Can you actually progress as a solo player, playing 1 to 2 hours a day?

[Skyes]

The title says it all. Please, be honest.
I don't have the same amount of time that I had 14 years ago to grind 8 hours a day. 

Besides, nothing in the game is new to me (nor to any of us I guess), so there isn't that sense of discovery. 

I tried to get into a few parties to make the grinding less frustrating and it was a complete waste of time. No one knew what they were doing, and I got way less exp than I was getting while farming solo. 

I am still lvl 25, playing very casually, and I just want to know if I get to level  52 + I'll get to a point where I'll grind 2 hours a day to level up 5%. 

Then it's definitely time to understand that my L2 days are over and time to move on to other games.

Thank you all in advance and please keep this topic polite and flame free.

[GodEmperorRump]

If you only have ~2hours per day your best bet is to definitely solo and just log out at your xp spots to save time on running back the next time you log in. But yea later on when you get 55+ you're not going to make much progress each day only playing 2hrs, the xp starts to get a bit nutty.

[FatChocobo]

1 hour ago, GodEmperorRump said:

If you only have ~2hours per day your best bet is to definitely solo and just log out at your xp spots to save time on running back the next time you log in. But yea later on when you get 55+ you're not going to make much progress each day only playing 2hrs, the xp starts to get a bit nutty.

You can still make steady progress thanks to the dailies, your SP will take a hit though if you use the XP scrolls right away.

[Saffi]

OP it all depends on how much money you wish to line NCsoft pockets with.

[Gazob1]

Being honest: no (depends).

If

You have more free time during weekends, then that's completely fine.
It won't be fast, but at least it'll be possible. (It isn't fast for anyone that plays normally).

But

That really depends how far you wanna go, "end game" will hit harder, and the biggest problem is that you waste a lot of time with "random stuff", if these 2 hours are fully and effective grinding, then, that's ok too, but, again, I doubt that'll likely happen, we waste precious minutes and even hours doing other stuff, specially when you start interacting with the economy and so on.

If you trully commit 2 hours, I'd say it could be possible to achieve some solid experience with the game, less than that I wouldn't think so, and yet again, if you have more time on weekends and such then it's fine. My point is that it's hard to achieve EFFECTIVE hours, you can play 1000 hours, 2 hours daily, but during those 1000 hours a lot will be "wasted", that's why it's so common to see people playing for HOURS grinding in a single spot, that doesn't mean they'll do it every single day, but at least it's a fair progression. (non lifers and commited players will do that in a regular basis, like everyday).

Consider that: this game is meant to take months/years of gameplay. And consider that: like any other game it's supposed to be fun, doesn't matter if you're lv20 or lv70, if you enjoy the game while playing it then that's what matters, in the end you're just clicking mobs anyway.
About PvP, that's kinda lacking right now, if you wanna have constant PvPs I'd say the best way to achieve that is finding yourself a clan and being in a higher level, and even so PvPs are pretty much gear-based so it's just a reflection of how hard you hit that mobs. If your goal is PvP, you have to commit much more into the game, if your goal is just have a progression and enjoy what the game has to offer then it's fine to take it slow, it's actually better.

Long answer, but that's what I think of it.

Good luck, man.

[Cally]

Well. I think it depens on what you define as "progress"

I have no CP and play maybe 6h a week.
Atm I grind on lvl 28, I managed to buy a low D weapon and make good farming with it.
My next aim is to make a Brigandine helmet... and after that maybe a top D weapon.

If I manage that in the next 2 months... I'm fine with it.
That's what I define as progress for me.

If you don't aim for top-rank player or max lvl with max equip, then you can progress as far as you want as solo player.

[Onimusha]

The thing you have to remember is that this game is basically a time investment. It is going to get hard, and its going to get hard soon into your gameplay time. As long as you are willing to run a marathon and not a sprint, then i think its very viable. If what you want is a fast end game experience then this is not gonna be fun for you.

My L2 classic backstory:
I have been playing for about a month. Being VIP2 for the past 15 days.
My playtime is basically 2-4 hours on average from Monday to Friday, due to work while trying to keep the effective grinding time to at least 2 hours.
On weekends i tend to play alot if i have no other obligations or plans. So for weekends, i get something around 10 hours of grinding on average.
I am almost exclusively a solo player myself. At this point i have a level 35 Scavenger and a 33 level Cleric. Have managed to accumulate roughly 5-6 mil adena spread apart in gear value and actual currency. 

