New player, don't understand how to grind.

Hi guys, i haven't played L2 since 2008. I frikin loved the game but everything seems different and complicated now.

As i see mobs don't drop items anymore only herbs and very low adena. As i see from wiki the only way to level is to follow the main quest line from lvl 1 to lvl 99.

I am lvl 62 now with full A grade gear but mobs still only drop 60 adena while my SSA shots cost 212 adena per hit.

I don't like hand-holding quests, at what point can the quests let go of my hand and let me farm? Will there ever be mobs that drop more then 60 adena or at least more then the cost of my SS shots?

Are you suppose to get adena only from quests up to lvl 99 and then the game finally lets you play the last 5-6 levels by yourself?

Will lvl 100 mobs finally drop mats? I don't understand where the tutorial ends and the farming begins. At what level will the mobs finally drop mats / decent gold?

 

Starting 100+ zones starting to drop decent adena,mats,r99 items,just dont get caught up in instance farming

 

Lower levels do drop items. In about an hour leveling a sub today I got sage worn gloves and several healing potions. The drops aren't worth much, though, until later in the game. Understand that they nerfed all the adena & item drops (and spoils) so people would be forced (uh, encouraged) to buy items from the shop. If you are hoping to play totally for free, not even paying the monthly fee for premium and taking advantage of the 20 minute quest to jump directly to level 85, you are likely to be disappointed with your progress. Good luck and happy grinding.

 

I understand that they encourage you to buy from the shop, but after obtaining gear from the shop at what level will the mobs drop more adena than the cost of SS? A SSR shot costs about 800 adena i think, if you kill a mob in 4-5 shots that is 4000 Adena. Will mobs drop more than 4000 adena?

If you are losing money even with max gear than what are you buying that gear for? Plz tell me that you don't always grind with your wallet because that means there is no end game.

It's like buying farming equipment to farm in the desert. If grinding doesn't turn you a profit than this is no longer an MMO, you are just paying to reach max lvl.

SO that's it, there is no place to farm where you don't outprofit your SS-shots?

 

you will always have to grind with ur wallet

 

There are some areas where mobs drop 100k+ adena and r99 crafting materials that can be sold to npc for nice adena but as others said its only for lvl 100+.

 

Then this game is Play2Pay, a whole new monetization scheme i have never even encountered before. I am schocked what they done to this beautifull game.

It's literally unplayable for an MMO to not allow you to make in game currency, not even after buying from the shop. You're grinding consists of farming experience with real life money for the consumables that outspent your adena drop.

What is the point of the game then, why even reach max lvl? If you can't even grind currency in an MMO then the whole concept becomes useless. I don't mind if it's a low rate grind but if you spend on consumables more then you grind than game is broken and unplayable.

So you need to spend real money for consumables to reach lvl 100 and game will finally let you grind on your own adena but only on a few areas? I'm guessing even at 100+ most areas are just for xp farming if only a few drop adena. For such a big sandbox mmo the world got extremely small. Monts of wallet grinding just so you can reach a few zones where you can actually enjoy your adena grind. Basically skipping 95% content. Back in 2008 it didn't mattered what zone or level i was, i was happy grinding a spot with my friends. If you can't do that anymore, game is dead to me now.

 

U can farm, hardly but can. But game evolved. Lv 60 as u wrote is dimilar to lv 5 on Interlude etc.
Better make daily quests etc and grind for fast XP. Also PA is minimum. In past u also paid 10 euro per month to play. Without PA is much harder...

Real game starts after u hit 99+.

 

This is, in essence, the same game as it was in 2008. It just evolved.
In 2008, everytime things didnt go your way you paid for it with your wallet.
Failed a craft and need to farm more mats for that weapon? All you have to do is spend time grinding those mats.
Died because your Internet is bad or you had a lag spike? All you have to do is spend time grinding the ExP back.
Failed enchants, equipment dropped to mobs, ExP lost to wars/pvp, etc. The game was designed to make you waste the maximum amount of time simply because you paid for that time.

The game evolved from that. Just that they decided to add the store into the money making formula.

Its essentially a threadmill with a "coin slot" to cheat the speed/incline settings. Yet, its a threadmill that even the big L2Store users can not afford to go easy on or they take the risk of falling hard.

 

https://eu.4gameforum.com/categories/1537/

 

Actually, If you buy the premium account, which is cheaper than a monthly account was (at least in the US) back when we were charged a monthly fee, you can start your characters at 85. At 85, Harnak's, and even the Alter of Evil & Bloody Swampland more than pay for themselves. Harnak's just has lots of drops and an easy quest that pays. The other two have a total of 4 quests that pay over half a million adena each. In addition, Penny's quests sit on top of those quests and Herphah's quest on top of hers. And Herphah's quests give great experience and very nice beginning gear. So things are not nearly as dire as people above make it seem. Still, if you want to play at anything like the highest level the game gets very expensive in a hurry. If you just enjoy the play (and the game is quite enjoyable, even at the lower levels (perhaps most at the lower levels) you can play very inexpensively.

 

You don't get it, i don't want charity quests that give full S gear and bilions of Adena. I want to farm the adena and items myself. I want to earn it slowly by grinding. I guess they removed adena grinding from L2. You eighter do a quest that gives lots of adena for free or buy it from the store. It's like they killed the game for me. No more farming a spot with friends to kill time, it's just a rush to max lvl through quests that dictate where you go and give you unearned loot.

 

You really dont understand anything how this game works now

 

It still is like that, only at higher levels. Something like grinding factions.

Yeah.. i agree with Cordana. You dont really seem to understand what this game is atm.
The game will not provide you the adena nor quests will provide you the Exp needed to rush to max level. Thats the whole point of the L2Store. This isnt a game, its a Live Service.
If you dont spend a reasonable (to each its own) ammount of your money on the store, there's a good chance you'll stop at 95 as you will struggle to even get enough adena to pay for your farming costs.

Edit: Oh, to the part where you believe the game gives you "lots of adena".. just go to the Auction House and check the price of the equipment you'll need to buy to make your character viable.
And no. Crafting wont work. Most people agree that crafting (and spoiling at lower levels) is dead.

PS: Everything below 85 is like a tutorial. It doesnt really matter much.
From 85 to 95, its entry/low level content.
From 99 to 101 is mid level content.
From 101 to infinity is high level.

 

Max level now is 105 and it takes months without fortune to make it. You just have to understand that lvl 60 is nothing, even without PA you're 85 in 2-3days. Than you can grind. But preferably 100+. Experience to get 100 are very easy to gather with very little euros spent. 7day rune, maphr scrolls and pa are pretty much all you need and in a week you're 100

 

I would be super happy to grind at 100+ then, but...

...will mobs at 100+ finnaly drop more adena than the cost in SS-shots to kill them?

...will all zones at 100+ drop more adena than the cost of SS-shots? (or just a few?)

If not then when will the wallet investment stop and in-game currency farming actually begin? You can't "farm" if you lose money.

Plz tell me this game isn't just "pay to reach max lvl". Because without farming that turns "profit", that's exactly what it is.

 

Realistically? Never.
You can make your character viable at farming and somewhat effective.
But.. that will only last 'till NCSoft tweaks/balances mobs around the new L2Store content. Then you will have to spend.
Not to mention, if they introduce such good spots, you'll never get to farm there since those places will be locked down by the top dogs.

The game you're looking for is Lineage 2 Classic, like SK111 said.

 

Just go classic or find other games. This can be barely called a game as it is.

 

It's quite simple, really

 

Hahaha