Hi! I'm in the process of downloading this game at the moment. I'm something of a chronic MMO player, but I've steered away from LII in the past due to the things I've read about the economy and other unmentionables; suffice it to say I finally decided to spend the money and give it a shot, so I have a few questions. --please keep in mind I haven't actually played the game yet, so if any of this will be self-evident when I get in, just let me know.
First, if after I've wandered around for a bit, I decide this is something I want to invest in, then I'll bring two other people with me and we'll probably end up forming a static party for most of our time. The obvious question that comes with this is, for genuine beginners with no experience with this game (but PLENTY of experience with party mechanics in MMOs in general), what can you suggest for classes? Tank/Healer/Crack-dealer is the usual trinity, but I'm not sure how that carries over in LII, and the materials available here are somewhat abstract. Is that something we should aim for, or would we be better with a tank/healer/dps setup? --and if so, what are the most solid classes for that, in addition to being useful elsewhere? Versatility is important for us, and it's hard to tell at a glance where that lies in LII.
Personally I've been leaning toward SK due to the resemblance to the old shadowknight class model, and since I'm usually the tank when we play together--but also since what I've read leads me to believe the class is solid in offense as well, and since we tend to treat PVP as inevitable, I'd like to play something useful there. --although if th other tank classes are particularly efficient in PVP, please somebody let me know. I'm flying blind.
My other leaning is toward orcs, but as I understand it there isn't an orc tank. Is this perception correct? I love the racial models from what I've seen in the screenshots, and if I had my choice I'd play an orc SK and not even ask at all, but that's not an option. Anyway, I wonder if we would be wiser if I want to play an orc to have me doing a different role while one of my other two friends take over the tanking... Would an orc as an essential part of a three-man be better at a particular given role than others?
Anyway, all this amounts to verbal brainstorming, at best, and as I said, it's hard for me to articulate without having actually run through some of the classes. But that said, I would very, very much appreciate any input from you veterans out there who have met success. If we commit to this game we'll take it all the way, so I want the three of us to be happy with our class choices whenever we cap out, if at all possible. Thanks anyone who can give me any feedback or guidance. I appreciate it.
TK is a good solid choice as you are right, they can tank and they can do damage offensively as well. There is no real Orc tank class but it is possible to change an orcs stats through dyes so they have more HP than any other class/race in the game. Add a two handed sword to that for heavy damage and you should be able to maintain aggro ok for a small group. The tankable orc class is destroyer. However Orcs have the slowest run speed in the game. I know several Orc destroyers that love the class though. If your going to be a trio I suggest Tank/Healer/Nuker learn the manor system and money for new gear shouldn't be too much of a problem along the way.
So is what you're saying that we should expect to be able to get by without a tank at all? The reason I usually take one for granted isn't for the three-man necessarily, but so we would be able to provide one if we decided to form/join a larger group. Traditionally it seems I've always had an easier time with "LFxM whatever" when hunting party members than "LF TANK." --of course on the other hand, if you're suggesting that it would be worth it for leveling speed just to forego that concern and concentrate on damage classes, I'm perfectly willing to do that.
BD/WC and SwS or a dagger make a nice combination, although it takes a while to get good (the WC gets their buffs fairly late in the game).
The SK is a solid small group tank - SE/BD/SK is not superb but still very workable.
If you're more into money-mongering, SE/BH/DDorTank might also work out, although of course this is noticably slower on the killing and not much good at PvP.
fi you like the orc i would suggest destroyer ( they are like a damage dealer/tank) and for second member i would suggest BD (blade dancer) they have semi tank skills too and extra buff for whole party that are awesome, and third class i would suggest SE(sheilin elder(spelling)) they have great buff for melee classes and great heals. they have a skill called, vamperic rage, which returns hp on a % to the damage to a mob.
This is a great trio. they three class are all semi classes and they all work great together.
you'll level fast with these guys, but run slow (at least till the SE gets the buffs) once you hit lvl 20 you can move to the catacombs and kill full rooms with ease.
good luck
and welcome to lineage 2
Blade dancer, Sword Singer and Shilen Elder or Prophet would give you the most power and the least amount of down time. BTW all of those are support classes and not the uber damage dealers in pvp but they are some of the most wanted in groups also.
