Lineage II/Human Fighter

=Current Status: Still Updating= =The Human Fighter= The Human Fighter class is the starting Fighter class for Humans. All subsequent Human Damage Dealer/ Tank classes would descend from this class.

Given the flexibility of the Human race, the Fighter class is perhaps the hardest to write a guide for, as there are so many possibilities that can come from the Fighter class -- in all 6 2nd Professions are descended from the Fighter class. This accounts for about 20% of all 2nd Professions, the largest percentage descended from a single starting class.

As such, it is critical that players going for Human Fighter classes have a clear idea what 2nd Profession they want to be at the beginning.

You should certainly explore the various classes if you do not mind the effort required to get to the appropriate levels, but Lineage 2 is such a difficult game in terms of levelling that it is probably for the best that you concentrate on one class from the beginning.

At the point of this writing, this review/ guide is written more from the perspective of a Human Fighter who is moving towards a Paladin/ Dark Avenger. In the future, the other perspectives will hopefully be added both by this contributor and others.

Armour
In terms of armour, a Human Fighter will typically choose between Light Armour and Heavy Armour. Light Armour offers less protection than Heavy Armour, but Heavy Armour reduces Evasion by 8 points.

Evasion is a statistic that indicates how well you can dodge attacks. However, the effect of removing 8 points from Evasion doesn't appear to matter much, at least at lower levels. Since Evasion isn't a major factor in the game, most Warriors/ Knights goes for the additional protection offered by Heavy Armour.

(Rogues don't really have much choice in the matter, as their subsequent levels after the 1st Profession Change have only Light Armour Mastery.)

For a Human Fighter, most of the initial choices available are Light Armour. In most cases, the differences between the initial armours are negligible; their PDef are low enough that they make no real difference.

However, one armour set stands out at low levels: the Wooden set. The Wooden Set comprises of Wooden Breastplate, Wooden Gaiters and Wooden Helmet. When your PC equips all three items, there will be a 2% gain in PDef, and a 41 point increase in HP. At low levels, the increase in HP is quite desirable and as such the Wooden set is quite popular.

Once you have the Wooden Set, the next step up will either be the best No Grade Light Armour (Hard Leather Set), or the best No Grade Heavy Armour (Bronze set).

If you are going to become a Rogue, you can save money by staying with the Wooden set instead of upgrading to top No Grade; the PDef difference is minor, and the HP gain by the Wooden set is good at the low 20s. You can skip the top No Grade and directly get a low D-Grade armour instead.

If you are keen on heavy armour though, you must upgrade to Bronze set quickly; there is a 20-point difference in PDef of the breastplates alone, and that is a huge difference. Unfortunately, Bronze sets are not available on Talking Island; they are readily available on the mainland.

Thus, the progression in terms of armour should be as follows:
 * Initial Armour: anything that drops from mobs
 * Intermediate Set: Wooden Set
 * Final Set before level 20: Wooden Set, Hard Leather Set (if desired), or Bronzed Set

Skills
A Human Fighter has quite a lot of flexibility in terms of skills. Like most classes, the skills can be broken down into Passives, Attacks and Buffs/ DeBuffs. However, the Human Fighter is fairly unique in that this class does not have any Buffs/ Debuffs skills.


 * In Passives, the Human Fighter gains Armour and Weapon Masteries. Since these are stackables and are very useful in (a) keeping you alive and (b) making opponents dead, investing in these is a good choice.


 * In Attacks, each of the three 1st Profession classes linked to the Knight has a specific attack here. Knights/ Warriors have Power Strike, Rogues get either Mortal Blow for daggers or Power Shot for bows. All these attacks except for Mortal Blow allow for Overhits, which nets you extra XP and an increased odds of drops. As such, it is useful to expand some SP into these skills. For a future Knight, it is critical to pick up Power Strike, as there is no skills in the Knight's inventory that allows for overhit -- only Power Strike is available!However, as might be guessed, not all skills are needed; for a a Human Fighter intending to move to a Knight/ Paladin/ Dark Avenger, there is almost no need for dagger skills. Bow skills however, are very useful. Personal experience shows that at low levels, it is useful to have the bow skills as there is no Hate or ranged spells for the Fighter to pull mobs, or to help kill off mobs chasing after somebody else. Power Shots do way too much damage in one shot compared to melee; it's not uncommon to see levels 15~18 PCs one-shotting Werewolves on Talking Island.This usefulness must be weighed against the uselessness once you undergo your 1st Profession change. Knights no longer have any avenue for bow skill increases; in return, they get a ranged spell (Drain Life) and the much hyped Hate skill. Coupled with the fact that bows are not as good after 1st Profession change as D-Grade bows tend to take up too much MP to use, the ~3500 SP spent here must be weighed against the usefulness of it at the low levels. Personal experience is that the SP are well spent, particularly if you solo.


 * The last skill to discuss is one that does not fit cleanly into any category: Relax. Relax is a skill which allows you to recover HP at around double the normal rate while consuming an amount of MP. At low levels, the MP consumption is actually of a rather large percentage of your MP pool, and you may actually be better off resting normally, particularly for archers who need the MP to power their bows. However, once your PC hits mid-levels, your HP and MP recovery rates increases, and by the low-30s, the MP consumption is actually negligible. It becomes efficient to Relax wherever possible, as it would actually reduce downtime.Thus, Relax is one of those skills that you don't really need it at the level it is first offered, but is rather useful once you levelled up further.