Letting out some Lineage 2 steam

I’m not sure if it’s the reroll-train that I’ve been riding on or just burnout from the level grinding, but I’ve felt pretty lethargic about playing Lineage 2 lately. My main gripe with the game so far would have to be the class dynamics and the combat skills. I feel like every class has but a small handful of active abilities and skills in their disposal that are rarely needed while leveling up, leaving you to just auto-attack with soulshots on auto as well. It’s no wonder bots do so well in the game, the grinding/combat is completely automated just by nature of the mechanics.

I partially blame my rerolling on the fact that I’m having trouble finding a class that really hooks me and is interesting to level. Of course I realize that the bulk of the game doesn’t come to life till A-Grade and on, but I’m not going to accept that overused excuse. This is a tangent in itself, but way too often do I hear “it takes a few hours to get to the fun stuff,” or in the case of MMORPGs, “a few weeks.” Since when is this acceptable. I’m not directing this entirely just at Lineage 2, as I’ve obviously had plenty of fun so far, but I do question this staple of “time investment:fun” in MMOs and MMORPGs.

I get urges to reactivate some old accounts and check in on some other online universes. Age of Conan, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, and Guild Wars all spark some interest. What’s everyone else playing these days?

10 thoughts on “Letting out some Lineage 2 steam

  1. i know what you mean man, i’m only lvl 31 but the level grind is just such a steep slope with nothing to buffer it out. And WoW has just gotten stale and repetitive. I don’t think i’ve found a game were i’ve made friends that would make me want to just play that game. Even though our L2 clan is very nice and active.Right now i’m playing WC3 and starcraft. I’ve had the urge to start playing FF11 again but i know i’d never get past the low level stuff to be able to play the good stuff.

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  2. Yeah, I’m fine with the grind – I’ve grinded out far worse in Star Wars Galaxies going for Jedi slot – it’s just the lack of effort or creativity put into the classes, the combat, and their combat skills. One of the key features that acts like a carrot for me in MMOs is leveling up and unlocking shiny new skills, or even just new ranks of current skills. This doesn’t work for me at all in L2 becuause a) There is only like 1-2 direct damage attack skills b) they’re not that interesting, seem to miss too much, and are pointless to use while leveling and b) did I mention they’re boring and useless?

    It upsets me, because I love almost every other aspect of the game. It’s like a really pretty candy shell, but not much filling inside it 😦

    I’m not 100% ready to quit it yet, it’s just on the backburner to other things right now, behind more pressing RL issues that have come up recently for me. I’m just in a gaming funk I guess.

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  3. Gaming funks are way to abundant with me… i have like MMO ADD or something. i can’t wait till KOTOR comes out because bioware is just godly at making RPGs and i think they could actually make an amazing MMO. I dunno what i’m looking for in a game anymore. L2 is a game where you need people to play the game with imo. unlike WoW where the whole game up until the end can be played solo.

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  4. See, Nozzle, the problem is that you chose as your “main” a class that is very much a “one-skill to spam before you get out of mana” class. I took my Gladiator up to 61 and just simply got COMPLETELY bored with it.

    To be honest, there aren’t MANY classes out there that have what you’re looking for. But I do think that the Kamaels are one of the classes that have more skills to their disposal. Have you tried taking your Kamael to a more advanced level?

    Besides that, on PvE, I can’t think of many classes that arent that fun. Try a dagger, maybe? They have skills that REALLY make you go like “zomg this is fun”.

    That’s why I’m subbing Treasure Hunter in 88% 😉

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  5. @ValerieRose
    The last class I’ve started was a LE scout, who I was planning to take to SR until I read (and then witnessed myself) why no one levels with a bow, which kind of bummed me out as that’s the whole reason I wanted to play a bow-user, to use a BOW! But dagger classes never really interested me in L2.

    My Kamael is 33 now i think, and I agree that they have some really unique skills available to them (you can tell they were the most recently made classes). My only gripe with them was how their ancient swords all pretty much look the same, and how metrosexual the males look 😛 (lol) Silly things to complain about, but I am picky about my character’s appearance as I tend to *attach* myself to my toons (why I can never play a female in-game).

    @Aiion
    My LE scout’s name is Taylorian. I may be on later, but may give my Kamael a try actually. Val, you kind of reminded me that he was pretty fun to play. 😛

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  6. I think you should stick with Lineage 2 and stop comparing it to other games. There were many people who switched games quickly just to find that their first game was their most favorite. Lineage 2 is old now. Thus, I think you should spend these last few years with this game and love it…. before it’s gone forever.

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  7. I’m not writing it off yet, but as someone who enjoys the genre as a whole and loves to dabble in multiple games at once – I would be lying if I was to say I wasn’t getting urges to try some other things as well right now.

    Also, Lineage 2 wasn’t my first MMO 🙂 Far from it.

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  8. Heheh Nozzle, if I can give you a piece of advice now that we’re off the forums, do NOT listen to everything people say in the official forums. They claim using a bow is expensive, I have to tell you that my Abyss Walker burns the same (if NOT more) amount of shots my Phantom Ranger did. The “Daggers use less shots that bows, that’s why we use it up to 53” speech is bullshit (pardon my French). You’ll figure out that it’s just a “sensation”, an impression. Sometimes the dagger uses even more shots. Fast attack speed, crits = slow attack speed but bigger damage outburst with bow. If you want to go ahead with the SR, use a bow. Don’t listen to what they say about daggers.

    But I think you will find out that the bow users are even MORE of a point and click class than any other. You don’t have enough mana regen to be able to spam skills and not find yourself out of mana to attack, so usually bow users only press attack and kite the mob. Pretty boring if you ask me.

    Dagger classes can be REALLY interesting. How long have you given them a shot? I would suggest you level one past 40 and that’s when the fun skills really begin. I used to think daggers were boring too, but that was when I first started and had no idea of what things were like. I saw no point in a dagger class… until I played one heh.

    And I love how the Kamael boys look. I have two of my own 😀 The ancient swords will have different skins up in grade, but mainly one for each grade, unfortunately (except for A grade that they have two skins). The Kamaels have the disadvantage on that because being the newest class, I think devs didn’t want to spend too much time creating unique looks, so a lot of things look the same.

    And they are very fun to play. They get VERY dangerous past 61 (the Berserkers). But I don’t think you’ll be taking it so far for now. I suggest you try a Soul Breaker once too, and perhaps if you want a good archer that doesn’t consume mana for each arrow and has NEAT skills, an Arbalester… but then you gotta be a female 😀

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  9. thanks for the awesome detailed reply

    I mainly didn’t want to try a dagger class because my buddy who is playing is going AW 😛 And a dagger class that doesn’t dual wield just seemed weird to me (though, I see that duals a couple S-Duals are coming in Gracia Final?)

    I may keep leveling my SR though. I did notice that I wasn’t using that much more SSs as people made it sound. I did a test and I usually 2 shot yellows with my bow (so 20 dSS) while I used 15~ dSS with my dagger on the same mob. Was just a small sample test, but really, ~5 isn’t that big of a difference.

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