If you want the fastest leveling / money making I would suggest War lord, blade dancer and Shilen Elder.
lets put it this way ... you want to be able to group and pve effectively, as well as with the same grou pvp effectively?
well there are numerous 3man hunting group combinations that all have different flavours and sytles and statistics.
what youll come to notice tho in this game especially on vet players is a LOT of two boxers. these people usually carry around either a prophet or a Shillien Elder for their buffs, sometimes both.
so lets take that into consideration ... the SE and prophet arguably give out the better buffs. of course if youre looking for an equivalent in an all orc party, youll be wanting a Warcrier, a Destroyer and a Tyrant.
in L2, buffs make the better team. arguably, the Bishop who is used mainly and played mainly for healing power but also has buffs is not as effective as a team that has a better dedicated buffer like an Shillien Elder, so keep im mind please that although you can hunt without buffs, it will not be nearly as fast or as effective.
self buffs are also important. note that the buffs of lineage 2 are done on a target-by-target basis. you buff everyone individually with 3 exceptions: the warcrier buffs everyone in his party all at once (so filtering out select buffs means leaving party for a moment) and buffs are learned at higher levels than the prophet or SE which maxes out the buffs around 56-62 depending what buffs youre after. the warcrier maxes out later than 62.
the other exception is OverLord. this character follows the same level 1-40 path but does a different class changing quest at level 40. overlords only buff alliance members within a certain range.
the last exception is the Blade dancer or Sword singer (dependin on your race). these characters provide 2 minutes of power as compared to other buffers whose buffs last 20 mins. what advantage could that pose? well 2 minute buffs are stackable with the 20 minute buffs and consequently amplify stats by *not* meager amounts. there are also select buffs from both of these professions that really shine. one such glaring buff is the song of hunter (learned by the swordsinger) which gives the chance to critical hit a LOT higher than regular buffs. this is another topic.
getting back to the point ...
if you love orcs, take the warcrier, destroyer and tyrant. theyll be awesome together and provide you with nonstop exp as well as being able to pvp like monsters (at the right levels).
if you love dark elfs (as i see by your SK selection) try shifting your focus off of melee partying into Nuker partying. as the dark elf Spellhoweler youll hit HARD (albeit slow) and regen mana really fast. as the Shillien elder youll be absolutely loving your bootylicious body as well as your buff called Empower which raises magical attack power (matk). as the Phantom summoner, youll be killing mobs and clearing rooms like crazy. stack Elder buffs on that and presto! would you like fries with that pwnage?
all in all, no matter what class you choose, make SURE you choose one that you can stick to should your comrades loose interest. for this reason i suggest only one class; the summoner. any race will do.
as a summoner gear really isnt important cause its your summon doing all the damage. so economics doesnt need to be your strong suit.
It really depends on play style as to which way you want to go in L2. In PvP, range classes tend to dominate but they are glass cannons, they deal crazy high damage but their defences are pretty low and can be taken down and debuffed pretty easily.
Personally there are 2 choices of trio i would go for.
Range!
2 x Archer (Silver Ranger - Elf, Hawkeye - Human, Phantom Ranger - Dark Elf), and a Prophet - Human Mystic.
The 2 archers will kill pretty much anything before it get's to you so you will take minimal damage, and even if the mob has slightly more HP then the one archer can kite the mob around and still do damage while the other archer can shoot at range. Archers have high natural crit rates, evasion, and attack power, but they dont have very high magic defence. Later levels they get stun skills, slow skills, and damage skills. The prophet has decent enough heals for PvE, but the class shines where it comes to buffs. They have most of the buffs any archer would need for PvE and PvP, they also have light armour and heavy armour mastery's. Even if the prophet doesn't have very high accuracy or range with a bow, they can still do a decent ammount of damage with one to help out the main 2 archers. Just take note, a prophets cast speed is reduced witha nything other than a mage weapon so keep your noobie one just in case. (this is a little diffrent from what you 1st sujested but it's a setup to think about)
Mele!
Destroyer (Orc), Blade Dancer (Dark Elf), Warcryer (Orc).
The group itself will run slow and take a little time to get good, but as soon as the warcryer starts to egt things like chant of vampire and chant of fury you will start to mow through mobs very quickly with little downtime. The Destroyer as said in a previous post has very high HP, wields a 2 handed sword and wears heavy armour. They have self buffs that can be activated at lower HP to boost their attack power to one of the highest in the game, and then use a skill to get back a huge chunk of that lost HP. If your tanking they have another skill that increases their P deff to a couple of thousand and they are able to move while in that state (some classes have a simlar skill called "Ultimate defence" that increases P deff and M deff but they can't move while the skill is in use). The BD has skills called dances, these are used as an AOE buff that effects all party members, the buffs include increased critical power, attack speed, attack power, cast speed, magic attack power. At later levels (im talking very high lvl's) they get skills such as AOE paralysis (puts surrounding enemy's in to a state of paralysis where they can's do anything or move, but can't take damage), dance of vampire (any damage delt to the target will give you back a % of HP as a heal), a dance that allows you to move through agro monsters without being noticed. The blade dancer wears heavy armour, and deals some decent damage with dual swords. The warcryer is the perfect mele buffer, they might get their buffs at a slightly higher level but they have damage skills as well such as steal essance that drains the HP of the target and gives 80% of it back as a heal. They also have the chant of vampire that gives a % of the damage delt to a target back as a heal, this is a buff that effects all party members within range. Warcryers get a heal over time skill that they continue to get in to the later lavels. They dont get the increase HP, MP or running speed of a prophet but they do get useful skills like the ones mentioned above.
