Are the parties in this game as bad as I think?

[pkpkpk]

I have seen some players raving about the beauty of parties in Lineage 2, and that is what the game is all about. But when I played in Elven Ruins we were all running around in circles hitting anything we saw, as our health regeneration made it so that never rested at all (and couldn't, cause the mobs respawned soon). Are parties in this non-stop action, or are they strategic? I have played many of the party-based MMORPGs between 1999 and 2004, so I think I have a good frame of reference. From what I have seen the parties in World of Warcraft and Everquest II were more challenging than these.

[Arinulis]

5 minutes ago, pkpkpk said:

I have seen some players raving about the beauty of parties in Lineage 2, and that is what the game is all about. But when I played in Elven Ruins we were all running around in circles hitting anything we saw, as our health regeneration made it so that never rested at all (and couldn't, cause the mobs respawned soon). Are parties in this non-stop action, or are they strategic? I have played many of the party-based MMORPGs between 1999 and 2004, so I think I have a good frame of reference. From what I have seen the parties in World of Warcraft and Everquest II were more challenging than these.

Wait til you get higher level, elven ruins is lowbie stuff. I used to solo there and never have to sit.

[pkpkpk]

Just now, Arinulis said:

Wait til you get higher level, elven ruins is lowbie stuff. I used to solo there and never have to sit.

Well I'm level 21. I'm not going to wait any longer. I have gone through AC, and looked at some of the parties, and it looked like groups of people running around madly AOEing mobs or anybody shooting anything in sight, and pulling it to the group, and whoever was around killing it. Is there strategy in these parties, or is it non-stop action?

[Llothlian]

Back in the day I was a member of a party in ToI.  I was the Bladedancer and would be in it for about 12 hours, then sleep 4 hours, work 7, eat, rejoin the party.  When I was away another BD was in the party.  This went on for about 2 weeks.  This is a proper L2 party.

[Arinulis]

1 minute ago, pkpkpk said:

Well I'm level 21. I'm not going to wait any longer. I have gone through AC, and looked at some of the parties, and it looked like groups of people running around madly AOEing mobs or anybody shooting anything in sight, and pulling it to the group, and whoever was around killing it. Is there strategy in these parties, or is it non-stop action?

That is the strategy especially with AOE mobs. I remember back in 2003 when this first launched and there was no level penalty, a clan mate used to always bring in 20-30 mobs aoe them to death and the rest of us leveled fairly fast. With the right party mix, there really isn't much action, unless of course you're in places like the catas, the heart in antharas lair or some other high lvl area.

[Krissa]

If you play an assisting DD, all PvE in L2 is boring.

[pkpkpk]

Hmm. Doesn't sound good. It's like logging in the party finder and punching your card then, is it? No discussion of tactics in group? Rest breaks? Complex crowd control? Someone mentioned assisting, that's good. I remember in Wrath of the Lich King assisting a tank became somewhat uncommon. But I have seen mobs dying very quickly in L2, and the fact that AOE seems to be so common is not a good sign. In most good MMORPGs I've played with groups an AOE party was very difficult, requiring very skilled players and specific classes.

[Llothlian]

How about you get out of the starter area before you make sweeping decisions about the game...

[Nourish]

Personally I hate the AOE groups, but mostly because it seems chaotic and a waste of time. You have periods where nothing is around and then a train comes in. You still end up with seemingly the same rate of XP, especially since you're pulling mobs from other people's area(pvp inevitable).

I prefer dungeons/spaces where you focus fire, and things die fast, and the MA tank has to be very active and very good at determining the closest mob to target next. Preferably they do it at exactly the right moment so that there is no pause between mobs, just constant movement. This is how most parties will be expected to run.

I enjoy a normal party where the mobs are within XP range. If someone is running so far away that they are losing out on XP, then its not really a benefit for everyone. Not only does that person miss out on xp, but the group misses out on the 9 person bonus for those mobs. (I assume.)

Being a heavy armor class right now is terrible.

 

[InLegend]

Game is more about the PvP to PvE. You will have to fight other players over where you level.

[pkpkpk]

I haven't really heard what would convince me otherwise. I thought I might hear "Elven Ruins was nothing. Wait till AC, there's a high level patrol that will wipe out your party if you aren't careful, and the magicians need to be silenced or engaged in melee, or they will destroy your healers." Take Oasis in EQ. Seemingly an easy outdoor area, but there are roaming mummies that can give you rabies (you can't heal), sand giants that will destroy you instantly, and a dangerous crocodile named Lockjaw. Although this is one of the easiest areas in the game, it's still not easy. I don't expect EQ (there's a four year difference), but Final Fantasy XI also had rich groups with strategy (as I remember) and DAoC, while easier than EQ, was not a fast game, and pulling mobs and AOEing was tricky and risky. Chaotic wouldn't be the word I would use. Most people knew exactly what was going on, and were watching the casters health bars tensely. Come to think of it though, players can always outrun mobs in L2, can't they? So they're never in great risk of death. EQ2 I think had similar groups to EQ, and WoW was only challenging likely because of instances, and only through the first expansion at the latest. And that's all of challenging groups that I know. I've played games such as Wrath of the Lich King, TERA, Warhammer, and seen some of Guild Wars 2, and L2 was giving me flashbacks of these. That's why I ask.

