New to LineageII, lots of choices/questions.

Hello everyone, hope you are all doing good this day :)
I am almost totally new to LineageII. I played it long ago, I think its almost been 2 years since I last played this game and from the looks of it a LOT as changed and im very excited about it :)
When I played it 2 years ago I didnt get very far in the game and now I remember very little of it aswell, so im pretty much a total newbie to the game.

I decided to start playing L2 again because when I read the forums, looked at the pictures and watched the movies I got the feeling that this is a great and fun game with beautiful graphics and a nice and helpful community.

So I downloaded that Lineage2 test server chronicle 4 client from fileplanet a week ago, I already had a serial code from almost 2 years back so I was all set to go.
However I didnt get very far, so many choices to make that I just sat there like a big question mark on the character creation screen and then I went on vacation.

But now im back and I really want to play :)
So I thought that now I need to download the full game as C4 is released but there is always so many people downloading that im not able to.
Since I couldnt download the game I logged on the test server client and noticed that all the servers where listed there and many had heavy traffic.
So that made me wonder, are those realms real? I mean if I make a char there is it going to be deleted or will it be a real char? Maybe there isnt any test client anymore? Can I just log on there and play normally? Or are just a lot of people playing on the test servers? Did the c4 test client just get converted to the real version of L2 or do I have to find a place to DL it?

Then there is the whole dilemma on what server I should choose and what character I should make.
Hopefully you guys can take some time and help me out with that :)

Im from Norway in Europe, so I suppose Teon might be the best choice for me as it seems to be an european server.
However, I tend to enjoy playing with americans on american servers more since everyone speaks english there.
Im afraid that on Teon a lot of people will speak german/spanish/french etc, languages I dont understand.
So if you play on Teon, how is it there? Do most people talk english?
Also, I enjoy RP'ing sometimes and I heard Lionna is the unoffical RP server so maybe that server would be a nice choice for me?

When I make a character now I will be level one and as I understand it there wont be many other players around in the start area to talk to or party with since most are high level, but is there a server that has more newcomers and low level characters than others? Because im a party man and not a solo guy, I enjoy doing things with others rather than on my own.

Then there is the whole dilemma on what character I should pick, once I start playing I am going to be serious about the game and try and put a lot of dedication and time into it and after a while hopefully find a nice clan where I can make some friends and have some good times together with them :)

What class/race should I choose..hmmm.
I understand that having good equipment is very important and I heard that dwarves are the best at getting adena so maybe it is required to make a dwarf first so you can get some money to work with? Or can I make it witouth making a dwarf first? because I dont see myself playing one in the long run.

The type of character I prefer is one that is helpful and wanted in groups but that can also solo decently.
I dont see myself playing a pure caster class though..
I tend to like archers, hybrids and melee classes the most.
The most important thing for me when it comes to a class however is that it is a challenging class to play, with lots of different things to do and keep track of.
Maybe a caster would be nice afterall, I do enjoy buffing others and such but I think I read somewhere that melee classes can buff others too?
Actually I dont have a clue, since I know so little about the classes and what to expect... I would really appreciate it if someone could come with some reccomendations.
Key things im looking for are: A class that is helpful in groups, can solo decently ( I am willing to sacrifice some solo power to be more supportive in groups instead) and a class that is challenging to play with lots of stuff to do and keep track of. Caster, melee or ranged doesent really matter.

If you are still reading I would like to thank you.
You read my post even though you knew you wouldnt get anything out of it. You read it just so you could help, so thank you, I appreciate your kindness.

