Hello All,

I was curious about playing L2.  I had an old account from the launch days which teh log-in and everything eludes me and since I don't have the original cases, etc.  I can't claim them since I don't have the CD key.  Anyway, I miss playing and was wondering if it was still possible to start a fresh character?  And also on that note I was wondering what the best server is and if anyone knows any new player friendly clans.  I'm a very social gamer and I know Lineage 2 is one of those games where support of friends and clanmates really make or break a gaming experience.  Anyway, thank you for your time.

-Raven

  With Goddess Of Destruction and the new Free To Play comming it is a good time to start playing. The game has 2 severs atm which are Chronos for US and Naia for Euro. Both have healthy populations. I still see alot of low level clans so you can find a clan but in Lineage 2 you have to be social so dont expect a clan to just come to you.  If you need a trial key let me know.

Sure.  I am a very social player.  I'm not the one who waits around.  I typically will start looking for a clan the moment I log in.  Not afraid of grinding either so long as it does get to the point of killing 500 mobs of equal level for 1% xp gain.

Where are you from Ravenmane?  As Mannish already mentioned, Lineage II will go Free2Play soon, but for European players there are some things to consider.

1. The European server (Naia) will be phisically moved to the US. If you're playing from Western Europe, latency should not be a big deal (I started on Devianne and had ~90ms then), but players from Eastern ans Southern Europe might get lag issues. I've already heard of players from Eastern Europe who had pings of 300ms and more on Chronos. A lot of players of Naia already have announced to drop NCWest as their L2 host and either hop to Innova or quit playing :(
2. Innova will start the European servers 'on the last days of fall' (my guess half December) and will launch Goddess of Destruction right away, while NCWest still hasn't announced a date :(
3. Innova servers will have a slightly Pay2Win cash shop (translated list here), but chances to get these actual Pay2Win items from the boxes in the cash shop are very low I heard.

Thanks for the input.  Well I am western U.S.  So I think it shouldn't be a problem.  I'm just wondering who to talk to start knowing people beforehand since I don't know people IRL who play.

Lineage 2 was my first MMORPG experience.  I started playing it at launch and had an awesome time in spite of it's grind and drawbacks in the early days.  I regret leaving it behind entirely, but was talked into going to WoW at launch by some of my RL friends.  I'm long quit from WoW and eagerly awaiting my return to L2 when F2P hits.  :)

Originally posted by Ravenmane

Sure.  I am a very social player.  I'm not the one who waits around.  I typically will start looking for a clan the moment I log in.  Not afraid of grinding either so long as it does get to the point of killing 500 mobs of equal level for 1% xp gain.

Thats not so much of a problem, its killing 10,000 mobs to get a weapon drop around your level to use to level up thats the problem.

Originally posted by Ravenmane

Thanks for the input.  Well I am western U.S.  So I think it shouldn't be a problem.  I'm just wondering who to talk to start knowing people beforehand since I don't know people IRL who play.

Mannish for sure I think. He's on Chronos and I bet he knows most players there by heart ;)

Originally posted by csthao

Originally posted by Ravenmane

Sure.  I am a very social player.  I'm not the one who waits around.  I typically will start looking for a clan the moment I log in.  Not afraid of grinding either so long as it does get to the point of killing 500 mobs of equal level for 1% xp gain.

Thats not so much of a problem, its killing 10,000 mobs to get a weapon drop around your level to use to level up thats the problem.

I don't know how famillar you are with the game in it's recent shape, but I can assure you it definitely isn't that hard anymore. I played the game about 6 months ago and they had cheap versions of weapons in npc stores, downside of them is you cannot enchant or put an SA on them. There also are shadow weapons and events that help you A LOT in making adena. The game isn't even that grindy anymore, you levelup fairly fast these days.

Also, if anyone decides to sub for at least 30 days now, they get an S-grade weapon for free, which is fully enchantable and these weapons can also hold SA.

Originally posted by greenmann

Originally posted by csthao

Originally posted by Ravenmane

Sure.  I am a very social player.  I'm not the one who waits around.  I typically will start looking for a clan the moment I log in.  Not afraid of grinding either so long as it does get to the point of killing 500 mobs of equal level for 1% xp gain.

Thats not so much of a problem, its killing 10,000 mobs to get a weapon drop around your level to use to level up thats the problem.

I don't know how famillar you are with the game in it's recent shape, but I can assure you it definitely isn't that hard anymore. I played the game about 6 months ago and they had cheap versions of weapons in npc stores, downside of them is you cannot enchant or put an SA on them. There also are shadow weapons and events that help you A LOT in making adena. The game isn't even that grindy anymore, you levelup fairly fast these days.

Also, if anyone decides to sub for at least 30 days now, they get an S-grade weapon for free, which is fully enchantable and these weapons can also hold SA.

Can't agree more there about L2 being less grindy then a couple of years ago. I started in C4 myself on official servers (May 2006) and had a hard time leveling (and gaining adena for that matter). Over time, I managed to get till level 68 somewhere in 2009 and took a break (because of the bots, exploits and that kind of stuff). When I returned in May this year I was still a lowbee. From then to now (yesterday...) I managed to get level 83 on one of the least wanted classes in parties (Maestro) and 68 in my bladedancer sub (didn't overly play that one).

Also, the game has been made 'cheaper' as well in many ways, with everything up to mid B- and A-grade available in the stores - and kill my profit from crafting it >:( - as well as those cheap common items and the (limited use) shadow weapons you get for nearly free. That while adena drops in general have gone up a bit...

