The current L2 and its goals

hi,

i played l2 back in 2009 and had a great time so when i found l2 eu i thought to jump in and take a ride.
what i experience is pretty different to what i got used to and i would like to ask some help to understand what and how has been changed.

i pick a few areas where i need a bit of guidance please

1. leveling up
until s-grade is pretty straight forward and quick (i made it up to 50 on the first afternoon doing only the missions provided). on one hand i was happy but also i lost a huge chunk of the gameplay: there seems to be no importance of d, c, b and even a grades and also lots of beautiful places are getting out of sight.
i remember plenty of contents in this range which made the game wonderful but no they didn't turn up or when i looked for them, i was out of level.

2. game difficulty
i encountered not much challenge on the way. aden appears to be a very safe place where monsters can not touch me really and i can defeat them along with quest monsters very easily, even without using soulshots. i remember that as an archer i had to plan my move carefully in most areas and run between bow shots to keep myself out of danger (and that was a thrilling experience what made the rewards sweeter), here i can just stand and shoot without worrying about my physical integrity. i participated a boss raid at lv 64 and the boss held out for a mere 2.3 seconds!

3. crafting
i may miss the point (and couldn't find anything related to this on the forums yet) but i see no material drops from monsters what can be used to craft weapons/armor/accessories etc. i started a dwarf character but no luck with spoil/sweep so i deleted that char. where shall i look if i would like to play with some crafting?

4. adena and prices
the amount of adena a monster drops looks very low if i compare it to the prices i see on the market for anything valuable. the archer is an expensive character to run basically but - strange thing - i can play around without using soulshots as the difficulty level is so low. even with that i can't see the way to get to level where i can buy (or craft - see above) something desirable

5. steel equipment
what i can do actually is to get the basic grade equipment from steel door coins grade after grade. i do that but they are providing very limited gameplay as they can not be modified or enhanced. so it's like a uniform everyone has on each level and requires no value to contribute apart from completing basic quests on the go.

so as an overall impression i'm happy to play l2 again, however i feel that most of the contents made the game fab previously have lost their importance completely and some really juicy gameplay elements (like crafting and the complete lower level gameplay) are appearing to be missing and the challenge is just not there.
what do i do wrong?

what is ahead of me around lv85+? is there something worthy to sacrifice the lower level gameplay for? what is awaiting for me on higher levels?

thank you, happy gaming!
medwyn

 

hi,
it seems that now l2 begin when you reach lvl85 :unsure:

 

below 85 lvl the game is completetly irrelevant(except for the boses who are killed by alts of 99 players). it's the same as playing under lvl 10 on old l2.

 

1. leveling up
just consider 1-85 like 1-40... if anything 85 feels and r-grade are the new c grade and class branches.

2. game difficulty
the game isn't as harsh as before, you'll never run out of supplies and you'll have gear to accompany you throughout most of your journey plus you're walking around as if you were full buffed, just try to get used to it.

3. crafting
it's not that big anymore, it's a lot more common to simply acquire items through the auction house/trading/shops or even full drops.

4. adena
you'll have to learn how to increase your income, i'd recommend doing the daily quests at 85 for starters and selling every single enchant scroll you're given on your journey from 1-85.

5. steel equipment
that's what most people will wear from 1-85 and when leveling subs... unfortunately you'd stay have to spend a few millions to get anything else that will literally have a _very_ limited use... so hang on to that steel gear until you're 85.

what awaits at you at 85 is a far superior class systems, daily routines that you'll have to get used to, new areas and partying up with other peeps. the game will only start at 85 and i truly don't understand why ncsoft isn't "ballsy" enough to simply turn 85 into level 1... leveling alts is booooring. o_o

 

thank you for the info.
maya, the same question is lurking around in my head: if the game itself starts at 85 why we spend so many time out of it?
anyway, i try to get over the ultimately boring grind and hope for a rewarding gameplay after awakening...

cheers,
med

 

i'm actually leveling my dual-class, we could grind together if you wanna.

and yeah... that's just ncsoft being ncsoft. i don't get it either.

 

what is "many time" for you? most players reach 85 in less than a week, a full-time player reaches in 1-2days. considering youd take longer to reach lvl 30 in the first chronicles of l2

 

it still requires quite a few hours of grinding if you're not with a pa and a few people to power level/help you when close to 85.

to a newcomer it might just turn them off before even trying out the game itself. :c