Just a couple of notes:
Nukers tend to burn through MP pretty quickly, the above 2 setup's wont have very much downtime at all but might take a little time to get in to things for the skills and buffs ect.
Dont be put off with the lack of people around the starter towns, or at least the lack of live players (u will know what i mean after you log in). The game has been around for a while now and any new players tend to get out of the starter towns pretty quickly and head to places like dion where there is more life.
Look out for soul shot and money quests, you can do these while you are out leveling. soul shots when used double your damage but be warned, dont spam them, it will get expensive very quickly :P
the noobie guide is your friend! there is one in all starter towns, gludio and gludin. Go to this guy for free buffs that WILL help you greatly when starting out. Plus it gives u a taster of what the later buffs are like ;)
as soon as you get over 5 PK's (killing a character if they are white) then the next time you are red you will have a chance of dropping items if you are killed by another player. I wouldn't advise going red too early on since getting white again (kill mobs or killing yourself to loose karma) is a [censored] at lower lvl's hehe.
on the previous note, watch out for red players that seem to be killing everything pretty easily (one shot), they are most likely bored and looking to pick on lower players. you wont come accross it too much they are arround.
raid's are good, try and join a few, you will get good XP and sometimes items from them but you will need quite a few people to do it :)
Thats just my opinion, others may think diffrently, take the all the advice but it's your decision at the end of the day, play what you think you will enjoy ^_^
Well, if you read the entire thread you should be able to understand what most of that means. Though I do think it's important for people who say SpS to also say "spellsinger" as this poor guy is not going to have any idea what anyone is talking about! :eek:
My advice to you is this: Even though they have made this game a bit more user friendly and easier for new players to get "in game" it is still a hard game.
You will find that the new player areas are light of people. In many ways this is good because it gives you the ability to learn your character, the mechanics, etc.
But please know that you might have to spend more than a bit of time understanding this game (though Shadow Knight and Shillien Knight are sort of close ;) ).
The economy can be hard, it is an open pvp game and the content is you. The player. This game is about the interactions between players, clans, Alliances.
It can have a hard grind. If you are interested in PvP in any way then this might be your game.
But you are going to have invest a bit of time and patience in order to really assess what the game offers. In some ways you are lucky because you will be bringing friends so "insta-party".
Some people aren't so lucky and they come in with the hope that someone will take them under their wing. Sometimes this happens, sometimes not.
Also, know this is supposed to be a brutal world. If a top lvl player camps your village and pk's you ALL THE TIME then that is part of the game.
If you fall for a scam don't expect the gm's to help as that is allowed. Lying is allowed. If someone tells you that they can enchant your weapon with a spell and ask for it or they ask you to throw it on the ground and they take it FOREVER, that is allowed.
If someone hits you and they are dressed like a low level, watch their hand. Is it a weapon or bare fist. They might be trying to get you to attack them only to bring out high level armor and weapons and waste you for the pvp points. It is allowed.
If you are on a raid with your alliance and another alliance comes and attacks you while you are raiding. Allowed.
I don't say these things to be a jerk or to scare you but to help you realize (if you haven't already) what the game can be.
This is not to say that you can't roleplay or just PvE or just craft all your days in game. But the game is what you make of it and it is also how others want to interact with you.
Welcome to the game and ask any questions you like. There is a great group of people of all sorts on this board and they know more about the game than you will be able to absorb in any one session.
Destroyer/Warcryer/some heal pots means great duo. Destroyer also can do pole parties which is very fast xp and your great for it with high hp. Get health on your weapon and voila you are a monster. You will not be a traditional tank because you dont have hate, however you can still tank if you are smart about it.
In the high end of the game a bd and a sws is a must. They make the grind so much easier.
The typical pole party I like to have is me (destroyer), another pole (either warlord, dwarf, or other destroyer), warcryer (for buffs and dd), bladedancer, healer (either shillen elder, elven elder, or bishop (good luck finding the latter two), and a nuker or overlord. If you can find one a sws also adds nicely to the group. If you can double up on healers.
