I should start by saying I think Linage2 is the best MMORPG on the market, else I would be playing a different game.
To new players, many of the issues highlighted in this post are seven years old and have long been rectified.
That being said I have unable been to express my shear disappointment at news there will be no PTS and made a couple of foolish posts. So I thought I would share with you my Lineage experience to date. As I foresee myself marking another decision I am unhappy with.
I played Lineage the blood pledge for many years, as I approached the famous or perhaps infamous level 52 I discussed with friends our ideal Lineage. We discussed in detail the diversity and level of emersion we would like. Not before long I heard of Lineage 2 and its development so when the opportunity to be on various different betas presented it self I jumped at all of them.
The first I played an elf with a bow and reached about level 12. There was a long break before the next beta so I found some fan sites, studied hard and chose a class biased on the race stats and skill list. I used the next beta to practice my levelling technique.
Finally Lineage 2 went Live! I bolted out the gate and quickly through the new player zone until level 14 where I started grinding my way through the spiders on Talking Island. It took a while but I hit level 20 and time to class change wohooo!!! So I started the quest to become a wizzard, whoah! A lot of running here :/ after running one leg of the quest several times I realised that the quest was buged and it wasn’t me making a mistake. So I hit /GM and waited…… & waited some more….. About 4 hours later a GM responded. I explained my situation, he informed me it was a known issue and put the quest item in my inventory, a few hours later I had completed my class change and was happy :)
I levelled my way up to level 35 in the forgotten temple and the golem plateau in the wasteland. Time for another quest hope this one runs soother than the last, about 1 week and a lot of running latter I was level 40 and my 3rd class. Hold on a minuet I can’t get my hands on the spell books I need, while talking with other players about my struggle with spell books, I learned that the problem would be solved in the next update.
Then I met a dwarf, this strange little childlike girl was asking if she could spoil my mops, she assured me that it had no effect on my experience or loot and I agreed, so we spent a couple of hours together just north of the river at the top of devils pass. While talking she explained spoiling to me and it sounded appealing. After all levelling was starting to get hard for me as I still only had level 35 skills.
The following day I went back to the fan site and researched the spoiler class, looks good on paper I thought. So I jumped in game and rolled a dwarf thinking I will make some adena for my main until the next update. Before long I was in the dwarven mines I found a free spot and started killing, about 30 minutes in, another player showed up. I greeted him but he ignored me so I carried on hunting. He started hunting next to me and then killing the very mop I was fighting. I spoke to him again and asked him to find another spot, again he replied with silence. After another 10 minutes I gave up and moved to another spot deeper in the mines, but the same thing happened with another player. So again in search of a spot I explored the mine to its very depths, but all I could find were players that would not talk to me.
With frustration I logged back on my main, after talking with my friends I was informed that those dwarfs in the dwarven mine where in fact farmers?!? Huh don’t you mean miners I replayed. My friends procided to explain what a farmer is and that, some of them do not even have player behind them.
Armed with this new information I logged back on my dwarf and made my way back into the mine, when I found a spot I liked a repeatedly attempted to converse with the play there. As expected he did not respond, Must A Farmer I Thought! So I typed /GM with the details of my experience and the farmers name and waited….. And waited…. And waited some more, several hours later the GM closed my petition, whoah what happened? I didn’t even get to talk to him.
With even greater frustration I logged back on my main, rushed to the warehouse striped out of my robes, ran to the local weapon shop and brought the cheapest staff on special offer. I set off in the direction Gludio and paid a Gatekeeper for her services to the Dwarven village. I ran straight out of the village and into the mine, headed down to the spot where the farmer I had petitioned about was hunting, I uttered some words and he fell to floor in ball of fire, it felt good, I could feel the frustration leaving me.
I logged back on my dwarf and hunted in the mine for about 10 minutes before he returned. Thinking he just ran here and there must be a player behind him, I attempted to open dialog. Again answered with silence and him killing the monster I was fighting…. The frustration grew…. I logged back on my mage, unleashed a fresh fireball…. Strike!!! Down fell the farmer. This repeated for quite a while each time he seemed to return faster than the last and each time I killed him less frustration was released.
At this point I was boiling over with frustration, when another player show ups. Great I thought we can unite against this farmer, but no he behaved in exactly the same way as the other guy. So I log back on my mage and kill them both, when the thought creeps into my mind… maybe if I kill them all…. So off I head deeper into the mine greeting each player I meet and waiting a prerequisite amount of time for a response before burning them in rage of fireballs.
With the aid of my mage eventually my dwarf left Elmore in search of greener pastures. It was a little while after this the next update was announced, with the excitement I quickly forgot about the dwarf as my attention turned back to the mage, and those sort after spell books. Only one problem remains, he is red and has whole bunch of bad karma. Better clear this up I thought, so I started to kill monsters but wait my karma is not going down! A little bit of investigation reveals that, you need to kill monsters in your level range, but there are no monsters high enough in Elmore. So I head back to town hoping to pay that nice Gatekeeper for her services again, but as I pass the town guard they strike me down with amazing efficiency.
Hmm this might be a problem I thought to myself, so I recruited some friends to come help, we lined up just outside of town, with a shout of “3,2,1 Charge!!!†we rushed the guards, the guards fell to ground and I was in! After thanking my friends for their assistance. I headed over to the warehouse for my robes and staff, as I would need them to kill monsters of my level, but wait he won’t talk to me? I don’t remember him warning me of this in his hurray to take money for storing my items. I rushed back to where my friends where standing and explained my predicament, with heavy persuasion one of them agreed to loan me a cheap staff they had.
Staff in hand I head off that lovely Gatekeeper, but it seems I am no longer in her favour either. Once again explaining my predicament to my friends, one of them informs me that I can lose karma by dyeing….. This doesn’t sound good I thought, but agreed that I had no other option.
Cleric at side I faced up in front of the guards, grit my teeth and took a step forward, I feel an arrow fly strait through my chest and my legs buckle. A few karma is removed, my heart sinks as the size of the task ahead dawns on me. The cleric calls on his holy powers and I arise from dead. We repeat this for quite some time before my karma is clean.
Now I’m facing a hard decision, my Main is now level 13 and my dwarf is 31, the new update is imminent and I don’t much fancy repeating those 27 levels on my mage. So I guess this dwarf is now my main.
It’s been a heard road since then with ups and downs, when the new update landed the dwarf really excelled. I was able to kill 5 people 1 by 1 in the arena 5 v 5 fights, it felt good, but there was a growing prejudice against my race.
The next update rebalanced my class, but now it seemed that I was no longer able to win any fights and playing with others was becoming increasingly difficult because the prejudice. I persisted with the class as I did not want reroll and repeat low levels and make it even harder to catch and level with my friends. As I continued to play I held faith that my class would be rebalanced again, and finally it came with high 5.
I can truly say that High 5 has been the first time I have enjoyed the class I chose since chronicle 1.
Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the game other this time or I would not still be here…. I enjoyed playing with my friends, seeing cool raids and buy / selling stuff in Giran, but I did not enjoy the role of my character.