If you are looking for new experiences through unknown game elements, this is obviously not going to happen. Remember this is a 16 year old game.

You will definitely get to a point where farming for 1-2 hours will net you 5% exp. Hell, you will probably end up farming for that time for less exp than that. As long as you dont have leveling as your main, hard objective, u should be fine.

For me personally i keep a goal of increasing my wealth over my level. Works well for me so far.

Sorry for the legthy post, hope it can be of use to you.

Best Regards

 

[mixa]

Simple answer: No

You couldn't do that in the post, you can't do it now.

[Cally]

27 minutes ago, mixa said:

Simple answer: No

You couldn't do that in the post, you can't do it now.

wrong.
I bet you didn't even read the thread propperly and just answering to the title based on your narrow view. -.-

[mixa]

1 minute ago, Cally said:

wrong.
I bet you didn't even read the thread propperly and just answering to the title based on your narrow view. -.-

But I'm sure you did it with your wide open ........ mind

[TDG]

Play time shouldn't really factor, the question you should ask yourself is "during the time I am playing, am I enjoying this?" or if you are simply playing for the sake of playing. That way you can happily log in for a couple hours and get something out of the game, equally you could log in for 8 hours and get nothing out of the game, it really depends where your enjoyment lies and your acceptance that progression will be slow.

[Onimusha]

Just now, TDG said:

Play time shouldn't really factor, the question you should ask yourself is "during the time I am playing, am I enjoying this?" or if you are simply playing for the sake of playing. That way you can happily log in for a couple hours and get something out of the game, equally you could log in for 8 hours and get nothing out of the game, it really depends where your enjoyment lies and your acceptance that progression will be slow.

Sometimes the goal u set in the game, allow for time spent without having fun, so u can end up having fun once that goal is achieved.

[TDG]

2 minutes ago, Onimusha said:

Sometimes the goal u set in the game, allow for time spent without having fun, so u can end up having fun once that goal is achieved.

Sure, it's all relative, if achieving that goal builds excitement and motivation to play through the boring stuff that's reason to push through it

[Paradiz]

Of course you can progress.

Depending of what you want from the game and how far you want to go it will just take you that much longer.

You are progressing everyday, little by little. Just enjoy the game.

 

 

edit:

If you are 25 now, then your first goal should be to get to 35. Then you can start doing daily quest on AI for 3x 1mil XP scrolls.

Then when you'll get to 45 you can start doing FoM for 7x 1mil XP scrolls.

 

At 45 two daily missions will give you 10 mil xp each day.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Paradiz

[ragingducks]

I'm in your situation and I might not even get two hours a day since I have two kids.

I think it is worth it, but only if you set goals to yourself and completely forget about CPs and end-game. Hell, you might even have more fun than them, as the game is so dumb and repetitive that after a few hours you really have to push hard. Playing a little bit here and there, you're actually enjoying your play time more intensely.

[Onimusha]

26 minutes ago, Paradiz said:

Of course you can progress.

Depending of what you want from the game and how far you want to go it will just take you that much longer.

You are progressing everyday, little by little. Just enjoy the game.

 

 

edit:

If you are 25 now, then your first goal should be to get to 35. Then you can start doing daily quest on AI for 3x 1mil XP scrolls.

Then when you'll get to 45 you can start doing FoM for 7x 1mil XP scrolls.

 

At 45 two daily missions will give you 10 mil xp each day.

Do that , and you will end up having huge problems with SP, which in return will make u wanna quit the game. These scrolls only award XP. 

[Cally]

I personally think those xp boost are useful after you equipped yourself propperly.... which will be probably never
I have about 105 xp boost scrolls and 8 30days cat boost thingys... I'll probably never need them

[Khania]

10 hours ago, Skyes said:

The title says it all. Please, be honest.
I don't have the same amount of time that I had 14 years ago to grind 8 hours a day. 

Besides, nothing in the game is new to me (nor to any of us I guess), so there isn't that sense of discovery. 

I tried to get into a few parties to make the grinding less frustrating and it was a complete waste of time. No one knew what they were doing, and I got way less exp than I was getting while farming solo. 

