| Lineage 2 is a hugely improved sequel
to the moderately successful MMORPG Lineage. The Lineage series was
originally developed and released in the Korean market and later released
worldwide. Hugely successful in Korea, Lineage II has also made a
definite impact on the rest of the world with servers in Asia, Europe,
and several in North America.
A large part of Lineage 2's success can be attributed
to a very realistic engine with arguably the best graphics of any
MMORPGs released to date. Character and map detailing rivals some
offline games released at the same time which is quite an accomplishment
considering the resources required to maintain a persistent world.
Lineage 2 Races
Keeping consistent as an extension
to Lineage, players of Lineage 2 are able to choose from characters
within a fantasy realm setting. As with the majority of mmorpgs,
players are able to choose whether they wish to play a male or female
character.
Apart from very different looks, each
race has different advantages and/or disadvantages associated with
it. For instance, dwarves have the potential to become the greatest
craftsmen in the game but would be horrible mages.
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Human |
Dwarf |
Dark
Elf |
Elf
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Orc |
Male |
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Female |
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Lineage 2 Classes
Each race has it's own distinct racial
classes that players choose from as their character gains more experience.
You can think of it as a class tree where racial choice determines
which kinds of branches you'll eventually grow. For instance, at
various points of experience, an orc has to make choices about which
career path to take. For instance, orc -> orc mystic -> orc
Shaman -> orc Overlord
Class Changes
As your character gains more experience,
you will gain greater abilities and eventually be able to greater
title. At the time of this writing (Chronicle 3) there are 2 main
class changes that occur in Lineage 2.
* Level 20 Class Change - At level
20, the first major class change occurs for a character. You might
rightly see this as your graduation from 'newbiehood' as you'll
be leaving your home land and traveling to the main city. At this
point Lineage 2 characters are able to wear D graded armor and use
D grade weapons. In addition to these enhancements, players will
also be able to join a Lineage 2 Clan and as of Chronicle 2, enter
into the world of PVP (player versus player). Namely, once you're
level 20 you're no longer protected from PKers (player killers)
and you'll have to learn to fend for yourself or quickly make some
alliances. Of course, once you've completed the necessary prerequisites
you'll also land yourself a cool new title :)
* Level 40 Class Change - The second lineage 2 class change occurs
when your character reaches level 40. At this level, accompanying
the occupation change you'll also be abled to use C graded weapons
and armor. In order to complete the level 40 change, you'll first
need to complete what is called a taunting quest. Unlike the level
20 class change, this quest involves a huge time commitment (sometimes
taking weeks!). At the time of this writing there are no additional
class changes but it's rumored that these are planned additions
to future chronicles.
Lineage 2 Quests
In Lineage 2, quests make up a very
important component of gameplay. Completing a quest will invariably
give the character some sort of reward, ranging from a small amount
of lineage 2 adena, to some items, experience, or one of the main
class changes. While the majority of quests in Lineage 2 are optional,
all players will at some point be required to complete at least
a few quests.
In order to begin a quest, players
should look for NPCs with a yellow exclamation mark above them.
These NPCs will always have a quest for you to complete. Unlike
other mmorpgs, lineage 2 quests tend to be very long and involved,
and often times only for a small and not very worthwhile reward.
On the flip side, players tend to gain some useful experience along
the way.
After questing, players can make some
additional lineage 2 adena by turning to the markets and shops to
hawk their wares.
Lineage 2 Items
After you play Lineage 2 for a while,
you'll quickly start to amass a mountain of lineage 2 items. Lineage
2 Items can be acquired in numerous ways including from slain monsters,
NPC (non player character) shops, from other lineage 2 players,
or as rewards for completing quests.
Warehouse
All of the items a player acquires
may be store in one inventory pouch that is limited to a certain
number of items. Depending upon your chosen lineage 2 race and also
your character's abilities, the number of items will vary. In general
Dwarves have the largest inventories, the highest of which I think
is about 100 items.
