Choose My Adventure: Lineage II by a landslide

December 7, 2011

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It was no contest from the get-go. Lineage II took an early lead in last week's poll and firmly held on to it. Color me shocked. I really thought that a few of the entries would be closely tied. Some contestants recently added some juicy content releases, but Lineage II crushed them, and all the others, by getting 1,320 votes. The runner-up, Black Prophecy, only managed to secure 299 votes.

All its servers going F2P and the release of Age of Discovery weren't enough to put EverQuest II in the running. The F2P population boom in DC Universe Online's and its recent Lightning Strikes update weren't enough to create competition. Nope. The allure of Lineage II's F2P mode and the launch of the Goddess of Destruction expansion were just too much for voters to pass up.

Now it's your turn to start steering my course in the lands of Lineage II. Race, class, gender and my first class-transfer are all on the table.

I've tried to make voting as easy and clear as possible, but given how each race, and gender determine which classes you can choose from, you should make an effort to understand how all the choices work. Here's one example: Voting Dwarf and then Mystic is wasting a vote because Dwarves can only be Fighters, and it skews the results for those who are voting for a race that can be Mystics. You'll see what I mean.

Lineage II is seven years old and has just seen its biggest expansion to date. I'm stunned and confused by the immensity of the game. The world is huge, and I've only taken a peek at the continent of Aden. Luckily, there's a new, streamlined Path to Awakening to hold my hand as I start playing for the first time. This web-based site promises to steer me in the right direction to maximize my leveling speed. But the routes I take will be among the decisions you'll be making for me. I don't have to follow anyone but you.

This new guided tour through the game does hint that a player could reach level 20 in as little as an hour and level 40 in two more hours. That isn't happening. Let me fill you in on how slow I am. I've never once been level-capped in any MMO I've ever played. I have this magical ability to try my darndest yet still lag far behind the average casual player. The good news is that I likely won't want to level nearly as fast as the site says I can, anyway, because I'd be whizzing past choices you should be making for me.
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There are six races and two classes to choose from, but at key levels I can undergo class-transfers that specialize my build, the first being at level 20. Every race can choose to start as either a Mystics or a Fighters, except the Dwarves, who can be only Fighters. You might want to look over the choices before voting. Gender determines what Kamael can specialize as, and there doesn't seem to be perfectly parallel classes between each race. This is definitely a game in which it could pay to look (and think) ahead.
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Although I'm slower than the average player, I feel confident that I'll make level 20. This is where the first class-transfer comes in. These are specific to each race and starting class. Since this is a Korean MMO that allows for specialized builds as a player levels up, I can't easily point to where each class falls into the holy trinity. I've also read that Lineage II is much more dependent on group play than today's Western MMOs. I've consulted Strategy Wiki to get a simplified description of each race's class tree with tips on what role each class is suited for. Unfortunately, this guide is older than the Kamael race and doesn't list them. But there's a description of them (and all the races) on Lineage 2 Database, should you be up for character research.
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You have your homework. It's due by Friday. Once the polls are closed, I'll get to creating and playing my first week and report my findings. Also, keep an eye on Massively TV's MV Guide for next week. I'll be cooking up some livestreaming of the game during my journey!

Jeremy Stratton needs more MMOs to play. Seriously. The imaginary doctor who lives in his head gave him a prescription. The problem is, he's too flighty. He never knows just what MMO to try or how long to stick with it in order to get the most of it. That's why he needs you to tell him what game to play and how to play it every Wednesday in Choose My Adventure!

In this article: choose-my-adventure, class, classes, cma, f2p, fantasy, featured, free-to-play, gender, goddess-of-destruction, hands-on, jeremy-stratton, kamael, lineage, lineage-2, lineage-ii, ncsoft, opinion, poll, polls, race, races, readers-choice, truly-free, vote, voting

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