All replies are welcome, hopefully someone will take their time to help this newbie out with his choices.
Again thanks for reading, have an excellent day and hopefully I'll see you ingame sometime :)

I've heard both sides of Teon that they speak a lot of different languages as well as English thou so basically any server you pick sometimes there will be people speaking different languages! Dwarfs are a good char to make if you want to craft stuff as well as getting money but when you make your first char you will want to make a char that is fun to use and exciting so you wont get bored of the game and I've heard people who use dwarfs sometimes get bored easily! I would suggest you make a Dark Elf Mage (Magic) they are exciting and if you hit 20 and go Dark Wizard (nuker) they are basically always needed in a Raid, you can find lots of nice people who will help you out with them and I don't find them that expensive to use! I'm currently on the Seig server so if you decide to come on there let me know I would be glad to help you out with anything you might need to get started and answer any questions :) Good Luck & Have Fun!!!

norway? all servers have people from all over the world, teon might have the biggest euro population. here do this: on every server discussion start a topic about what ya look for in your own language. gm's wont understand much, if anything. and you'll know which people play, and get yourself a prretty good idea of what you need/like.
so goodluck

Logged onto the test server already? You ALREADY HAVE the updated client!

There is a test/regular conversion util somewhere on the site. (Can't find it offhand but a forum search should bring it up.)

Alternately you can wing it...just install whatever old client you have to a different directory than the test client. Now simply copy and overwrite all the folders from the test client directory to the normal client directory EXCEPT the /system sub-folder. Now, log on to L2 and let the autopatcher update the last folder. DONE. (I do this every new chronicle instead of re-downloading the full client or re-patching the normal client after I've been using the updated test client.)

As for which server...I play on Gustin and there is a fairly decent euro population there. (Two in our Clan alone!) Some siege times are...nasty for euro's but if you don't care about regular sieging so much, it's not a big deal. As for Teon, the siege times are friendlier...and thats about it. It's more crowded than Gustin, and apparently has a bigger 'problem player' population to match. (Like Batz/Sieg...crowded servers seem to have that issue.) I don't RP so no idea on the RP contingent on Gustin, and I don't track that for other servers either...thats up to you.

As for which char to play...Nukers (And Necros) are the current PWN! classes. Archer come close second...everyone else is dead last. My suggestion is to level a few to see if you like them...you do get 7 char slots you know. Play them all then stick with the one you like the most.

Warcryer would be a good choice I think, a good buffer always wanted in parties - but unlike the other buffers, they can actually solo pretty well due to good masteries, base stats and offensive skills and spells... and also take care of themselves overall.

yes i must try out an warcryer, but them again i alos mustr try out oblivion.

Thanks for the helpful replies guys :)
Tiffy I appreciate your offer to help me out and your friendly tips, if I decide to play on Seig I'll be sure to say hi :)
PainAmplifier thanks for answering my questions about the client and the other ones aswell :) , I'll try to find that converter you spoke of as I dont have another installation of L2.
Nukers and necros seems to be the best classes from what I have heard here then, would peobably be the most clever choice to be one of those then I guess.
Do nukers and necros have a lot of skills to play with or do they like have one or two spells you spam that kills everything, if thats the case I wouldnt enjoy playing those.. even if they own in PvP. A class that provides a challange is a class I would like, even if I get some hard times ahead, at the same time it has to be a class that puts me in a position where I can help others and be wanted in groups.

I will try and find more info on all the classes you guys reccomended. Necromancer, Dark Wizard and Warcryer.

When it comes to siege times im 7-8 hours ahead of EST I think, so will it be like 4am here when they start or something?
Do sieges happen often? Are they very important?

I have also noticed this whole new player bonus thing, where you can get free buffs, SS and more easily obtain equipment until you reach lvl 25.
With those buffs etc to help me out would it be smart to make a dwarf first? I hear they level slow, but with the buffs etc getting one to 25 will probably be much easier.
Is a lvl 25 dwarf able to make a nice amount of adena?
I was thinking maybe I should use that new player bonus on making a dwarf to get some adena and then make another char afterwards, is this a good idea?

