Had to reformat my computer, so redownloading L2. While I wait, I'd like to be Mr. Obvious and discuss some things that seem somewhat worrisome to me, at the very least on the Shilen server.
First of all, half the ******* population is Dark Elf. Yeah, the stat bonuses and racials are pretty much superior, but holy **** I'm tired of seeing them. I once saw an Elf Archer. Once. He was a legend in my eyes, and I will never forget him. Just seems like Dark Elf dominates the race scene, and if not them, then it's Orc's because...
...there's ******* buffers everywhere. This is cool now, but when most people start awakening, then there's just going to be a billion Iss Enchanter's. If you played a buffer to get in parties, you probably chose the wrong class in the long run. I feel that 1/4 of the population is going to be Iss Enchanter, but I could be mistaken.
Speaking of numbers being pulled out of my ***, it seems like the most common classes are Archer (funny how they went from unplayed to unavoidable), Nuker, Buffer, and probably Summoner. I see some Healers, very few Daggers, even less Warriors, and an absolutely miniscule amount of Tanks.
The current leveling scene, if you're in the heart of it (which I am because I chose to reroll 2 days ago), you know that ranged classes are extremely common, as evident by the endless stream of KS you can do nothing about thanks to the new PK system. I'm not mad, I'm playing a Warcryer now, we're KSing machines, but sometimes when I KS someone, I kind of feel bad because the game must suck *** in their shoes, speaking particularly of classes like Tank and Warrior (not so much Dagger because they seem to be able to always just Shadow Step to the mob). Sucks, man.
All in all, right now everything seems to be in place, but seriously once people start hitting 85, the whole balance is going to be totally ****** up. Most parties won't want more than one Iss Enchanter in them, even though I arguably think that 2 Iss Enchanter's could be pretty **** amazing (they have a handful of long-cooldown but totally amazing party-wide buffs, 2 enchanters means 2x the uptime on said skills), that should probably be saved for another debate.
The point I'm making is that it seems like endgame is basically going to be Summoner, Wizard, Archer, and Enchanter, mostly. Which means it's ranged dominated. Is this really so surprising, though?
You ever try to hit a player or a mob that's running away from you as a melee? Notice how you NEVER hit them, but keep following them even if you're RIGHT behind them and run faster than them? This is the same with mobs, but perhaps when it comes to physical skills, it isn't as buggy.
Still, with things like the Archer being able to knock you back and hop forward and backward at ridiculous distances with short cooldowns, Wizards being able to pretty much do the same, it's no wonder that the scene is looking to be Ranged-class dominant.
I sure hope NCSoft does something, because even from what I've read, everyone says Wizard and Archer are the top classes in GoD. I actually rerolled away from a Phantom Ranger in light of just how many Archers there are. It's totally insane.
We'll see.