Not many quests are good for XP past 40, really. There are a few, however, that are interesting to do.
Once you hit 40, you can try the Cruma Tower quest chain (GEE I so need to work on my guide for that). It doesn't involve killing mobs, and it gives quite a nice amount of XP. But after that, not much is good for XP.
The Pailaka instances are good for XP too. You can do the first at lvl 36, then the next one is at 61, then at 7x. But besides that? Not many other options, no.
Typically you'll just use quests for money, not the xp. At higher levels at least there will be several quests for most of the hunting spots, be sure to always pick them up as you'll just be getting extra free items from your grinding, often worth quite a bit of money.
After 40 quests are for 4 reasons only (unless you're very interested in the game lore).
1. Getting B, A, S grade material parts.
2. Getting B, A, S grade recipes.
3. Class changes/noble.
4. Free basic materials (places like Vos and FotD).
Agreed, although there is a quest or two in Forest of the Dead that provide not only XP, but a great storyline.
Also, hunting the Black Mages is a repeatable quest that gives you minimal XP, but since you have to grind anyway, it's an added bonus.
And speaking from experience, as soon as you're able to do the Ketra/Varka quests, do them. Some quests are just annoyingly, mind-numbingly boring, but you have to do them. "Go kill 100 of this...go back and kill 200 more of the same and 100 more of the other...go kill... blah, blah, blah...and then I'll give you my trust and a stuffed Elpy."
Player don't need a tutorial on what quests are for what. He just needs to be told that the developers don't know what an XP quest looks like, so they certainly don't have many in the game. The way the XP scales in this game, they NCSoft wouldn't have the money to pay developers to flesh out this game with quests.
You are probably used to games like WoW, AoC, EverQuest II, etc. that allow you (or force you, IRT EQ2) to quest form level 1 to 80, but Lineage II is the complete opposite. You are forced to grind from 20 to 85, and it ain't pretty. If you like the Quest-to-Level approach, quit now and don't waste your time. More than enough people are waiting for another game to catch their attention anyways, so it isn't worth playing a dying game.
Not worth it to play this game legitimately from scratch at the moment. If you aren't already 76+ (or 78+ TBH) you'll almost never catch up or will just end up a compulsive cheater like the other 90% of L2 players.
I think it is safe to say that L2 players enjoy the grind. Ok, you say you don't, but if you REALLY didn't, why would you play this game? Why do you keep coming back? You know why, it's that bright light and feathers falling from the sky. It's watching that gray bar inching forward. It's saying, Ding at levels 1-75, Mini-Ding! at lvl 75-77 at 10%, Mini-Ding at lvl 78 when you hit 1%, and "My God! I got .01%!!!" at lvl 79 and up after a large aoe pull in Forge.
I had the very positive experience of playing Age of Conan when it came out, where EVERYTHING was gained through quests. It was very fun. But the leveling was too fast, the content at high level wasn't finished, and what do you REALLY want when you finally hit level 80? A level ceiling simply meant you were done with that toon, so you had to go through the same quests on another toon to feel as through you were making progress and moving forward. After anther month and another lvl 80 toon, what's next? So I came back to L2 after two months, and haven't gone back.
I do think that Lineage suffers for creative quests at the lower levels. The Steel Citadel, which isn't perfected yet, seems to offer one of the most challenging (but still grind oriented) quests yet. Varka/Ketra quest also has some interesting challenges, and given it is necessary for 3rd class change, that offers incentive to do it.
It would be nice if NCSoft would add more versatile and complicated quests that are more puzzle oriented, but there will always be a grind component because that is what L2 is all about.
I think it is safe to say that L2 players enjoy the grind. Ok, you say you don't, but if you REALLY didn't, why would you play this game? Why do you keep coming back? You know why, it's that bright light and feathers falling from the sky. It's watching that gray bar inching forward. It's saying, Ding at levels 1-75, Mini-Ding! at lvl 75-77 at 10%, Mini-Ding at lvl 78 when you hit 1%, and "My God! I got .01%!!!" at lvl 79 and up after a large aoe pull in Forge.
Nope, can't say that I play it for the grind. If I really loved the grind, all of my characters would be level 80+ right now. But after 4 or 5 years of playing this game, I only have one toon in S grade...and he wouldn't be S grade, were it not for the Santa event. I HATE the grind.
