what ju00 meant was that all LE chars are basically female. You have the real girls, and then you have the "girly men". When either of them is hit, it sounds quite .... feminine.
Here's an honest answer to your question.
Light Elf --> Elven Elder - They are best at defensive type buffs. Shield, resist buffs, HP regen, etc... really a melee buffer.
Dark Elf --> Shillien Elder - Offensive buffs. Increase damage for both fighters and mages, some defensive buffs... good for either melee or mages.
Both LE and DE get a skill called recharge which restores some of the target player's Mana Pool.
My opinion is to go with the dark elf to Shillien Elder. They are more versatile because they increase the damage of mages significantly and provide a balance of defensive and offensive buffs for fighters.
Yeah and for some weird reason elven elders aren't getting greater group heal or purify, especially purify is something you can't live without at higher lvls.
Elven Elders have a very limited selection of offensive buffs (Holy Weapon, Windwalk, Might 3), and they lack a key cure spell (ability to remove certain status effects), which can basically only be covered if there's another healer (bishop, shillien elder) in your group.
The EE is a good class, but most don't appreciate it (because it doesn't have flashy offensive buffs). If you want to raise an EE, you will need a good clan to group you, or you'll have to make lots of friends early on.
On the looks thing - I like joking about it too, but male elves actually look pretty good by the standards of an anime fan (bishounen). They just get some very awkward armour, but of course dark elves and both male humans have them beat at wearing funny clothes. Check the screenshot section for "site navigation: fashion tool" or something like that if you want to have a look at what higher-level armours look like on them.
The SE is always wanted in groups for their nice offensive buffs, their heals, their purify and their recharge. They don't shine in PvP quite the way an EE or a bishop does of course.
I'd go SE, they are just better, imo. Mages love them (Empower, recharge), Melees do too (VR, Focus, etc). If people can choose between EE or SE in group, the SE will get it most, if not all of the time.
Elven Elder is a good defensive class, but seriously need some NC attention :(
Elven Elders are awesome. If you are in a PvP clan they are priceless. Also they are awesome in archer parties when you got a Prophet buffing. They are also extremely useful for shield buffs, which are disgustingly underrated but understandable since not many people use tanks or shield weilding classes. Pretty much if you are about PvE go SE, if you are about PvP go Elven Elder or Bishop.
SE's have so many skills going for them, I couldn't even imagine going EE. I could get into it but seriously. SE's are pretty sweet. I love my bishop and all but SE's for PVE are so much more useful than all the other healers.
EE sucks, 99% of the time people will choose SE over EE to add to their parties. Im yet to ever have a need for an EE in my team. Most redundant class in-game tbh.
I've still not found any other class that could offer something similar to an instand 100% xp party rez including portation to the nearest safe zone.
That one skill alone should make every pvp clan add an Elven Elder to their groups... not to mention that they are outstanding healers and rechargers... and have some decent griefing skills. ;)
EE's best skills come in the form of fairly cheap scrolls. & you dont have to go thru the bore and grind to get them, just spend a few adenas or AA and bam.
You could also buy those fancy l2day scrolls and say "why have a buffer at all?"
I don't have 900k per day (ever seen bad times?) spare to replace our elven elder. Not to mention that my party members would have to spend the same ammount.
If you have to use party recall on a regular basis in PVE, you are totally in over your head where ever you are exping. It is bad bad PVEing if you have to use this spell so much that it justifies having an EE in party.
I think EE are good. Most people like SEs because they have more offensive buffs whereas an SE will make melee UBER...but many don't get to experience this because the lack of EE...
In my clan we have 2 prophets, 1 Bishop, 2 SE's and one EE...and yes they are all played by people as their mains... :)
My clan leader who is a gladiator will pick a EE over a Bishop when he needs a healer. EEs are more of a healer than a SE. The % Rez is awsome and Group Return is great if you are about to be trained.
To choose, do you want a buffer or a healer. EE are more heal orentated whereas a SE is more buffer orientated...
But what people say are true, most will pick an SE over an EE. You will need a clan or friends to get good groups...
The real question is, of course, whether you'd rather have your women in constand danger of falling over due to body mass distribution imbalance, or have them have a figure that would make the current terrestrial supermodels look obese in comparison ... :)
SE has buffs, but you do not need most of them that often.
Sure, SE has very nice offensive buffs, but later on you do not act as main party buffer anymore. You get a WC or Prophet in group for buffs. Basically, in higher levels you only buff VR (if WC is not present and if you have melee in group), emp (most important buff) and wm2. I only use the other buffs if we drag a melee/archer clannie along on our usual nuker duoin/trioing. And even then people miss acumen,zerk,haste (at least two of those are available as potions). In larger groups SE=emp, wm2, recharge or heal. Still, if you want to dual box or simply duo with somebody else, SE buffs are very nice and cover the basics (or even all you need, when you duo with a nuker and that nuker brings acumen pots along).
EE can main heal in PvE groups well at lower levels, but at higher levels having only greater heal is a disadvantage.
