I'm an old returning player and I'm just chocked of how things are now. See my example as a Phoenix Knight if I choose the awakened class.
Touch of life, gone.
Soul of the Phoenix, gone.
Flame Icon, gone.
Spirit of the Phoenix, gone.
Pretty much gone is the class I love and gone is my desire to play the game. I know, I know, the Sigel Knight have "MOAR POWERFULLLL!1!1!!" skills as everyone would say, but I DON'T CARE. I loved my Phoenix Knight. Leveling a Paladin to get it was one ardue quest. I'm a returning player, I didn't blast my way thru levels like nowadays.
The Phoenix Knight is, well at least was, one class that only shined at higher levels, all the suckness of being a Paladin was paid off with an unique class that both tanked and supported the party, and when killed could come back to life, just how cool was that!?
Now what we get? A Ripoff of the Aion's Templar with pulls...And you are obliged to take it, like it or not. Weird, I feel that there was supposed to be a continuation of the classes, meaning, Dark Avenger should have a 4th class for himself and Phoenix Knight should have a 4th for himself either, but why they, and all the other Tank classes of other races all share the same class? Smells like rushed content to me, they just invented those eight classes there, putted in the game and called it "new content".
Now, of all the classes this game has, they are dumbed down to only eight in the endgame? One of Lineage 2's most appealing concepts, having a LOT OF CLASSES are now dumbed down to only 8, and on top of that people who awakened their characters are still happy about it only because the skills deals more damage? What about the unique gameplay each class had? GONE!
Guess I'm better off if I just take another three year break from L2.
you are not the first, nor will you be the last to make this complaint.
we have however seen both sides of the story in the 8 years this game has been around; we had a class change system that was clunky and hard, and bottlenecked with the spawn of bosses.
then we had a tiered system where some classes were simply non-factor. case in point dwarves classes during Interlude, with banishable siege golems and classes that when elemented were far exceeding more powerful than a siege golem ever dreamed.
then we had a lop-sides system where certain classes were favored as boxes and finding a high level one meant finding one that was either powerlevelled, or bought, or botted, because people just did not want them in party.
then we had these classes merge together. it made them actually very much better than their standalone parts, and helped bring class balance to a more even playing field.
we now have a system that is looking back upon its history and finding the uniqueness is what is missing, and while that is a detriment there will be some recourse in the future to bring uniqueness back.
the tanks in particular i feel didnt lose much in the way of uniqueness, as the things that made the 4 tank classes distinct and defined have been to a lesser degree dissolved. classes that lost uniqueness and distinction are the Mages and Warriors and all manner of support classes. spellhowlers giant Matk and self buffs are gone the way of the dinosaur. warriors able to use a variety of weaponry including polearms, and buffers offering something interesting and cool for special groups - all gone.
but not so much for Dagger classes, Archers, and Tanks. your roles stay the same, but your racial differences arent as pronounced as they were. thats all.
The previous class system didnt know the boundaries between aceptable and R-****. But ofc had to mention one of the most OP classes and OP skills..coz being OP is what matters right? Most who complain about awakening are those who always played OPed classes that were acepted on everything.
The only reason i didnt like the new tank compared to SK as due to the cubics loss and long range debuffs, not becoz of a bloody OP skill. But guess what, those cubics and long range debuffs are coming back and won't make me OP. And there's way worse reasons not to play the game, all that matters is having fun.
i understand why they took away a lot of the OP nature of the game.
i hate how they also took away a lot of pride in class choice.
why play a class if you can play another class instead for the same, if not a better racial bonus.
i played a Dominator, with subs as cat summoner, sword muse, and paladin...
i chose to play harder classes, but classes which would be useful.
when they merged, i lost a lot, i cried in my sleep.
i still miss the way things were, but there are things which are good.
you can still find joy in playing, you just have to play to enjoy them.
although the red shaggy dog thing is not as good as the phoenix, it's got some potential.
also, they are considering changing classes again, although i doubt it will work out as intended, hard to fix, and recreate the old gold days of 'fore.
You could not awaken and keep your skills as is. You would level normally as a Phoenix Knight and can use R grade gear. But then no one would accept you in parties because parties are screaming for awakened tanks.
tanks are hot commodities. If you can get one over 90 you're sitting pretty good with getting parties and doing instances. Iss Enchanters are a dime dozen unless you're in a constant party or have a clan.
"Weird, I feel that there was supposed to be a continuation of the classes, meaning, Dark Avenger should have a 4th class for himself and Phoenix Knight should have a 4th for himself either, but why they, and all the other Tank classes of other races all share the same class?"
Yeah, that was the rumor going around before GoD launched, then boom.. years of L2 history gone with one patch. Ask anyone who played dominator as a main... our class was completely wiped from the game, with only one of the domi's useful skills surviving. Orc mystic doesn't even exist end-game unless you use stone of destiny or dual-class.
"Most who complain about awakening are those who always played OPed classes that were acepted on everything."
