Hello, I am looking for some advice on the game, servers and so on.
Lil background on me is that I have 3 lvl 60's in wow and my fav classes are the Warlock and Mage. My Warlock has downed the final boss in the game and now i'm bored with the game. I'm 32years old and enjoy the friendships while exploring a new world.
Now the questions,
1) Class choices...I love the ranged dps classes. So, I was thinking of a Spellhowler(They seem to be metioned a lot?)
2) Server choices....I'd like to go on the new server that just went up but my connection is horrible there... All the older servers I get 10-22ping
3) Do top guilds ever pickup new players or is it something where you need to guild hop your way up the ladder while leveling and gearing up?
My guild in wow was actually two guilds.. The top level raiding group and the other was for the lower end raiding content. Thus we always had good geared people to plug into the top raid group if someone quit the game.
Bleh, I probably wrote too much for anyone to read.
I play weekdays from 5pm-midnight pst and weekends @ least 12hrs a day. Enjoy talking to people I game with on vent as the friendships and conversations make it a fun experience.
Each server personality is VERY different. If you look on the forum in each server forum, there is a post on server personality. That might help you make a more educated choice.
My server Hind, is recognise for lots of helpfull players and many strong clan/allies.
Other servers have alot more intense pvp, all the time. Others are recopgnised for having 1 dominant allaince. Others are named "unnoffical role playing server".
Teon and Franz are located in Europe. This also means that event times are Europeean friendly. This is very imporatant since you probably dont want to wake up/go to sleep at very weird hours cause your ally is seiging or something along those lines.
An alliance is composed of 3 clans and each clan holds 20 to 100+ members depending on its level. Do big clans take in new people? Again it depends on your server. In general , large clans tend not to take in new players.
Since our last major upgrade an academy system has been implemented. This should incourage in theory big allies to take in new members but they often just fill the academy with their alts. Its not uncommon to see people shouting in game wanting to recruit ONLY lvl 60+ toons. However, there are many smaller clans recruiting players of all level.
But Frankly in this game it doesnt really matter. People chnage clans so often you cant keep track of anything. Join a nice friendly clan when you start out, lvl with them get to know them. You can choose to stay with them or not. You get your gear through crafting it, not raids, so it doesnt matter how many times you change clans.
You get your gear through crafting it, not raids, so it doesnt matter how many times you change clans.
Wow, I didn't read that anywhere. So, the gearing up is more along the line of SWG where the items are crafted. I thought that the gear was crafted and drops.
Interesting I played SWG as well and I like the crafting side of the game...Didn't like how the quality of the minerals and stuff made a diff in the end result though.
Are mage classes or bow classes more welcome at end game level? Say, lvl 65+
I'm playing on the Hindemith server and I'm getting a pin of 285 and most of the time it's quite playable and don't have any problems. (The other servers range from 161 to over 400)
to add to what shrimpstoo said, while yes you need to craft gear you dont have to either.
gear does SOMETIMES drop from raids, but most of the bosses under level 61 don't drop much in terms of full items. what you get from raids in this game are EXP (a nice chunk) and SP (used for buying skills).
if youre looking for ranged DPS, i dont know that youll find much that would suit you.
if you favoured the Warlock in wow, youll appreciate the Necromancer in L2. however they are very radically different to play.
there are archer classes and the often neglected summoner and orcish classes that you may just want to peek at.
as a mage in wow, you would be great as an Overlord or Warcrier.
out of the two, take the warcrier for the all important buffs and the insane nerf that did not hinder them with bows (all mystic classes get penalized in accuracy and cast speed - except if youre a prophet or a warcrier cause you can buff yourself to high heaven <--- this is a debated issue, but i havent yet seen a nerf that really killed the warcrier or overlord yet.)
i say this because warcrier and overlord get nukes that work well. as well as "seals" that do AOE stuff like root, sleep, poison, etc.
as a summoner you will often find yourself short of cash, but you will rearely find an easier time soloing.
pre-level-40 you roll as a wizard. you nuke, and play that role. after level 40 (but really beginning to shine around 58) your summons become your weapons. you play slave to it, as it tanks (a helluva lot better than voidwalker) or it nukes, or it AOE's, whichever race of summoner you are you will do some of these things.
after the "low" (they aint so low) levels, your time in this game will become somewhat easier as a summoner. you dont need great gear to level with, and you need only to provide for your summons.
