Post by Rankkor
Anyway, Lineage II... hmmm.. looks beautiful, with a great amount of detail. I'd be interested in playing it, despite its anime overtones. I'd be interested in control, and healing mechanics. Is the game more focused on PvE or PvP? IF it is focused on PvE, are the class mechanics strict? I mean can healers do a bang up job of healing and nothing else? I actually prefer that. How much character customization is there? Can I choose how long my hair is, or is it 'snap-on' hair? What about variety? Is everything a variation of human, or can I make myself a nice lizard fairy?
well, as I said on my post above, I was a really hardcore veteran of lineage II, BUT I haven't played the game in 3 years so what I'm about to tell you may or may not have changed.
Anyway, Lineage II... hmmm.. looks beautiful, with a great amount of detail.
that it does. Lineage II doesn't have the cartoonish style of wow, but a more animesque one (Makes sense since its a korean game) And best of all?
unlike wow where armor looks the same on all races and genders (Save for shoulder size) In lineage II every single armor set looks differently depending on race and gender.
Example
This is how a set of Majestic Heavy armor looks on every race and gender in the game.
Pro of this = Variety of course, that orc female next to you using the same armor as you will look completely different from your Human male.
Cons of this = Unlike wow, no tiers, indeed no class-based armors, meaning every class uses the same armor. All the heavy users use the same sets, all the casters use the same robes, ect.
Is the game more focused on PvE or PvP?
back when I was playing the game was more focused on PVP, since its PVE was VERY lackluster.
Quests gave no exp, or significant rewards save a select few. Those select few quests that did gave rewards required extensive farming for almost months to even give something at all.
There were no instances, so the only way to gear yourself up was by crafting or killing raid bosses.
Gear in lineage II is classified in Grades, from the weakest (No-grade) to D-grade, C-Grade, B-Grade, A-Grade, and S-grade.
Now, everything up to B-grade can be obtained in shops, the last 2 which are the ones that truly matter can only be crafted or obtained via raid bosses. But the bosses are not instanced, they are world bosses, terefore they have multiple clans (That's how guilds are called in lineage) looking for them and camping their spawn-spots.
Since there are no daily quests, and quests don't give exp nor significant rewards, nor are there any instances, and raid-bosses are world-spawns that are auto-killed by the top guilds as soon as they spawn, I'd say lineage II has next to ZERO significant PVE content.
IF it is focused on PvE, are the class mechanics strict? I mean can healers do a bang up job of healing and nothing else? I actually prefer that.
VERY strict.
Lineage II has 30-something classes, so each of these classes has a VERY specific job, an a VERY specific weapon they use. Gladiators for example ONLY use dual-swords. Warlords use ONLY spears, ect.
So believe me when I say that each class has a very specific job and that's all they can do. Healers can only heal, they can't even fight without getting their asses handed to them, so people have to power-level you, or you have to dual-box to get one up (This changed recently though but only this year) Prophets and Elders are the only ones who can buff up the group.
This is probably the ultimate example of "Bring the class, not the player". My best friend in the guild (and who moved to wow with me) was an Arcana Lord, and his only job during PVE or PVE was to be the buff-b1tch of the group. Just press 3 buttons every 4 minutes and that's all. He could attack but his damage was pitiful.
How much character customization is there? Can I choose how long my hair is, or is it 'snap-on' hair?
very little. You choose out of 3 pre-set faces, 5 hair-styles, and 4 hair-colors, and that's it. Expect to find clones-galore EVERYWHERE.
This is most glaring on Male Orc Fighters, since all 3 faces are identical, except that face 2 and 3 have tattoos and face 1 doesn't.
What about variety? Is everything a variation of human, or can I make myself a nice lizard fairy?
there's 6 races, but yes they are all variations of human.
Human = Duh, these are humans.
Elves = Like humans but more slim, and cutie, pointy ears, and elegant-looking. Females are almost barbie-dolls, and males are EXTREMELY bishonen :P
Dark Elves = Like elves but blue skin, look significantly better, these are my second-favorite race.
Orcs = Tall muscular with green skin. These are the least-ugly orcs I've seen in videogames, they are pretty much humans on green skins and pointy ears, but they do look mean, and are VERY muscular.
Dwarves = These are very interesting, males look like your average dwarf, beard, chubby, short, and what not. Female Dwarves look like lolicon anime girls xD and at least in latin america are the biggest source of fan-service. Imagine Card Captor Sakura, and that's your average female dwarf.
Kamael = Like humans but with pointy ears, and a single wing on their backs (no they can't fly on it)
As you can see, all races are variations of humans, the only ones that look different are the dark elves and orcs. And its mostly the skin.
Also while orcs and kamaels have pointy ears, those aren't elf ears, just human ears that are pointy. Elves and Dark elves do have pointy LONG ears.
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For clarification, this is all from the perspective of a player who has retired from lineage for over 3 long years. A lot of stuff can happen in those 3 years, so maybe some of what I've said has changed, or maybe it hasn't I don't know.
What I do know is that the biggest selling point of lineage II is the PVP, the cursed weapons and Castle Sieges are some of the most brilliant features i've seen in an MMO. And those castles (and latter fortresses) made the game a VERY political game.
In WOW its always alliance vs horde, regardless of realms, all alliance guilds have to get along, and all horde guilds have to get along. Likewise, all horde guilds must fight alliance ones, and all alliance ones fight the horde ones.
On lineage II every server was a world of its own, because there are no factions, you can kill anyone, anywhere, at any time (asuming you got the level and gear for it). Being clanless was practically an invitation to be ganked, you needed to join a strong clan that can protect you from the PKs and such.
Those very few clans that controlled the castles controlled the world (Litterally, since castle owners are Lords and Kings, and can set taxes on the major capitals, as well as control the economy of the land) and this made lineage VERY political, on my realm, there were 3 alliances of clans (An alliance is like a "Guild of Guilds" several guilds join up, to share a new chat-channel and some extra perks)
This means on my realm, it was a true WAR between the alliance "For the Eternity" (Mine) and the alliance "HellJumpers" with a third neutral alliance "Imperialz" who was left alone (most of the time) due to them controlling the lower least powerful castles (Gludio, Heine, And Shuttgard)
And on another realm it was another hot-shot in command, and so on.
WHile in wow, guilds struggle and figth to see who kills a boss in heroic mode first, on lineage II it was a CONSTANT struggle to conquer and HOLD the castles and keep controling the world.
When I began playing, 3 different alliances were in command but eventually they were overtrown, and by the time I left, my alliance was still the second-most powerful on the realm (with my guild being the 6th best one in the realm =D)
Makes me proud of being latino ^_^ since the Guild Killer Quixotes was the only hispanic guild on the realm, and despite constant mocks, and even racial slurs trown at us, we rised to power, we conquered, and we endured.......
='( dammit, now I?m getting nostalgic and with a slight itch of returning........