I am still lvl 25, playing very casually, and I just want to know if I get to level  52 + I'll get to a point where I'll grind 2 hours a day to level up 5%. 

Then it's definitely time to understand that my L2 days are over and time to move on to other games.

Thank you all in advance and please keep this topic polite and flame free.

yes you can, i just play 2 to 3 hours per day, sometimes less sometimes a bit more, and im close to be lvl 40 and top D with enough money to buy a valhalla, playing l2 less than 1 month

[Skyes]

10 hours ago, Gazob1 said:

That really depends how far you wanna go, "end game" will hit harder, and the biggest problem is that you waste a lot of time with "random stuff", if these 2 hours are fully and effective grinding, then, that's ok too, but, again, I doubt that'll likely happen, we waste precious minutes and even hours doing other stuff, specially when you start interacting with the economy and so on.

 

Yes, that's totally true. That's why I gave up on parties and Clan activities. 100% of my experience with parties so far in Classic was horrible. People going AFK all the time, dying, leading to a massive waste of time (taking into consideration the minimum time I have per day to play, thats frustrating)

10 hours ago, Onimusha said:

The thing you have to remember is that this game is basically a time investment. It is going to get hard, and its going to get hard soon into your gameplay time.

You will definitely get to a point where farming for 1-2 hours will net you 5% exp. Hell, you will probably end up farming for that time for less exp than that. As long as you dont have leveling as your main, hard objective, u should be fine.

3

That's one of my main concerns. I am fine with that, but with so many other great and newer games that I have installed (The Witcher 3, Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Come Deliverance, to name a few), I am not sure I have the energy and the time for that.

8 hours ago, TDG said:

Play time shouldn't really factor, the question you should ask yourself is "during the time I am playing, am I enjoying this?" or if you are simply playing for the sake of playing. That way you can happily log in for a couple hours and get something out of the game, equally you could log in for 8 hours and get nothing out of the game, it really depends where your enjoyment lies and your acceptance that progression will be slow.

2

100% agree. The problem is when you play for 2 hours straight doing the same thing over and over again (killing mobs) alone to get 5 % exp or less PER DAY, I am not sure that will be fun  

7 hours ago, ragingducks said:

I'm in your situation and I might not even get two hours a day since I have two kids.

I think it is worth it, but only if you set goals to yourself and completely forget about CPs and end-game. Hell, you might even have more fun than them, as the game is so dumb and repetitive that after a few hours you really have to push hard. Playing a little bit here and there, you're actually enjoying your play time more intensely.

I agree with with you  
I was worried that to actually progress you would HAVE to create a dwarf to make money and a buffer to help you grind. I did create a Cleric, he's lvl 23, but honestly, it is not worth the time and energy investment. When playing a game becomes a chore, you realize it is going the wrong way. I still have Novice equipment, except for the armors which I got from the quest (moon knight). If I play solo and get to a point where I can't progress further because I don't have Adena and Equipment, then I guess it's time to drop the game. When a game forces you to create boxes to progress, then it's also going the wrong direction. You should be able to progress with one toon, and that's it.


Anyways guys, I think I am getting old. I installed a pack of old games on my laptop (all games from NES to PSX and N64, 60 GBs of roms using Retroarch), and I am having a blast playing Final Fantasy VI from SNES and Castlevania Symphony of the Night. More than I am when playing L2, unfortunately. And I am not even blaming the rates or NCSoft or anything. I guess I am the problem. I am 29 years old now. Back in 2004, I was much younger, had free time, L2 was my first MMORPG experience (except for Phantasy Star Online, but I don't count that as a MMORPG because it had a lobby) and everything was new.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Skyes

[sho]

with a proper class and 1-2 boxes u can play efficient, for solo-relax gaming, pm tacos TI server if have any questions

[digital]

Take it from me as a player that play since c3 - yes u can progress Im doing it my main and buffer are all in full C grade. You just need to have the knowledge to play l2 because this classic is not like any other server u'll find out there. If u not smart or dont have the knowledge for l2 and u doing steps wrong u will fail and eventually u going to leave this game like all the cry babies I see making topics that they leave so yeah u can u just need to be smart and take the right steps. Have in mind that this is not easy game and thats why so many people like to play it because some of us actually like something challenging and the rest that cant or just dont like it will eventually go and find something easy to play.