the archer route is one that needs not a lot of 'splaining. just one thing to make sure you understand before you begin the short, easy and well travelled road of an archer: DONT use soulshots except in DIRE situations. you probably have no idea what a soulshot is, so let me put it to you this way: a soulshot will DOUBLE your melee damage output, but at a cost; you see each weapon in the game requires the use of multiple soulshots. everything up to B grade uses more than 1 soulshot every time you use them. bows use in the area of 7-9 shots and can cost sometimes over 150adena per use. useing them constantly makes you poor (and fast). so use them when you NEED a double damage shot.
archers in pvp really dont have much to contend with anymore except each other. there are so many archers that pvp is non existant for anything but a ranged class. i.e. its not pvp, its uds. U Die Sucka. if you didnt die, well either you got lucky, or took on a noob.
some free advice: play something NEUTRAL before you head into crazy highly skilled classes like orcish and summoners. and get some grind music. this game will take you a while.
Aight, well first off Welcome to L2. If you had 3 lvl 60s in WoW u will hopefully enjoy the grind somewhat in L2. I left l2 fora while to try wow and had a 60 myself but i just thought wow was to boring. Anyways, id have to also recommend Hindemith, the people are cool and i and also just tryin to get more new people :p.
Being a mage in WoW and then looking for a ranged dps(better known as a DD-Damage Dealer-in L2) id say u would probly enjoy the SH. Good for PvP and Pve, most powerful Nuker with a decent cast speed. The Warcryer or Overlord is a little bit more in the other direction, those are support classes that buff ppl, equal to a druid or shaman in WoW. But takes a couple tries sometimes to find the character thats right for you.
About clans. Id say the best thing to do for someone who is new to L2 is just talk to some people you come across in the lower lvl towns. People are Generally friendly and willing to help others out (if they can). Sometimes a smaller clan is better cause people get to know each other and are more interested in helping each other. Finding a clan shouldnt be hard especially with people looking to pick up some lowbies for academy points. Good luck with whatever you decide on feel free to ask anymore questions.
Are mage classes or bow classes more welcome at end game level? Say, lvl 65+
65+ is hardly end game. 65 is noobie tbh.
allow me to explain.
at 61 you can use a grade, and 76 you can use s grade and get lots of really special uber skills that 75- doesn't even come CLOSE to.
you talked about the archer route... well, the top a grade bow has the slowest attack speed, and quick recoverty for its pvp SA. qr basically makes you shoot more shots per minute, about 15% more.
the s grade bow is much faster attack speed, much higher attack power, and has focus SA, the only bow in the game with it. quite overpowered compared to anyone without this.
a 75- archer stands 0% chance of beating a 76+ with drac focus.
as for mages... 76+ mages get nukes called vortexes which have FAR higher attack power and debuffs than 75- nukes. these are the difference between 2 shot and 5 shotting someone.
the only way a 75- mage can beat a 76+ mage is by timing their nuke JUST RIGHT so to spell cancel the vortex... which you can do if you're good.
out of the two, take the warcrier for the all important buffs and the insane nerf that did not hinder them with bows (all mystic classes get penalized in accuracy and cast speed - except if youre a prophet or a warcrier cause you can buff yourself to high heaven <--- this is a debated issue, but i havent yet seen a nerf that really killed the warcrier or overlord yet.)
Actaly, ALL mystics got the pole+bow nerf.
And the recent potion change on top of mana use increase on drains prety much killed ablity of OL and WC to kill stuff in pvp, if opponent spams potions. We simply run out of mana and cant heal ourcelf with drains due to opponent always having CP.
I'm playing on the Hindemith server and I'm getting a pin of 285 and most of the time it's quite playable and don't have any problems. (The other servers range from 161 to over 400)
I play on Hindemith and am in the Boston area. I get a ping of 29.
I also play a spellhowler and we are fun to have along on raids.
Well, I tried a couple classes and decided to go towards a spellsinger... Just didn't care for the look and feel of the DE's. Hit lvl 14 in about 3-3.5hrs(Watching Blackhawk Down while leveling) Seems kinda fast...I'm not doing many quests...Just killing mobs I can drop with ease like any other grinding game.
I'm glad I did take that teleport quest though as it got me a nice chunk of change to buy all my gear with a lil left over...Tons of Pollen dropped and people were paying a lot for it...It's no use to me atm...Hopefully I didn't make a mistake by selling it all....Got almost a million from that stuff.
I have a feeling this is going to play a lot like my mage did in wow... I'm having fun, just haven't met anyone yet...Seems like a ton of Dwarves running all over.