Again thanks for all the helpful replies.
Oh! if you have some info on that converter thing let me know, thanks guys. :)

actually if i have read your first post correctly, the best class for you will be OverLord OR WarCrier.

a nuker may not help you as their skills in the coming chrinicle update will be changed.

as it stands the "transfer pain" skill effect will be cut in half, so dont roll a necromancer.

warcrier buffs are the best available but they are the most costly in mp.

what i suggest for you is to roll a orc mystic and be sure to use FIST weapons. they have great patk and matk so your debuffs and area of effect skills will land more often.

warcriers are of the more hard to find classes, so obtaining a clan will be very easy for you. and you will be very much appreciated in sieges involving many melee classes due to your area of effect "hold" and others.

it would not be smart to make a dwarf first. not at all. make whatever class you want, make sure that you get the novice buffs on that class (level to 5 or more).

the reason i say this is because your main class is the one you want all your money on. dont sink your money into an alt before a main. once your main is up over 25 you can make a dwarf without worrying that youre spending too much time on the wrong class.

there are many guides in the guides section on levelling quickly from 1-20 and from 1-40 (see the sticky). you wont be sieging until level 40 or more and have completed your second class change quest. the reason is: thats where your skills really begin to shine. a properly equipped high lvl warcrier / overlord can mass pvp on his own without anyone to help. it will take a bit more MP and time, but it can be done.

i suspect a whole group of warcriers and overlords could really hold a castle well.

Post for the test to Client (http://boards.lineage2.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=general&Number=460376&Foru m=All_Forums&Words=convert&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&M ain=460376&Search=true&where=sub&Name=&daterange=1 &newerval=1&newertype=&olderval=1&oldertype=w&body prev=#Post460376) link. FTP may be busy, but still more likely to be faster than a full download....

Nukers and by inclusion (Necro's) are pretty much like all other classes. You get a handful or two of skills but only really use 2-4 constantly. (Buffs are slightly different.) Nukers power comes from insane cast speed stacking + BSPS + Strong spells. Which means mages can two shot mobs (1xHP) pretty much from L1 to L78. This is NOT cheap however. You need some good luck on drops or some starting cash from other chars. (Like most of the Nuker re-roll/sub classes) Once you hit B grade you start making a noticable amount more per kill than you spend. (Before it's a slight +/- mostly) They are also not as party friendly as other classes, but it isn't undoable or unknown...they just make more adena and faster levels solo.

For siege times, they are normalized to US Central Standard time. (One hour past eastern). This will be either very late or very early euro time for most scheduled events. On Gustin this is either Saturday 7PM or Sunday 3PM CST. Sieges happen once per castle/Siege-type clan hall every two weeks at the end of the Seven sign Rewards cycle.

Sieges are largely just a way to PvP with friends more or less safely. Only the Castle Owning clan gets the 'benefits' and it's largely up to them to 'share' those benefits. The castles provide tax revenue, a place to SoE to and a Manor...and not much else. Siegeing them can be fun, but owning them holds less tangible benefits for most players than clan halls do. Plus you need to spend some of that income to defend it every two weeks.

For new player bonuses, once you level above 23 they are gone. If you keep the char with these benefits under L24, you can gain those benefits indefinately for that char. (12-22 is your best level range.) I strongly suggest making this a melee char and abusing the buffs/benefits until you feel secure with money in game. Nothing is stopping you from making your second char your 'main' and farming materials/cash with the first one.

You make a bit more cash with a Scavenger dwarf, but you make significantly more cash from the manor if you play it right than you could with just a dwarf scavenger. (Scav + manor can be better....but it will be slower most of the time.) Unless you afk shop/sell/craft a ton, the scavenger is a better choice than the Artisan. However, spoil rates/tables are stupidly dumb for the vast majority of C/B grade meaning its better to stay in the Low C and NG/D ranges to make money. No matter the level though...the spoil skill takes an obscene amount of MP for a dwarf. Making it a hard char to level because the benefits seldom match the difficulty.

An overwhelming majority of people have a dwarf secondary char, there are very few who play Scavengers/Bounty Hunters as mains. (There are far more Artisan/Warsmith high levels.) The new C4 mob reportedly spoil very well now....but its a long dry haul to reach those levels. :(


If you want to be 'wanted' in groups it helps to be a buffer....although there is still a demand for regular tanks, healers and DD's...perhaps a growing one as so many rerolls are nukers/archer making those 'weaker' classes more rare and yet ever so necessary. (Mages still need at least one Tank+healers/buffers to take out raid bosses and such....and the numbers of those are dwindling the longer NC takes to balance melee/ranged/magic.)