But I do love playing the market and blowing things up. Right now I exist in the virtual world solely to enchant a +16 S Grade weapon. If only I could get 8 more Fine White Cubics, so that I can pop another enchant on my +8 Drac. Feel free to donate to the cause, though, if you'd like to expedite the process. :D
Everyone says "i hate the grind" or "i love the grind" but noone is ever in the middle, but i am. When i grind my motivation is quests. I hunt varka all day just for the badges. I hated hunting GoB because of the few amounts of quest that there are. I think the truth behind it all is ppl like the grind but have it fueled by quests. So basicly high lvl quest are ******* useless for xp but are only there for money/mats/recs, so basicly GRIND **** IT GRIND!
p.s. lvl 1-18 in 1hour and 34 minutes is my record lvl 12 is a joke.
I don't play this game for the grind at all. I admit there are times when I get in a zone, almost hypnotized but the flash of the soulshots on my swords and the lovely sound of one crit after another hoping that this mob will drop a vitality herb so my VP doesn't go down anymore. When I get like that I lose track of time and before I know it, I've run out of shots and curse having to get more because I know I won't get it going again until the next day.
There are people I know in this game and I miss them if I'm not playing but that's only a part of the reason I've played this game on and off since beta.
To be honest, I don't know why I play this game all the time. It's time consuming, tedious, repetitious, frustrating and everything is so ****ed expensive. It takes a few hours short of forever to accomplish anything and when you get there, you are still not done.
Regardless, I love playing this game. Perhaps it's because it was my first big MMO or because the combat system in this game is faster than others or because the graphics are great - I just don't know.
I don't play this game for the grind at all. I admit there are times when I get in a zone, almost hypnotized but the flash of the soulshots on my swords and the lovely sound of one crit after another hoping that this mob will drop a vitality herb so my VP doesn't go down anymore. When I get like that I lose track of time and before I know it, I've run out of shots and curse having to get more because I know I won't get it going again until the next day.
There are people I know in this game and I miss them if I'm not playing but that's only a part of the reason I've played this game on and off since beta.
To be honest, I don't know why I play this game all the time. It's time consuming, tedious, repetitious, frustrating and everything is so ****ed expensive. It takes a few hours short of forever to accomplish anything and when you get there, you are still not done.
Regardless, I love playing this game. Perhaps it's because it was my first big MMO or because the combat system in this game is faster than others or because the graphics are great - I just don't know.
That drives me insane sometimes.
The Combat is fast
like if you compare WoW mages to L2 nukers
you have WoW cast a spell in 4 seconds
you have L2 cast a spell in 0.4 seconds
For me,I like variety of play styles and places to lvl.So I have seven toons I lvl fairly equally.Leveling before vitality,I focused a lot on quests to help the lvls go faster.At lvl 40 every toon got the Coins of magic quest,and might do one of the Hunters license quests.I really liked Pavel Ruins for the quest there,completed it twice on two different toons.I've done the Frozen Lab quest,got my Royal mem. to do Kail's coins on two toons and hunted for them in Forsaken Plains.I've done the Cementry quest,and others that come from Aden.Other toons I just would focus on enjoying different catas/necros.The Varka etc quest is slower some what in a group,but the company you have while hunting makes it go faster some how.When I meet ppl that want to go go go lvl,I leave the group,I'm not loging into this game to get stressed out,thanks very much,lol.
you have WoW cast a spell in 4 seconds
you have L2 cast a spell in 0.4 seconds
Yes but the XP requirements are huge.
You can cast all you spells instantly, and it will hardly matter when you need to kill 500,000 mobs to gain a level. That's the only reason why the combat is faster (and DD/Nuker classes kill mobs in short time). At higher levels the mobs scale with the DPS output of DD classes so killing the mobs is not that fast.
You can cast all you spells instantly, and it will hardly matter when you need to kill 500,000 mobs to gain a level. That's the only reason why the combat is faster (and DD/Nuker classes kill mobs in short time). At higher levels the mobs scale with the DPS output of DD classes so killing the mobs is not that fast.
But isn't the massive amount of slaughtering why you love this game?
And also that goes for PvP as well not just leveling