Well, I tried a couple classes and decided to go towards a spellsinger... Just didn't care for the look and feel of the DE's. Hit lvl 14 in about 3-3.5hrs(Watching Blackhawk Down while leveling) Seems kinda fast...I'm not doing many quests...Just killing mobs I can drop with ease like any other grinding game.
I'm glad I did take that teleport quest though as it got me a nice chunk of change to buy all my gear with a lil left over...Tons of Pollen dropped and people were paying a lot for it...It's no use to me atm...Hopefully I didn't make a mistake by selling it all....Got almost a million from that stuff.
I have a feeling this is going to play a lot like my mage did in wow... I'm having fun, just haven't met anyone yet...Seems like a ton of Dwarves running all over.
Not to dissuade you but spellsingers have a bit of downtime as their mana management is as good as the other mages.
And us Dark Elves are **** as hell with a gleam of danger in our eyes.
There is a spell from another classes. Elven Elder and Shilein elder, those are the support mystics of elven races. There are potions, but they only can be used every 10 minutes and dont give too much. Spelhowler and Necromancer also got skill called body to mind, it transfers your own hp to mana. Sorceror also got this skill, but only level one, and at high levels its not very helpfull. Spellsingers have a selfbuff which increases their mana regen, but its far not as good as body to mind skill.
Greetings. I played L2 for about 6 months prior to WoW coming out and played WoW for about 2 years now. I'll head back when BC is released in January most likely. Mana regen is mostly from sitting down and from the herbs that drop (anyone can pick up drops so keep that in mind, no corpses to loot and no mob tagging). I think that only DE mystics or wizards (can't rememeber the spell level) have body to mind which is like a Warlock's Mind Tap or Soul tap can't remember the name. It's only not a 1 to 1 ration its more like 22 Mana for 150 health but it helps. I have little downtime with my DE Wizard.
Grinding in L2 is much higher than in WoW mid 30's leveling speed in L2 is similar to mid 50's leveling speed in WoW. Some other differences are that almost nothing drops from mobs except some materials and occasionally a piece of gear maybe once a week or more depending on how much you play. Money Adena/Gold is all. You can't really Raid or run dungeons for gear its all crafted by Dwarf artisans (only one class and race can make gear unlike in WoW). So that means anything above level 39 gear is made by players. 1-20 = no grade, 21-39 = D grade, 40-59 = C grade and so on.
Closest thing to a Mage is SpellHowler probably, Rangers are your ranged attack class (almost now skill usage as you need to save all your mana for shooting your bow) Light elves make good rangers. an L2 warlock or Phantom summoner is similar to a WoW warlock and Survival spec hunter. The summon will tank and you are a melee dps assist while buffing and healing the summon.
I appologize for all the previous posts, lol. Some peope just have to have their "I'm better than everyone, hear me roar" momments. I hope this didn't turn you off to the player base of L2. Forum junkie megalomaniacs asside, l2 players are a fun lot (yes, I am hypocrite for saying this, but hold the flames for another time please).
In terms of Comparing L2 to WoW... it realy can't be done. The classes do not translate well into one another, none of the classes in either game are quite comparable to the classes in the other.
In general, MMOs follow the same curve however, so if you injoy ranged DPS classes, than you will have two choices here; Nukers or Archers. While They tend to monopolize most of the PvP aspect of the game, other classes shine a little brighter in PvE.
Raids are, not to dissapoint, a thing of the past here in L2. Sinse c4 and c5 the Legendary Raid Bosses are about the only ones worth attempting anymore, sinse the payoff for the effort involved is a joke now on lesser Raids.
To answer your question regarding clans and new players; Yes, you can find a home almost anywhere now, just understand that it will almost certainly be a temporary home, as you outlive your usefulness to any established clan at lvl 40. My advice is to take your time and find a nice clan home to players of a mindset like your own and be loyal, you will get more out of the game that way (in terms of enjoyment and the social aspect).
As far as servers are concerned, they vary greatly in many ways. Europeans server are far more populous, and thus more likely to have more lag and loggin issues. and the non Euro servers are consistantly less troublesome.
Another forum member has already been kind enough to direct you to the section of this forum dedicated to the servers and their "personalities". I also reccomend you visit them and see what they are like.
As for your last question about the homes at 65+... by then you should already be at home in a clan of your choosing. 65 is not end game, as was so credatiously poitned out by another member, but is not "newbie" by any means. The exp curve in L2 is much larger than in WoW... after a solid month in WoW you can reach lvl cap, but after a month here you'll be lucky to see 52 without some serrious outside help.
