The big change is that
levelling a Lineage II character is now extremely easier—and
we say “extremely” in a fairly conservative
manner. A normal new character that goes through the
beginning quests can gain a few levels in just a few
minutes, and players should find levelling now quite
easily, all the way up to level 60 and beyond. Players
that could spend several months of hardcore grinding
to get up to a competitively high level will now be
able to accomplish the same feat perhaps a month, if
not less. They’ll also be able to get to their
occupation changes a lot faster, so developing a selection
of specialized characters is a much more realistic option.
Building characters is now a lot fun and easy to do,
rather than a long-term activity many players would
rather do without. This drastic change in levelling
is due to several factors.
For one thing, experience
rewards for killing creatures and accomplishing quests
has been increased across the board. This means that
you’ll gain a lot more for generally doing the
same things you always do. Running out of quests trying
to gain experience, or continual creature farming, is
not nearly as big of a factor any more. Also, new repetitive
quests have been added in each race village to help
out players even further.
We’re also introducing
a cool new Vitality system. For one thing, you accumulate
Vitality for not being logged in. You can also get Vitality
points by staying in a peace zone, or by hunting raid
or boss monsters (you’ll get a percentage of your
earned raid points in Vitality points). New characters
and existing characters before the update goes live
also start out with the maximum number of Vitality points.
So what do you do with
Vitality points? You consume Vitality when you kill
ordinary creatures and gain experience, though Vitality
won’t get spent if you’re taking on a quest
creature, if you don’t get experience for killing
a creature, or if you’re taking on a boss. When
Vitality is spent, your experience and SP bonus is greatly
increased, depending on how much Vitality you currently
have. If you’re maxed out in Vitality points (Vitality
Level 4), your bonus will be 300% of the normal experience
and SP gain. If you have a few thousand Vitality points
(Vitality Level 1), the bonus is 150%. Because Vitality
is so easy to earn, players will be in the bonus consistently
and the overall experience gain can be huge.
To help characters level
even more, the buffs available to low-level beginning
players can now be used all the way to level 62, and
we’ve even added a few more buffs for players
to use. These buffs like Haste and Vampiric Rage help
out tremendously in dealing with Lineage II’s
various creatures and quests, and makes solo play a
lot easier.
With Gracia, Lineage
II is now a lot easier to play, and the level barrier
is not nearly as tough as it used to be. Players will
be able to get to the high levels relatively quickly,
and can enjoy some of the best parts of the game like
PvP and castle sieges without having to spend a huge
amount of time getting there.