About the Bonanza you mention... It's not only a free S-grade weapon. It's about 45M worth in crystals S, so if you're not using the weapon, you can sell the crystals from it. And if you get a dagger or sword (1 handed), you can sell it for even more, since those are highly wanted to make duals....

Right now, pre Goddess. you can get to lvl 20+ in a day and 40+ in a week of playing medium casual. With moderate effort you can get to 76+ in a month or so and from there you are within level range for grouping up with the current max level characters. It does slow down pretty considerably from there, especially after lvl 79. But you have to realize that the end game is structured much different from a game like WoW. In WoW, if you are lvl 84.999 you are crap. Endgame in WoW starts at 85 with getting geared and working your way though heroics and grinding reputation. You grind but you do it after hitting max level rather than grinding TO max level. There in lies the difference. In L2 once you get to lvl76+ or S grade it is much like having reached lvl 85 in WoW with your quest blues. S grade is the beginning (currently) of the endgame for L2. Don't think you can go toe to toe with a pimped out lvl 85 as a fresh S grader but you will be fully participating in territory war and you will be grouping up with lv 85 clannies. Roughly speaking, being lvl 76 in l2 is like being a fresh lvl 85 in wow with quest and dungeon blues. lvl 80 in l2 is like being finally being epic'd out from heroics and ready to start doing raids with a bare minimum necessary gear score. lvl 85 with gear in l2 is like being lvl 85 in wow with best in slot gear, bored of farming the current raid tier and waiting for the next update.

So you can grind gear and rep or you can grind exp and adena. Take your pick. But IMO, L2 is better suited in its form of grinding toward being a social game. It is hard to explain but getting in a exp grind group with a full group of clannies might seem boring from the outside but it is actually very relaxing and fun. Hanging out with friends, chatting, mowing down enemies until a half group of half wits trains half the area on you because they over estimated their uberness, everything goes to hell, you and your mates pull it though by the skin of your teeth or you wipe spectacularly but either way you laugh about it and have a good time. Yeah it is a grind game but it is also a very social game.

And with Goddess coming soon, the leveling curve is going to be smoothed out even more. Getting to even 85 will be more like getting to 76 and I suspect 90+ will be the new endgame.

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Originally posted by VikingGamer
lvl 85 with gear in l2 is like being lvl 85 in wow with best in slot gear, bored of farming the current raid tier and waiting for the next update.

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Snipped off the whole thing before, because it was a good comparison to WoW I think. But the above statement it not entirely true IMO. Having maxed out your class to 85 is NOT where in WoW you've had all epics and are bored of playing... You forgot to mention that at 76 you can pick a subclass and level that one too (up to 3 subclasses total, maximum level 80). These subclasses give you passive skills (12 total) that an be used on you main (85) class.
And when you're 85/80/80/80, then you're 'done' leveling... Though you'll still need the SP for your skill enchants ;)

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Originally posted by VikingGamer
So you can grind gear and rep or you can grind exp and adena. Take your pick. But IMO, L2 is better suited in its form of grinding toward being a social game. It is hard to explain but getting in a exp grind group with a full group of clannies might seem boring from the outside but it is actually very relaxing and fun. Hanging out with friends, chatting, mowing down enemies until a half group of half wits trains half the area on you because they over estimated their uberness, everything goes to hell, you and your mates pull it though by the skin of your teeth or you wipe spectacularly but either way you laugh about it and have a good time. Yeah it is a grind game but it is also a very social game.

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Oh, the memories of Forge of Gods (bug spot, corner knights) where everyone just passed through with a train on his tail. And yeah, who was the one to clean up the mess..?

And yeah, L2 is a very social game. We've had long chats while XPing. Bot in the game's party chat as on TS. I really made some (online) friends there. Good thing a lot of them will hop to Innova as well!

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Originally posted by VikingGamer
And with Goddess coming soon, the leveling curve is going to be smoothed out even more. Getting to even 85 will be more like getting to 76 and I suspect 90+ will be the new endgame.

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15 day GTCs won't receive anything as a reward, right? You have to sub at least for 30 days?

Originally posted by greenmann

15 day GTCs won't receive anything as a reward, right? You have to sub at least for 30 days?

That is correct...

Aaaaand...Thread Resurrection!

I'm currently downloading the game, intent on playing the trial in anticipation of the F2P.  I've never researched the game.  Never participated in any of the game's forums (aside from this post).  Never even really heard much about the game.  Why try it, right?  I mean, if I've never even paid attention to anything L2, why give it a shot?  Well...I never heard anything about WoW, then bought it on a whim and played it for 4 or 5 years.

Now that I'm downloading the client, I've read up a little bit on the game, and it sounds like I could have some fun with it.  From some of the posts above, I think I could have some fun with it.  I figure what the hell, might as well try it out. 

If there's anything I should know that is utterly vital to NOT having fun with the trial (aside from the points mentioned above, such as the "you should really be social" recommendation), it would be greatly appreciated if someone could throw some basics at me here.

Thanks in advance, and hope to see you in game.

I recommend that you wait until f2p and new servers.

Myself im most likely leaving this game as the update comes out. : )

Originally posted by Kuro1n

I recommend that you wait until f2p and new servers.

Myself im most likely leaving this game as the update comes out. : )

Aye, I plan on waiting for the new server and f2p.  I figured I'd at least give the trial a shot so that when the new server opens up and I'm surrounded by others I'm not just starting to learn the game...

I strongly suggest to start on Chronos now, because it probably gonna be atleast a month for new server release and then we don't even know if transfers will be open or closed to those servers. You could be making friends, leveling and learning the game instead of waiting for it to release new servers.