Most who contend that awakening is an improvement to the game are private server trash who came to retail b/c it was free, levelled to 85 in less than a week, and didn't spend 2+ years levelling their toon in pre-vit, pre-GoD real L2 retail grind.
And somehow you see old players here playing without whining.
And most who say awakening was an improvement are retail players...:) most priv trash left long ago. And ofc those who don't like are free to leave.
The tears from soulhounds who couldnt spam steal buff? the cry of the spellhowlers that couldnt get amost 30% more m atk? the cry of the titans who couldnt go 1 hiting all?
I do agree that the new classes lack luster in comparison to the old ones and that they are too linear, but i do agree that they created a rare state of balance on the game (excluding that class that shoots deadly missiles w/ a bazooka, what was it called? oh yeah, yul archer =P).
Maybe on the new diversification path coming after lindvior, the developers will be more careful on the development of the individual classes and won't repeat the same mistakes trying to innovate without considering the present reality of the game (unless you consider a class that can steal buffs hit hard w/ magic and physically move way faster than any character w/ topped speed, who has btw quite a good arsenal of debuffs including a defensive anchor, something other than a mistake).
I don't find the new classes to be appreciably different compared to the old ones.
While some people may feel they lost something important, the fact of the matter is that the previous class system was impossible to balance and unfairly short changed too many classes whereas this one should be much easier to balance. However the difference in racial skills and stats likely still makes things too difficult for the NCSoft designers.
But all in all the small loss some skills are more than compensated for by the potential for greater balance.
And of course some classes got a lot more than they lost. Well that might be limited solely to some of the DD classes, healers and buffers.
Weird, I feel that there was supposed to be a continuation of the classes, meaning, Dark Avenger should have a 4th class for himself and Phoenix Knight should have a 4th for himself either, but why they, and all the other Tank classes of other races all share the same class? Smells like rushed content to me, they just invented those eight classes there, putted in the game and called it "new content".
this is called "Class Diversification", and we will get it soon, dont worry. Maybe you wont be that OP as you used (and enjoyed) to be in old times, but at least you will be able to call yourself a "proud" Sigel Phoenix Knight.
As for others crying rivers in the posts above, I feel this will never end. Already one year far from GoD launch and still now people is getting mad on their ***** 'cause the OP mode all they way is gone.
Agree that awakening ruined this game. well, maybe not ruined, but it feels cheap now. the real game is still 1-85 but it goes by so fast a new player would never know what they were missing. And strongly disagree with what people are saying about OP classes and balance. Most of us have gone through chronicles where we were strong and others where we were garbage. I sure as hell remember when gladiators were near useless. Do you remember when kamael's had to have souls to use skills? The rise and fall of necros or sps? Unless you were a dwarf, you're class was probably strong at some point in time.
And the point that the OP was trying to make is that even if his class was OP at end game, it was a pain to level up to the point where it paid off, and was a class you didn't see very often because of that. There was actually some sense of accomplishment rather than just breezing through everything and thinking, wow that's it?
Maybe it will get better with chapter 3, but I doubt it will be the same as before. They need to just get the original devs back.
You could bot all the way to last level anyway before, what does "sense of acomplishment" matter here? Nothing. It was about beng OPed and having that taken away with a single strike on a very large scale, these players jut use the awakening thingie as an excuse to flee from oficial. And b4 you say it was hard to bot or there was bans, a RL friend botted 6 chars during 1 year here on hellbound/gracia, got to 83 on paladin and left laughing.
I'm an old returning player and I'm just chocked of how things are now. See my example as a Phoenix Knight if I choose the awakened class.
Touch of life, gone.
Soul of the Phoenix, gone.
Flame Icon, gone.
Spirit of the Phoenix, gone.
Pretty much gone is the class I love and gone is my desire to play the game. I know, I know, the Sigel Knight have "MOAR POWERFULLLL!1!1!!" skills as everyone would say, but I DON'T CARE. I loved my Phoenix Knight. Leveling a Paladin to get it was one ardue quest. I'm a returning player, I didn't blast my way thru levels like nowadays.
The Phoenix Knight is, well at least was, one class that only shined at higher levels, all the suckness of being a Paladin was paid off with an unique class that both tanked and supported the party, and when killed could come back to life, just how cool was that!?
Now what we get? A Ripoff of the Aion's Templar with pulls...And you are obliged to take it, like it or not. Weird, I feel that there was supposed to be a continuation of the classes, meaning, Dark Avenger should have a 4th class for himself and Phoenix Knight should have a 4th for himself either, but why they, and all the other Tank classes of other races all share the same class? Smells like rushed content to me, they just invented those eight classes there, putted in the game and called it "new content".
Now, of all the classes this game has, they are dumbed down to only eight in the endgame? One of Lineage 2's most appealing concepts, having a LOT OF CLASSES are now dumbed down to only 8, and on top of that people who awakened their characters are still happy about it only because the skills deals more damage? What about the unique gameplay each class had? GONE!
Guess I'm better off if I just take another three year break from L2.