[Arinulis]

1 hour ago, pkpkpk said:

I haven't really heard what would convince me otherwise. I thought I might hear "Elven Ruins was nothing. Wait till AC, there's a high level patrol that will wipe out your party if you aren't careful, and the magicians need to be silenced or engaged in melee, or they will destroy your healers." Take Oasis in EQ. Seemingly an easy outdoor area, but there are roaming mummies that can give you rabies (you can't heal), sand giants that will destroy you instantly, and a dangerous crocodile named Lockjaw. Although this is one of the easiest areas in the game, it's still not easy. I don't expect EQ (there's a four year difference), but Final Fantasy XI also had rich groups with strategy (as I remember) and DAoC, while easier than EQ, was not a fast game, and pulling mobs and AOEing was tricky and risky. Chaotic wouldn't be the word I would use. Most people knew exactly what was going on, and were watching the casters health bars tensely. Come to think of it though, players can always outrun mobs in L2, can't they? So they're never in great risk of death. EQ2 I think had similar groups to EQ, and WoW was only challenging likely because of instances, and only through the first expansion at the latest. And that's all of challenging groups that I know. I've played games such as Wrath of the Lich King, TERA, Warhammer, and seen some of Guild Wars 2, and L2 was giving me flashbacks of these. That's why I ask.

 

Not always you can't. Some of the higher level mobs will root you, sleep you, and all around butt-f&*k you, in this game. 

[Krissa]

1 hour ago, pkpkpk said:

I haven't really heard what would convince me otherwise. I thought I might hear "Elven Ruins was nothing. Wait till AC, there's a high level patrol that will wipe out your party if you aren't careful, and the magicians need to be silenced or engaged in melee, or they will destroy your healers."

Wait until they re-introduce ToI, and you play a healer that has no Purify.

However, if you play an assisting DD, you will be mostly unaware of the healer's work happening around you.

[kupuldog]

Believe me AOE parties need skills. 1 mistake and a whole party is dead, especially in later levels when mobs hit you hard but heals heal you fast. Turn on streamers and look how they play. I mean AOE streamers, they do mistakes sometimes and you will see how fast people die. Turn RU classic streams, lilith especially as it's fresh server, older servers olympiad games, instances and you'll see that it's not an elven ruins like solo farm game.

[Krissa]

Learned today in AC on a nuker alt: if your train breaks and you want to re-take aggro off your healer, spam your nuker's Battleheal

[Nef]

There isn't that much strategy in normal leveling, as you will be grinding mobs for months. 

you have the AOE groups where people just run trains and nuke them, and you have the regular parties where a person is tank, you have a healer, some buffers, and damage dealers - you just run your camp and assist on the tank, while the healer keeps you alive. Once MP runs out, you all sit and have a break, then back to it. Welcome to L2!

[deadlygr]

2 hours ago, pkpkpk said:

Well I'm level 21. I'm not going to wait any longer. I have gone through AC, and looked at some of the parties, and it looked like groups of people running around madly AOEing mobs or anybody shooting anything in sight, and pulling it to the group, and whoever was around killing it. Is there strategy in these parties, or is it non-stop action?

At higher lvls its actually quite hard to aoe 1 small mt and it can end in dissaster.Only ppl with rly good gear can aoe at 60+ 

[ShadeX]

Random parties are 50/50 sometimes you will find a good group that know how to play and sometimes you will waste your time, the best you can do is to find a group/clan/cp that play well and try to join them otherwise you can solo/duo just fine at least until 40.

[Siliarus]

Zones below 40 are usually simple. A bit of poison, bleed, maybe one mob has stun. Try going deeper into ant nest if you want something tougher and in bigger numbers.

Later on its paralysis, silence, even sleep. All the while mobs are 4+x hp. You wont see this in solo for sure. TOI or LOA are nice.examples of more dangerous spots.

Also training above 40 requires selected group but is probably boring as support dd like bd or sws. In that case all the fun goes to dds and healer, maybe spoiler.

[Kokusho]

10 hours ago, pkpkpk said:

I have seen some players raving about the beauty of parties in Lineage 2, and that is what the game is all about. But when I played in Elven Ruins we were all running around in circles hitting anything we saw, as our health regeneration made it so that never rested at all (and couldn't, cause the mobs respawned soon). Are parties in this non-stop action, or are they strategic? I have played many of the party-based MMORPGs between 1999 and 2004, so I think I have a good frame of reference. From what I have seen the parties in World of Warcraft and Everquest II were more challenging than these.

The irony...this guy was one the people complaining most about rates increase coz he's hardcore and from this post I can clearly see he's a complete noob to lineage, that has absolutly no idea how the game is played.

[airfathaaaaa]

10 hours ago, Krissa said:

If you play an assisting DD, all PvE in L2 is boring.

clearly you havent farmed abg with 2 dwarfs lol

[dorukasama]

9 hours ago, pkpkpk said:

Hmm. Doesn't sound good. It's like logging in the party finder and punching your card then, is it? No discussion of tactics in group? Rest breaks? Complex crowd control? Someone mentioned assisting, that's good. I remember in Wrath of the Lich King assisting a tank became somewhat uncommon. But I have seen mobs dying very quickly in L2, and the fact that AOE seems to be so common is not a good sign. In most good MMORPGs I've played with groups an AOE party was very difficult, requiring very skilled players and specific classes.

It's all about how you wana aproach the grinding. Party isn't striclty hardocre. There are parties that can farm very very hard and eficient, or parties that just farm a few hours relaxed having a chat meanwhile. Depends on your team mates and yourself and how you wana play it. But yes, the game is about partying and the eficiency lvl depends on leader and his party members.

I personaly, in the mornings I prefer to solo or just a relaxed party. In the evenings I hardcore with my friends for a few hours.

 

One thing sure, the party has to be well round build or you'll end up loosing time and exp by dyeing.

[Anguis_Draslik]

i think u all get trolled