I've heard this game requires more time to hit max level than ANY other mmo on the market. Is that true?

yes its true...but unlike other games you dont need to be max level to have fun, there are raids and dungons for all levels.

Not sure if 1000 is the magic number, seems low to me.   But it certainly is one of the longest games to level, probably only rivaled by FFXI. (among pay to play games that actually have a level cap)

My guess would be somewhere around 3 to 4 thousand hours.

Well let's just say it takes a long time.

I started in Prelude, used to be somewhat hardcore about leveling but had to take some breaks for fear of burning out. I can skill several mobs at my lvl (78) and only get .01%.

How, if I did more AOE parties then that would help. However, to keep that up at a constant rate would interfere with my life. So I just take it as it goes. I also have a lvl 53 subclass.

Level does help and quite frankly you are going to have to be lvl 71+ to be somewhat effective in castle sieges. However, you can have fun at any lvl. You just have to be patient and be in a good clan.

Most people use an alternative method... Which of course may or may not get you banned. I wouldn't say every level 80+ actually earned it, and even so it's not like World of Warcraft. Max Levels are hard to come by.

Last year NCSoft put out some numbers and one of them was the amount of max level toons on the North American servers...its was around 30.

Lineage II North America/Europe Fun Facts - April 07

* Number of free major content updates: 6
* Number of contests and events: 42
* Number of players who have tried Lineage II worldwide: Over 17 million
* Number of characters at level 80 (highest level): 33
* Number of clans: 57,285
* Number of Striders: 7,233
* Number of Chrono souvenir items: 2,418,054
* Number of pets (Hatchlings, Wolf, Baby pets): 128,898
* Number of characters created since launch: 3,821,773
* Number of castle sieges since launch: 2,228
* Number of deaths since launch: 618,978,656
* Number of chaotic characters: 86,176

Thank you to all of our North American and European players for your passion and dedication. See you in the world of Lineage II!

i have been wanting to try game, i love games that take awhile to lvl, anyone here can invite? boognish75@yahoo.com  that would be awesome.

They just raised the level cap to 85, so most likely you can add a few thousand hours just from getting from level 80 to 85. 

The XP loss due to the death penalty will be  extremely harsh between level 80 and 85, dying once could easily set you back weeks of XP grinding.

I honestly I doubt you will see any legitimate player reaching level 85 in the near future.

Originally posted by bojinx

They just raised the level cap to 85, so most likely you can add a few thousand hours just from getting from level 80 to 85. 

The XP loss due to the death penalty will be  extremely harsh between level 80 and 85, dying once could easily set you back weeks of XP grinding.

I honestly I doubt you will see any legitimate player reaching level 85 in the near future.

Regards,

Ellyrion Fiallathandriel

The Reckless Knight

Lunatris

Well, personally I'm against maxlevel and "endgame".

My own hypotetical perfect MMO would have MAXINT maxlevel (some 2 or 4 billion, depending if you use a signed or unsigned 32 bit integer), and you would just level up slower and slower, and learning new abilities would get harder and harder.

Sadly this also requires that content would have to be, well, basically infinite. Which is not what game designers usually would want to do.

Lineage II takes quite a bit of time to level to 85. I have a level 60, 59, and a 55 and those took quite a while to get as well, but even at lower levels like 50+ you can raid with high level people if they don't mind losing some drops, and you can siege, but not be as helpful, fortress battles are an option around that level also. It's not like there isn't anything to do to kill the grind, but most people don't see that far, they see the grind and are like "OMG IM NEVR PLAYIN A GAME LIKE THAT" which keeps out the non hardcore players. I would say give the 14 day trial a try, and if you like it then buy it, its totally worth it if you enjoy great pvp.

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Originally posted by Torak


Lineage II North America/Europe Fun Facts - April 07

* Number of players who have tried Lineage II worldwide: Over 17 million
* Number of characters created since launch: 3,821,773

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The 3M number only applies to Europe NA, while the others apply to the whole world.