That in mind, get comfortable, and enjoy the saty here at L2, relax and let yourself have a good time. Don't let the larger clans or the "veterans" of the game sway you from playing the game your way and having fun.
Yeah >< 2 years latter and my highest toon is 64.... go casual playing!
As for the OP concern for mp and dowtime:
At higher levels the Spell Howler will get this awsome skill called "body to mind". It does just that, converts your health to mana. A good spell howler thats good at his class and plays it well should not have ANY downtime. If you hunt in areas that drop mana/health potions you shouldnt run out of mp.
Spell Howlers hit "slow" but hard. (your gear will completly compensate for the initial lack of casting speed)
I myslef have just started out making a Spell Signer. Shes currently lvl 34 and I found if I hunt mobs than I can 1-2 shot in areas that drop potions, I do not run out of mana. However, they do not have the body to mind skill that Spell Howlers have. Spell signers hit fast but have weaker nukes. Then run out of mana FAST. You have to completly rely on those pots and/or an Elder to recharge you (give you their mana).
If you think the lleveling is fast atm, it will get ALOT slower....
At higher levels the Spell Howler will get this awsome skill called "body to mind". It does just that, converts your health to mana. A good spell howler thats good at his class and plays it well should not have ANY downtime.
Spellhowler's are the only "Nuker" with the ability to recover mana fast? (I absolutely hate downtime and I'm already having downtime) It's better to switch now before I get to far into leveling...Maybe I will get used to the DE's running bent over.
My Fav spell on my Warlock did the same thing as the body to mind spell from the sound of it.
Are there any Orc nukers? I love the way they look, but from the skills list it looks like they are mele or a support caster class.
Will I have a hard time finding C & B class gear as most of the stores I have looked at while browzing Giran were A & S with HUGE asking prices.
One last thing...How can I move my gear from my current character to a new one I create without risk of someone grabing it off the ground? The freight service?(Seems kinda pricey but probably the only way to do it without a 2nd acct)
BTW, I love the graphics of this game although It crashes on me once every 3-4hrs with some error.
Spellhowler's are the only "Nuker" with the ability to recover mana fast?
Human wisards get low levels of body to mind spell, but only the Nekromanser gets the higher levels of that skill.
Warloc doesnt realy needs body to mind, since he got a cat that can cast recharge spell at the owner. And at later levels warloc, same as any summoner spends mp on buffs and heals of the cat, since nukes start failing more and more often and there are no new nukes for the summoners.
Are there any Orc nukers? I love the way they look, but from the skills list it looks like they are mele or a support caster class.
There are no orc nukers classes. Both WC and OL are buffer and fighter hybrids with some attacking magic. OL's also got lots of different debuffs (curses) but the landrate on most of them leaves allot of room for improvement..
Will I have a hard time finding C & B class gear as most of the stores I have looked at while browzing Giran were A & S with HUGE asking prices.
There is the Luxor Shop in Giran, it sells low and mid-C items for mix of C and D crystals. Then you can upgrade wearpon to best C at blacksmith of mammon with anchient adena.
And I see lots of B grade for sale in Giran on my server. What server are you at?
ow can I move my gear from my current character to a new one I create without risk of someone grabing it off the ground?
Yes, it's freight. Costs 1k per item (or stack of items). Other then that it's giving to someone to hold or dropping items on the ground, both of which are risky. I, however havent had any problems with dropping items on a ground, but neverless, I only do that when I'm transfering ton of random mats from my main to my dwarfie.
At higher levels the Spell Howler will get this awsome skill called "body to mind". It does just that, converts your health to mana. A good spell howler thats good at his class and plays it well should not have ANY downtime.
Spellhowler's are the only "Nuker" with the ability to recover mana fast? (I absolutely hate downtime and I'm already having downtime) It's better to switch now before I get to far into leveling...Maybe I will get used to the DE's running bent over.
My Fav spell on my Warlock did the same thing as the body to mind spell from the sound of it.
Are there any Orc nukers? I love the way they look, but from the skills list it looks like they are mele or a support caster class.
Will I have a hard time finding C & B class gear as most of the stores I have looked at while browzing Giran were A & S with HUGE asking prices.