Yes, you get a nice "oh crap" skill, but you usually should not need it unless you make a major mistake in choosing your hunting location. If the party I was in had to use it regularly, I would not say "yay good thing we have an EE", I would say "uhm sorry, have to go now" and join a different party. EE has a nice casting speed, but lacks greater group heal. Greater group heal is a VERY useful skill once you start hunting in areas where mobs do AOE damage. Like, a lot of the new higher level places. Maybe I am spoiled since my char has greater group heal, but I would feel a bit helpless as a healer in a party if I did not have greater group heal. EE group heal from lvl 35 heals for less than half the SE group heal at 70+, and both skills have quite a long recharge time. So when one of those blazing circle mobs cuts loose and hits everybody for 1400+ (forge of gods e.g.), I need to cast 2x GGH, while an EE would have to cast 4xGH (or heal people individually - at huge mp cost), while the fight went on. IMO there are some areas where an EE does not work as only healer in the party. Yes, EE could cast PR in such a situation, but then you are back in town and have to walk back, while a group with a different healer just could exp on.
So when people need a healer for a PvE group and have to choose between EE and SE, they will probably take SE, because the SE heals are fast enough for PvE, are better (SE heals for more due to emp) and SE has VR plus empower as added bonus. And of course other way round for PvP - everybody would want the EE, because the SE heals simply are not fast enough to keep people alive when another player shoots/nukes them.
PvP=EE
PvE=SE
PvP+PvE, but only healing=Bishop
Still, all the healers classes are somewhat boring in higher levels. You cannot do ANYTHING without at least a duo partner. Soloing is totally out of the question. EE and Bishop at least get might of heaven, but you cannot solo with that one for any meaningful amount of exp compared to the time and adena you put into it. SE has no nukes at all that work in the higher levels, so you have to buy equipment (armor/weapons) that is different from what you use in groups if you even want to have a chance at soloing. And even then it is dangerous and time-consuming because you lack the stats of DD classes and have absolutely no combat skills. I duo'd with a lot of nukers, but with the higher level nukes they can solo very well WITHOUT empower, so when they have the choice of duoing with an SE and getting half the exp per mob, or soloing and getting it all, they of course solo (and SH e.g. does not need recharges if played correctly).
It is sometimes hard to lvl a healer class to a high level - you have to like playing a support role, you have to accept that these classes are ONLY support in this game and cannot do anything alone, and you have to be prepared to log on sometimes and simply not get a group - which means you sit there and cannot do anything on your main. And in PvP others get the fun, and you die.
I can't imagine why someone would pick a EE over a bishop... no greater group heal. That is pretty dangerous in all the new AOE areas, like Varaya said. In some areas, like the four sepulchers, I use GGH almost exclusively.
Based on the fact that I love PvP, I've gone for an EO, her casting speeds are superior to an SO, her heals I've been told will be better than an SE heals, and I'm looking forward to the idea of Party Return, since I do also like raiding and I think it could be useful.
Not sure how true any of this is now I've read all these others :p
If you want to be an active healer, choose an Elven Elder, if you do get groups (get a good clan and friends) then you'll be healing a lot. If you choose an SE, then you can just buff VR sit back and relax :p.
Ok, so that's exaggerating a bit, but at least up until the low 60s, if your group isn't fighting monsters way above your level, and you're at least a little careful, then that's the way it will be. I only base this off my experience of grouping with WC/SEs, and seeing how few heals I had to throw off in that time.
Personally, I think VR and Purify are overrated, and from my experience these are two of the three reasons most groups pick an SE over an EE (the 3rd being Empower). Vampiric Rage is all well and good, but all it does is reduce the amount of mp that the healer needs to use to heal. This free's up a bit of mp for recharging I guess, but you can have groups that don't have downtime without VR, so it wouldn't actually help much in that kind of group anyway.
People always overstate the risk of para, it's easy enough for an EE to sleep the mobs before they do para anyone. Even if that fails, unless the EE get's paralysed, then then it's unlikely you'll die. Also having purify doesn't mean you're safe, it's quite possible that the SE/Bishop will get paralysed as well.
Elven Elders have some nice buffs, two great shield buffs, resist shock and agility. Sure only resist shock will increase your kill speed, but they're still nice to have. Serenade of Eva is underrated, it's a nice way of getting past "group" monsters such as Pytans without trouble, and it lands decently on white monsters. Then of course there's Party Recall, which although it's been really reduced in usefulness with the addition of super cheap BSoE, is still a nice skill.
I'd have to agree with EllieBelly and Varaya though, lacking Greater Group Heal is a huge pain in some places. For example, in the Dimensional Rift, there are mobs that "explode" and take a large chunk of hp from people in their area. When I was there, this almost killed three members in one hit (the others lost~50%hp), without an SE to Greater Group Heal, I'm sure we would have had some deaths.
All in all though, I'm sure most people would have more fun playing an SE. There's one simple reason for this, other people will accept you into groups before they'd accept an EE.
Personally I love playing my EE, and would never reroll. But if you're not lucky enough to find people that will group with you, then you'll struggle.
I just started to play on Lionna today and so far I have not gotten one other player to talk to me lol
any advice on what to do to get any of the people I see running around to stop and talk to me and also does anyone know of a website I can go to to print out a map so I can find blacksmith kaddor lol
Chances are the characters you see running around aren't actually people (see Technical Discussion "Bot Detection"). Look for players is fancier gear or with blue titles over their name/tags next to them.