Lineage II

[Remianen]

So, being the MMO wh0re that I am, I decided to go back and revisit several MMOs I had played previously but quit for whatever reason. I had a hankering for some PvP in a fantasy setting so I resubbed my L2 account. Man, have they changed this game (for the better IMO).

The grind that the game became notorious for, has been pushed back to the last ten levels. Right now, you can go from level 1 to your first class change (20) in an hour. No bullshit. The newbie quests are designed now to rocket you to 20 and then everything else is accelerated to push you to your second class change (at 40). You have rest xp (called 'vitality') that regens at such a ridiculous rate, altoholics would always be running at 300% (TRIPLE) xp. Basically, from zero vitality to max (level 4) takes 53 hours logged out. Two and a quarter days. They added instances for every level starting at 23 (though you can do the 23 instance as early as 18). It's like a gimme though. The 23 instance is a simple single boss encounter where the boss is just a meatbag of HP with a stun ability (annoying but not a problem). The reward is 1.3 levels plus some loot (6 enchant scrolls and some tradeskill mats). Catch is, you can only do it once every 24 hours.

Anyhow, if anyone's interested, game's dirt cheap (like $10 on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/29530/)) and really fun. I'm on Aria with my dynamic duos that I'm running up. Mains are:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/Kension/Lineage%202/DeseaDamarra1.jpg

Desea (soon to be Blade Dancer) & Damarra (soon to be Shillien Elder)

Here's a screenie of the first instance:
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/2670/kama23.th.jpg (http://img94.imageshack.us/i/kama23.jpg/)

(Comment in the chat was in reference to Damarra's cougar pet, who got 1-shot by the boss's stun attack) We did the instance with me as the only real damage dealer (and I'm still a TANK ffs) with two healers (J0AN is a Bishop, or will be.) and both wound up nuking because I was taking so little damage. :P Fight took just under 25 minutes, which is good since the instance has a time limit of 30 minutes.

And the duo with the holiday weapons Santa gave them:
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/2971/ddsanta.th.jpg (http://img121.imageshack.us/i/ddsanta.jpg/)

[Kurai Inago]

Played through the trial period that came with my copy of CoH long ago and didn't much care for it. I did, however, later and fully out of boredom play it on a free private Server (Yes, you may boo and hiss now.) It had gotten alot better (Though the Private Server's extra quests and Higher Drop rates might've helped alittle.) And While I was there I met the friendliest PK'er ever. Seriously, he kept jumping me until I managed to beat him and afterwords he invited me to team up with him. :p

I might give it a try what with how cheap it is now.

[FrostyPox]

Never did play it because I heard it was such a horrible grind and I was never really into FFA PvP, though lately my tastes have changed. Maybe I'll try it someday, but I just bought Darkfall and even if Lineage is dirt cheap, I don't have a job yet so I probably should not have even bought that. :P

[Remianen]

Yeah, I was kinda blown away when I tried it on a lark. Most of the PvP occurs post-50 (or even post-60) but I can into a fortress battle on Sunday with Damarra (healers are always welcome, regardless of their level :P) and it was crazy fun. Chaotic and hard to follow at times, but still fun.

They've sped things up A LOT. I mean, it's not WoW fast but it's conceivable to hit 50 inside of a week (60 if you play hardcore). It's also crazy easy to make money now but that doesn't seem to have affected the market any due to the new gear they introduced. Basically, almost all armor and weapons up to A grade (which starts at level 61) has a 'common' counterpart which is a fraction of the price. Advantage is, it's the same item with the same stats and appearance, only cheaper (and NPC vendor sold). Disadvantage is, it can't be enchanted, augmented, or enhanced and any set bonus that might have applied to a particular suit, doesn't. So money's coming into the game faster, but leaving just as quickly (since folks are buying common items like crazy).

Oh and Frostypox, it's not exactly FFA PvP (at least not until later). Newbie guides (available in all the cities, as far as I've seen) offer a buff that blocks people 10 or more levels above you from attacking you. From what I've seen so far, it's also frowned upon to be a PK (people will hunt you down, even if they don't know your victim). Once you're red, all your gear becomes basically droppable so when someone jacks you, you could lose that stuff you paid so much for (in addition to your coin). Clanmates tell me NC has done a lot to dissuade the newbie killers and make it easy for folks to retaliate against them.

[FrostyPox]

Yeah, I was kinda blown away when I tried it on a lark. Most of the PvP occurs post-50 (or even post-60) but I can into a fortress battle on Sunday with Damarra (healers are always welcome, regardless of their level :P) and it was crazy fun. Chaotic and hard to follow at times, but still fun.

They've sped things up A LOT. I mean, it's not WoW fast but it's conceivable to hit 50 inside of a week (60 if you play hardcore). It's also crazy easy to make money now but that doesn't seem to have affected the market any due to the new gear they introduced. Basically, almost all armor and weapons up to A grade (which starts at level 61) has a 'common' counterpart which is a fraction of the price. Advantage is, it's the same item with the same stats and appearance, only cheaper (and NPC vendor sold). Disadvantage is, it can't be enchanted, augmented, or enhanced and any set bonus that might have applied to a particular suit, doesn't. So money's coming into the game faster, but leaving just as quickly (since folks are buying common items like crazy).

Oh and Frostypox, it's not exactly FFA PvP (at least not until later). Newbie guides (available in all the cities, as far as I've seen) offer a buff that blocks people 10 or more levels above you from attacking you. From what I've seen so far, it's also frowned upon to be a PK (people will hunt you down, even if they don't know your victim). Once you're red, all your gear becomes basically droppable so when someone jacks you, you could lose that stuff you paid so much for (in addition to your coin). Clanmates tell me NC has done a lot to dissuade the newbie killers and make it easy for folks to retaliate against them.

Hm, that's actually really cool. Still need to have an income before I can spend more money. :P Even if I have to pay full price, that's still only 20 bucks.