One last thing...How can I move my gear from my current character to a new one I create without risk of someone grabing it off the ground? The freight service?(Seems kinda pricey but probably the only way to do it without a 2nd acct)
BTW, I love the graphics of this game although It crashes on me once every 3-4hrs with some error.
body to mind takes a LOT of hp, and turns it into a TINY bit of MP. not the same as wow at all. spellhowlers and NECROMANCERS regenerate the mana quickly not only by using body to mind, but also one of their nukes is Vampiric claw, which drains the health of your victim by a LOT and returns some of your health.
orc nukers arent really orc nukers. they both have their uses, but warcrier and overlord cannot be considered nuker classes. one thing they DO have though is a more powerful life draining skill. it drains just like the Spellhowler skill, but returns up to 80% of your lost HP. it doesnt cast fast though, so it really isnt spammable. but get the right setup, and that can change fast. play this class ONLY if you like to buff people. this is your primary role.
C and B gear is available in Giran town, in 2 places: the luxury shop (which sells items to you at a cost of D and C crystals instead of adena) or if you want some of the C and B items that arent featured in the luxury shop, youll need to do some HARD looking, cause although there are millions of dorfs selling A and S parts/full items, there are countless others that just sell lower grade stuff. its by far easier to craft, but comes with lower overhead. consequently, lower profit margins. look for shops for C stuff in Dion, or giran, and for B stuff, well, giran or the monster track. but dont go the the track, youll get scammed >.<
the freight service is the only way to do it safely, and whatever you do DO NOT trade items to ANYONE that claims they will hold them for your alt.
btw those huge asking prices are not so huge after a while. after 3 years i can safely say i will blow 1 mil adena per day in shots, or on clannies and not bat an eyelash.
Looking from your posts it looks like you wanna stick to mages so, Spell Howlers and Necromancers are the best at managing mp with their body to mind ability. Spell Howler is probably your better choice duo to the fact that Necros need cursed bones for thier main attack and those bones add up to a lot of money in the long run. The other ranged attacker with good dps is archer which has little trouble managing mp with a cheap shot bow and new skill in c5 thats an archer body to mind called pain of sagi. Either one you pick youll enjoy. both are good at pve and pvp. If your still having trouble managing mp, make friends with a Shillien Elder or an Elven Elder. they have mp recovery skill.
If you like nukers the spellhowler is the one to choose. The SH nukes like no other nuker and by using body to mind (to convert your hp into mp) and using corpse life drain (you take hp from a corpse) instead of vampiric claw will make you have no downtime at all. In my opinion using corpse life drain is much better than vampiric claw just because both gives you nearly the same hp and vampiric claw spends like 80% more mp then hurricane spell (nuke) and the corpse life drain uses like 50% less mp than hurricane. Just kill the mobs with hurricane and use the corpse life drain on the corpses leaving vampiric claw only for an emergency.
The necromancer is also a good choice but not for your first char because the only nuke the necro gets needs cursed bones and you must buy them, making this char a very expensive char, not good for someone starting the game.
Please note that this classes are lvl 40+.
I hope you can understand everything I wrote, I really tried to make sense but sometimes it's hard when you are writting a foreign language.
Dark Elf Mystic > DE Wizard > Spellhowler is what you are looking for. At lvl 36 I rarely have any downtime with herbs. Typically you are 1,2 or 3 shoting mobs depending on what you hunt and if you used Spiritshots (2x damage for that spell cast) or Blessed Spiritshots (4x damage for that spell cast).
Try out your Summon shadow spell after level 20 and see how you like it (talk to the summon to see it's control bar and then add attack to your control bar). This will give you a little flavor of a Phantom Summoner. Summoners are a tad like a Hunter that Melee's instead of gun/bow with a little Priest mixed in (buff and heal summon).
well OP, you seam to have made up your mind on a nuker class.. The spellsinger.
Shrimpstoo did a good write-up of what we are about.
I play one myself and i would not turn him in for any other class and believe me i've tried them all.
There are by far the best partner an SE/Saint can have when u want to XP/lvl xtreamlly fast.
I would sugest that you befriend a few SO/SE's to conteract that MP problem at higher lvls.
Your right that mp pots are more then enuff right now to keep you going, but u will eventually need the hlp of a SE to duo with. (minimum)
The fast casting speed is awsome and for me, far outweighs the other negative things a Sps might have.
Try it for a couple more lvls and if u still enjoy it, get urself some SE friends and go clean up Aden.. :)
As for servers, i think Lionna without any doubt is the best server. :p
Welcome to L2, hope you stick around for a while....