Players also have the option to store
excess items in a lineage 2 warehouse. That said though, lineage
2 players will quickly find that storage space runs out quickly.
Lineage 2 Item Drops
The percentage ratio for lineage
2 armor and weapons drops is quite rare. Perhaps in order to facilitate
more interaction between players, the items that monsters drop will
not help you at your current level. Namely, Lineage 2 item drops
are always lower than your skill level, so you'll really have to
depend upon people with a higher level to get a good drop and sell
it to you.
As lineage 2 shops sell their wares
for a very high price, selling drops from monsters is a good way
to accumulate lineage 2 adena. Only the most desperate of players
will buy their items from an NPC, where the majority will hit the
player markets to get the same items at a much better price. Indeed,
after some solid adventuring you'll often find experienced players
attempting to hawk their wares. While you have a limited space for
items, you're able to store all the lineage 2 adena you can make
:)
Lineage 2 Adena
In L2, the currency used is Lineage
2 Adena and not surprisingly you'll find that many players are bent
on acquiring as much lineage 2 adena as possible. The Lineage 2
economy can rise or crumble in an instant as player's have direct
control over what to they choose to sell/buy items for. In L2, the
economy is essentially controlled by players themselves and their
usage of lineage 2 adena.
Making Adena
By far the most popular question for
the game is how can I make Lineage 2 Adena? Indeed you'll find guides
written on the subject selling on ebay and subscription forums promising
the latest & greatest method. While it's beyond the scope of
this review, here's a few tips on some of the main methods to make
Adena.
Guide to make adena via MOB
drops
As with most MMORPGs, you'll find
"hot spots" where killing monsters will net you the most
Adena. As your character progresses in skill and level, these hot
spots will change for you. For instance, the Ivory Tower is a great
place to make a tonne of adena fast. However if you're character
isn't class 2 and around level 50, you'd be dead and packing instantaneously.
That said, here's some recommended "hot spots" for characters
of varying level. To find out why they're considered hot, you'll
need to get the game and do some exploring yourself :)
Lineage 2 Mystics/Fighters - Level 1-19 Adena Hot Spots
There really aren't any hotspots for
newbie characters. For the most part you'll need to wait until your
character has leveled up to a higher level. That said, if you're
looking to start adventuring for some lineage 2 adena as a young
character, you can try the following locations.
* Human: Elven Ruins
* Elf: Elven Fortress
* Dark Elf: School of Dark Arts
* Orc: Frozen Waterfalls
* Dwarf: Mithril Mines
Lineage 2 Class 1 - Level 21-39 Adena
Hot Spots
As a Lineage 2 Class 1 character,
you're still not going to make a lot of L2 adena, however you're
well on your way. As fair warning, the below locations are listed
in order of difficulty. Before you hit level 30 you'll want to tread
quite lightly when visiting these locations and probably you'll
want to avoid Death's Pass entirely until you're getting to within
about 5 levels of your class change.
* Ruins of Agony / Ruins of Despair
* Abandoned Camp
* Execution Grounds
* Cruma Tower (First Floor)
* Wastelands
* Deaths Pass
Lineage 2 Class 2 - Level 40+ Adena
Hot Spots
Once you're a Lineage 2 Level 40+,
expect that you'll be able to make pretty serious adena monster
fighting. Also expect that you're more powerful than the majority
of Lineage 2 players. :) That said, you're on your own to explore
the following locations. Some of them you'll be hard pressed to
go to without a party and others you'd best not approach until your
level 55+ !! Gluck and happy adena hunting :)
* Ivory Tower
* Sea of Spores
* Field of Whispers/Silence
* Enchanted Valley
* Forest of Mirrors/Angel Waterfall
* Alligators Island
* Dragon Valley/Lair of Antharas
* Giants Cave
* Cruma Tower (First & Second Floor)
* Blazing Swamp
* Devils Isle
* Devasted Castle
* Cruma Tower
* Tower of Insolence
Making Adena via Selling/Buying
Lineage 2 Adena lover rather than
a fighter? One of the most basic (and oftentimes most successful)
method to accumulate adena is to play the middle man/woman. Adventurers
will accumulate more Lineage 2 items than they can possibly use
or even hold onto. As selling them to NPC store owners nets the
adventurer will net the seller only a small portion of what the
adena market value is worth, they are better off selling it to other
players.
