Played L2 for the first time last night and had alot of fun :)
I have been reading about all the classes and I know I need to choose one pretty quick. The two I played last night are both level four and I want to take advantage of the newbie buffs.
Sheesh I talk alot, anyway! I am interested in the pets classes. Are there pet classes in the game or can any class just have a pet?
Any class can have pets but they are supplementary. In actuallity there are 3 true pet classes and 3 hybrid pet classes. These are the 6 classes that summon some sort of creature and use them to supplement normal activities.
All classes can use pets that are called from an item, like a Hatching Flute and Wolf Collar. Please see this page (http://www.lineage2.com/Knowledge/pet_1.html) for more info on those pets.
Summons cost a lot to use when hunting but they can do very good things for you.
I play a DarkAvenger and I can tell you a little about it. For normal hunting having a summon (Kitty [panther]) costs a lot and you will lose money. But for PvP (player vs player) the Kitty makes the DA one of the most feared classes in the game. A lvl 5 kitty has over 1k patt and can use pet soul shots. But it attacks slow and is easy to kill.
I have heard that high lvl wolves are very good too, but with a pet you have to lvl the pet too. Wolves can wear armor and use special wolf weapons.
Any pet or summon has the problem of being easy to kill, and many monster's AI is setup to attack pets first.
There is a dinstinction between pets (pets are called from items, tradable, have their own set level and are on a whole very weak) and servitors (servitors are called using magic or skills and their level depends only on the level of the master, they are powerful at higher levels) in this game.
The classes that play with servitors most are the three pure summoners (Elemental and Phantom Summoners and the Warlock). Dark Avengers and Warsmiths also use their servitors during PvE, although it depends on the person - plenty of WSs and DAs use the servitors to improve their solo ability.
The Necromancer however is the bastard child of the summoner family. Nobody likes them.