res them, if you lose it this way your pet and everything you had the pet carrying is gone forever. summons can be worked the same as Wow hunter pets almost exactly, although they do cost a bit more in general as does everything else in this game in comparison.
as for bots, killing and/or looting bots generally recieves praise from your peers (this excludes other bots and farmers because thier either unaware of you or cant talk to you very well) i know at least where i played in Wow you would be blacklisted for rolling on an item your class couldnt use. for the most part, thats nonexistant in L2 at least on my server :P nothing binds, so if someone wants it you can easily sell or tell them to bug off without much consequence.
generally known as easiest classes to play are nukers, archers and summoners... of course everyone has thier favorites and will argue with me on that point :P i personally find healing and tanking easiest and most to my liking, but those are far too boring for most players i hear.
never had a prima guide, fan sites ftw
check the Adventure Guide in town for quests around your level, thier all listed there. not all quests will have the yellow mark, although most will.
as was already mentioned... there isnt much you can do to tweak your interface ingame without the use of a 3rd party program, which i would not advise for reasons stated in the EULA
keep asking questions! we're full of answers for you...