Now here's the catch and where you'll
make your lineage 2 adena. If you know the market prices for a given
item well, you can often buy items cheaply off of adventurers and
then resell them on the market for a higher price. If your a Dwarven
smith, it's a great way to pass time as you'll likely be working
most times in the city anyways. In time, you'll probably find some
decent adventurer contacts who'll come back to you repeatedly in
the future.
As a final tip, don't be shy about
looking for out-of-game exchanges such as web forums and newsgroups
where you can also hawk "your" wares.
Buy Lineage 2 Adena with real
money
Certainly not the newest of mmorpg
trends, today it's very easy to buy lineage 2 adena using real life
dollars. Due to a competitive market and auction houses such as
ebay, the price per million lineage 2 adena is constantly dropping.
While the game developer NC Soft (and many players) tend to frown
on this practice, there's no shortage of lineage 2 adena for sale
on the net.
Lineage 2 Shops
In L2, the currency used is Lineage
2 Adena and not surprisingly you'll find that many players are bent
on acquiring as much lineage 2 adena as possible. The Lineage 2
economy can rise or crumble in an instant as player's have direct
control over what to they choose to sell/buy items for. In L2, the
economy is essentially controlled by players themselves and their
usage of lineage 2 adena.
While the town shops lack equipment
and materials for higher level players, the majority of buying and
selling goes through the players themselves. Players can offer up
to three items for sale, and set up a shop. Other players can look
at what you are offering, and purchase anything they desire. When
you create a shop, you have complete control over the cost of the
item. Too high though, and nobody will buy, but you want to be sure
that you are not giving it away either.
If you get to understand the market
quite well, you can actually use shops to your advantage. You could
easily purchase an item that someone is selling for a great price,
and sell it for more. This is one way you can earn some great Adena,
even though it could turn out a lengthy process.
In the future, it would be great to
see shops that support higher level characters, because at this
point and time, the equipment is only decent for level 40's, but
not any higher.
Castle Sieges
When the Chronicle 1 patch was applied
to the game in the Summer of 2004, it launched one of the biggest
features of the game: Castle Sieges. Put quite simply, a Castle
Siege can get your clan in control of a Castle, naturally. This
is certainly not as easy as it seems though, because you first have
to defeat the clan who has current ownership.
Sieges are only held on the weekends,
and can support hundreds of players all at once. If you are part
of a siege, it is undoubtedly breathtaking, because you ARE a part
of a war. If you manage to take control of a castle, your clan leader
will be able to control taxes to the corresponding town. This is
good and bad, because if the leader doesn't care about other players,
he can jack the taxes way up. But, if he puts them too high, players
will be forced to travel to another town, with lower taxes.
Conclusion
So in the end, is Lineage II worth
your time? Well, yes and no. If you are a casual MMO player, you
may easily be overwhelmed by the harsh leveling grind. Even though
all the time is usually made well worth it, it does take a lot of
time away from your doing other things. If you have time to dedicate
to a game, then L2 may be right up your alley.
Lineage II is unlike any other MMO's,
in terms of the world and hunting areas. The entire world is absolutely
gorgeous, and each and every hunting ground or dungeon is completely
unique. If you do jump in to play, you will not have a hard time
finding someone to pair up with and hunt. All servers are packed
with numerous players, so you will be sure to make friends fast
and get right to the fun.
If you want to give L2 for a test
drive, it only costs $19.99US (At time of writing) at your local
game store. With the first month free, it is not a bad buy. If you
wish to play past your free month, it will cost a common MMO price
of $14.95US. After reading this review, you should have a good idea
of whether L2 is for you. So if it looks appealing at all, give
it a go!
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