I'd suggest trying a buffer. If you want to group more than not.

Prophet would be a good choice, Shillien Elder another...or their group buff counter parts Warcyer (SE) or Overlord (PP). Tyrant is another good choice if you want lots of skill variety. Summoners aren't that bad either. (Different playstyle though.) You might even like Shillien Knight. Again, I'm gonna say play a bunch of chars up to L20 and winnow your choices from there. (Although Orcs have few skills pre-20 compared to other races.)

as it stands the "transfer pain" skill effect will be cut in half, so dont roll a necromancer.

i believe that is still not sure.. and even if it is, a necro is not "easy" even if they would take the transfer pain away all together. his nukes still have the same strenght as those of a normal nuker, and he still has nuke and some nifty debuffs.

they might get a serious nerf, but to me if you like a char, play it even if its a FOTM class. as it stands now rolling anything appart from a dwarf or a summoner will get people to point and see "noob fotm roller"

Thanks for the great replies guys, helped me out alot. :)
So having a scavanger constantly with the new player bonus would be a smart thing? Can you make good money on such a low lvl? I would have to keep the scavanger under lvl 24.
Could I then start on another char and get it to lets say 40 and still have a 22 scavanger forexample with the new player buff?
Would that scavanger be able to keep my main supplied with money?

Oh and what does "FOTM class" mean?

Hmm, that manor thing I have never heard of, I'll have to read up on that, maybe there is a good guide to it somewhere.

3am on sundays.. that would be like 11pm here, not too bad.
But when it starts at 7pm It will be in the middle of the night here..
Any european players playing on one of the US servers out there that could share their experience with me? Is the server very empty when you play, or are there lots of euro people on US servers? How is it to do sieges there for you?


Again thanks a lot for the help guys, much appreciated :)

Thanks for the great replies guys, helped me out alot. :)
So having a scavanger constantly with the new player bonus would be a smart thing? Can you make good money on such a low lvl? I would have to keep the scavanger under lvl 24.
Could I then start on another char and get it to lets say 40 and still have a 22 scavanger forexample with the new player buff?
Would that scavanger be able to keep my main supplied with money?

Oh and what does "FOTM class" mean?

Hmm, that manor thing I have never heard of, I'll have to read up on that, maybe there is a good guide to it somewhere.

3am on sundays.. that would be like 11pm here, not too bad.
But when it starts at 7pm It will be in the middle of the night here..
Any european players playing on one of the US servers out there that could share their experience with me? Is the server very empty when you play, or are there lots of euro people on US servers? How is it to do sieges there for you?


Again thanks a lot for the help guys, much appreciated :)

Once any character reaches level 25 even if it's not the 'newbie buff' one, your newbie buff character will lose the buffs.

It's explained here. (http://www.lineage2.com/guide/bonuses.html)

Once any character reaches level 25 even if it's not the 'newbie buff' one, your newbie buff character will lose the buffs.

It's explained here. (http://www.lineage2.com/guide/bonuses.html)

Oh allright, thanks for clearing that up for me.
I think I'll forget about the whole dwarf thing then, might aswell make a character im interested in taking to the higher levels.
With the suggestions and info you guys have provided me with im more likely to make a good choice, thanks :)

Once any character reaches level 25 even if it's not the 'newbie buff' one, your newbie buff character will lose the buffs.

It's explained here. (http://www.lineage2.com/guide/bonuses.html)

Go back and reread the description. As long as the character with the bonuses stays under the limit it will not lose the newbie buffs...even if you have another char at L78 with two L78 subclasses. You only get one opportunity at the bonus, so no swapping the buffs from one char to another, but until THAT character levels up, it will get the buffs forever. (And yes I did test this on the C4 PTS.)

FOTM = Fighter of the Month. AKA the 'cookie cutter' overpowered class at the current time.

If you go with a Scavenger and give it the newbie bonuses, if you want to make the most of it you will still run out of MP to spoil fairly quickly. If you keep hunting instead of resting to replenish MP, you may as well have gone with another melee char instead. The bonus for a scav is more to reduce the pain associated with the dwarfs lack of combat skills than anything else. (Potions and shots is another way to do this.)