If I am not poling then I take what I can get and go. If you go destroyer invest in a polearm cause it is the fastest way to level. Like another poster said dont expect to run fast but when your health gets low you become an unstoppable monster. For pvp you have to pick your fights wisely though because nukers and archers can tear you apart from a distance until you get low enough to use zealot.
Play what sounds fun but dont expect it to be an easy road if you do decide to go orc. :eek:
Orc parties pwn face. They may not be the most all around efficient or anything, but they are very good in PvE, fun, and in the end all of your characters will have a role in endgame PvE and more than hold their own in PvP solo and group.
Probably the most balanced group would be a Tyrant - Destroyer - Warcryer.
But you really can go any way you want with Orcs. Two melees of either class plus a Warcryer will be great.
If you want to go for the equally amazing and frustrating Overlord (which you may or may not want to do) you'll need to be a bit more careful in your class choices and possibly pick up a fourth toon, either Elven Elder (if he replaces a melee) or Shilien Elder (pretty much 100% necessary if he replaces the Warcryer, which I don't recommend). In the case that you want to have one of your friends go OL, you must all join the same clan (which I assume you'd do anyway) and sign a contract in blood that you will always give your OL friend parties, so he doesn't get ****** off at level 65 when no one will give him a group and quit/reroll.
Ye, a trio doesnt necessarily need a tank if it kills the mob even before it can reach any of the players so a ranged party is a viable option. You could go 2xHE/2xSR/2xPR+prophet or you could pick any combination of 2 archers+prophet. Or then you could go the nuker way and pick 2 Spellhowlers and a SE, or 2 Necros and SE and so on. I'd suggest you steer away from the SpS and Sorceror classes as they're gimped a bit more in some ways ;)
For a melee group, you still dont need a tank as long as the dps is high enough or you got the right buffs. A Destroyer can soak up immense amounts of dmg(even if I say so meself ^^) and dish out even more. The Destroyer has a few tricks that needs practicing but all in all its a solid melee class that will start to shine later on in the game as it gains some of its trademark skills. So, you can leave the tank off the group and go with a Destroyer, Bladedancer and a WC/SE. Or you could go Destroyer, Tyrant, WC/SE. Just remember that you need either the Warcryer or the Shillien Elder as the "healer/buffer" for a melee trio, the other two classes can be high dps daggers, gladiators, destroyers, tyrants or even SK/DA. Or you might go for the way of the pole and take warlords, destroyers and dwarves along with the WC/SE.
All in all, pick classes that you really like and remember to get a good buffing support class as one of them. For melees, best are WC and SE, for archers the best is prophet and for nukers the SE is best. Then there is the Elven Elder which can manage with nukers too. Pick the OL only if you really plan to make a big clan or ally and want to have one from the start.
I'd take the EE over the SE if I already had a WC (in fact that's my own buffer team), as long as we were talking melee. Clarity, Holy Weapon, Resist Unholy, and faster cast speed (plus Major Heal and Trance).
Upon further consideration... BD, WC, and SwS all in duals/ daggers ( must be focus ) looks good. The sws is gonna feel like dead weight until it gets song of the hunter... but afterwards... you will love the lil guy.
Upon further consideration... BD, WC, and SwS all in duals/ daggers ( must be focus ) looks good. The sws is gonna feel like dead weight until it gets song of the hunter... but afterwards... you will love the lil guy.
Yeah... i'd like to try this.
ill admit the combination of songs/dances/chants seems funky, i dont think that group should be without a little dash of EE. for 2 reasons: if instead of duals, the sws had a shield, you got a minitank. you could really do a number on DVC even at early levels.
Also if you are completly new i would sudjest you start in the Franz server, as it is the newest sever and does not have many high level peeps. If however your a NA player......well all the servers are pretty **** high lvled, i used to play franz, but i ended up getting dragged over to bartz. If you want to play a North American server (NA) then come to bartz, i'll give you some cash to get you started. Names Keogan In game.
edit: But pm me after 12pm est that is when i am normally on.
is it? i thought they got rid of the bots :( poor franz....i'm really ticked with the L2team and its gm's....they let the bots take over franz.,....i meen if they had just placed one or 2 gms at each of the starting locations, there wouldn't be a bot problem in franz at all.....if and when l2 release the new NA server i hope that they do something about "the flood" heheh thats what i'll call bots form now on "the flood"
edit: for orignal poster (sorry forgot name) come to bartz then i'll hook you up with some money and basic equip.