3PM NOT AM. AKA four hours earlier on Sunday than the Saturday sieges. I live in the CST time zone, so its either Saturday evening for me or Sunday AFTERNOON. (So for you it would roughly be Saturday early AM or Sunday Late night.)

I make a good portion of my cash by keeping several chars in the 20-45 level range to manor. I may 'graduate' a char or two higher as my main levels to take advantage of a few other seeds, but those levels are the most solo friendly if you have good equipment and only a little cash.

The Manor is a way to gain mats from mobs. You buy seeds from a Castle lord's manor, plant them in a mob, kill the mob and harvest (Harvester is bought from the manor also, but you only ever have to buy one for 500a) fruit from the dead mob. (This is not a 100% action. It can be +/- up to 40% or more.) You then take the fruit back to the manor lord and he gives you materials in return for your fruit. Each fruit will give one of two materials, which one is determined by the Lord. How many you get is determined by the base value of the material and how much adena the lord is buying the fruit for. You have to sow/harvest fruit in the territory you buy the seed, but you can sell the fruit to any manor buying that fruit. (You can do this from any Manor, but there is a slight fee to sell to a manor that is not the one you are talking to.)

Manor is one of the best ways to get lots of materials fast, and by selling in-demand materials, a way to make good money also. Expect the high return materials to be heavily farmed though, and supply of seeds as well as the Lord's buyback amounts are limited. Research and test before jumping in full time, but it's worth it to get a leg up on adena if your starting out fresh.

Highest population times are 3pm EST to 11pm PST, but I've noticed a steady population pretty much 24 hours a day even discounting 'automated' players. A side 'benefit' of having a euro time on a non euro server is for market benefits. The market runs 24/7 pretty much, when one side of the pond is on afk shops, the other is playing and vice versa. I've poked around on the first few servers and found that the market on NA servers with euro friendly pings is a bit more robust and stable. (Some of the other servers seem to have much larger price swings/extremes.)

The spread of playerbase gives you the benefits of a higher population without the associated drawbacks of higher ping and lag simply because the logins and playtimes are staggered more.

I ended up on Lionna and made a orc fighter there, planning on making him a tyrant as they had lot of active skills to lure me with.

Thanks a lot PainAmplifier, you have helped me out a lot and I really appreciate that :)
Thanks to your informative posts and advice I now have a head start. /bow

Once any character reaches level 25 even if it's not the 'newbie buff' one, your newbie buff character will lose the buffs.

It's explained here. (http://www.lineage2.com/guide/bonuses.html)

Go back and reread the description. As long as the character with the bonuses stays under the limit it will not lose the newbie buffs...even if you have another char at L78 with two L78 subclasses. You only get one opportunity at the bonus, so no swapping the buffs from one char to another, but until THAT character levels up, it will get the buffs forever. (And yes I did test this on the C4 PTS.)





Well, that's good to know. I'll have to test it again since last time I did it (in C3) that was not the case.

I ended up on Lionna and made a orc fighter there, planning on making him a tyrant as they had lot of active skills to lure me with.

Thanks a lot PainAmplifier, you have helped me out a lot and I really appreciate that :)
Thanks to your informative posts and advice I now have a head start. /bow

Your Welcome. Lineage 2 has a 'bit' of a steep learning curve so I help out the new players when I can.

(Plus as a added bonus the more players who stick around longer without resorting to 'automated players' or 'currency sellers' improves MY game experience too!)

Well, that's good to know. I'll have to test it again since last time I did it (in C3) that was not the case.

I think the only issue I found with the Newbie bonuses is that the buffs go away at one level before the description indicates. IIRC the text said that L24 was the last level you got buffs, while in game I found that if you reached that level you would lose the newbie bonuses. (Been awhile since I played so, not sure if the level was a typo on the ingame text or if it was a bug I noticed.)

I'd go back and check...but I'd have to start a new char on a fresh server to find out, and that takes was more time than I have to spare from the server I am playing on.