Lineage II/PvP Comparison

PvP is an important part of Lineage 2. There are the sieges when one clan tries to take a castle. But there is also free PvP when one player attacks another and they battle each other. Unfortunately there is also Playerkilling, when a superior player kills another, or one player kills someone not fighting back.

Important PvP classes

The discussion which class is the best PvP class is of course very old, and this page should just give the reader some ideas which classes are frequently discussed.

Tanks

• Dark Avenger is the probably most popular tank. They are deadly in PvP because of their great resistance to anything. In the case of the DA, this is combined with their high human hitpoints, the best stun ability in the game, and the Hamstring skill to slow down an opponent, and the vampiric spells which can heal the DA at the cost of the opponent. A DA is the doom of archers as their extreme resistance to archery makes them practically invincible, while their debuffs make it impossible for the archer to run away.

• Paladin is the other human tank. They also have the shield stun, but are not as good in PvP because they have Healing instead of Drain Health skills.

• Shillien Knight is the darkelven tank. Very low constitution is the biggest problem here, as they are easily stunned until high levels, though they also have some of the best debuffs of any warrior class of the game.

• Temple Knight is the elven tank. Again their constitution score isn't that great, even if not as bad as of the SKs.

Damage Dealers

• Treasure Hunters are infamous for being PKs (Playerkillers). This is because a highlevel TH can, with a simple no-grade dagger, deal about 3k damage on a lowlevel character by using skills only. But even in normal PvP THs are very dangerous opponents, as they can deal so much damage even from their passive skills alone, and have great active skills like Dash and Stance, too. They also run fast and have the good human stats. They lack however any disabling skill like stun, and they have quite bad defenses (but not as bad as Tyrants). Against nukers they will probably change to the bow, with which dagger users have some skill too, trying to disrupt the enemies spells while charging at them.

• Abyss Walker are the darkelven dagger users and another class infamous for being PK.

• Plainswalker are the elven dagger users.

• Tyrant are fast running high damage dealers with stun skills and Cripple, the later slows the victim down. On higher levels they also get a special Todem for low hitpoints and the Punch of Doom, which is a 'you can take one with you' ability. Fully buffed, especially with Haste, Berzerk, Dance of Fury and Vampiric Rage, a Tyrant is truly an extremely dangerous opponent, as they do massive damage, can interrupt spellcasters with their extreme attack speed, and get very high running speed from their Wolf Todem to keep up with any roguetype. Without buffs, they are not as good, but still are formidable opponents.

Archers

• Hawkeye are the human archers. In direct PvP, archers are deadly especially to nukers, as they can interrupt their spells immediately and do extreme damage. They are also the doom for any other class which isn't able to get fast enough to them. Tanks (especially the Dark Avenger) however are always the doom of archers, as they can hinder the archers movement and, thanks to their special buffs, get only very little damage from their arrows. Another very dangerous opponent is the Swordsinger, as they get the same buff as tanks (even if not on the same skilllevel), but also high running speed and excellent evasion from their own songs.

• Silver Ranger are the elven archers.

• Phantom Ranger are the dark elven archers.

Nukers

• Necromancer is the most dangerous kind of wizard in PvP. They have all kinds debuffs (biggest limitation is their range), most importantly the Anchor spell which has a chance on paralyzing the victim, but also Silence as well as the most deadly dark magic damage spells. Thanks to Anchor going too close to one is risky, as the fight will be decided if it lands. Additionally, they can summon and share hitpoints with the summon, even if they lack other support spells for them, having access to "Transfer Pain" for 50% less damage until their pet is dead cannot be ignored.

• Spellhowler is the darkelven nuker. They have Silence, Vampiric Claw and Death Link like the Necromancers, but no Anchor spell. Another important disadvantage is that they are also the slowest variant of the nukers, but on the other hand they are also the ones that deal the highest damage in their spells.

• Spellsinger is the fastest variant of all nukers. Most importantly, this class can very likely disrupt any other kind of nuker in their spells. It is also very dangerous to all other opponents as they are the hardest to disrupt themselves. Their spell selection is however not really that good for PvP. Main redeeming features are being able to significantly debuff opponent's move speed at extreme range and abundance of critical hits compared to other mages.

• Sorcerer are the most general kind of nuker, neither extra fast nor extra strong in their spells, but decent in both respects.

Summoners

• Warlock, Elemental Summoner and Phantom Summoner are much the same as their nuker counterparts, only that they don't have as strong attack spells and no player is stupid enough to attack the summon instead of the caster. Still these casters can absorb 50% of their damage into the summon (Transfer Pain), which can makes up for their lack of direct damage.

Other Classes in PvP

Destroyer are slow warriors that have bad or no chances against ranged classes, but are absolutely deadly and fatal in Melee because of their Guts and Frenzy skills which makes them the class with the both best defense and offense when their hitpoints fall below 30% (which might still be very much in the case of a Destroyer). Guts however doesn't give any defense against magic.

The Gladiator is specialized into 1v1 fights. Their Slash skills are able to one shot mages and deal massive dmg. However, they do not have any crowd control skill and they are disadvantaged in mass PvP. The polearm specialist Warlord is the opposite, their AoE stun abilities makes him a nice supporter for a party.

Buffers and healers seems to be in the disadvantage in PvP. However, on self buffs fights they are really harmful with their mana burn ability, which can disable most of the classes easily. Warcryers and Overlords get a stun skill with blunt weapons, also have a really huge range of buffs/debuffs which makes them an hard opponent. Start running if Seal of Suspension lands on you. If you want to do PvP with a clerical character, you should give him light armor (for Prophets and Shamans even heavy) and a warrior weapon (i.e. not a wizard staff or sword or book).

Dwarves are in the same situation; neither the Summon of the Warsmith nor the Fake Death of the Bounty Hunter are of much use during PvP. At least they (just like the Warlord) get the special Wrath skill which could be handy when two armies are "clashing together".

During Sieges, Buffers (including the support warriors Bladedancer and Swordsinger) and Warsmiths with Siege Golems are also very important, and are also the most popular high priority targets of enemy forces, too - as they are realatively easy to kill, but add a big bonus to the enemies battle power while being alife.

So which class is the best?

There is no common agreement about this. Join a discussion forum and read the many opinions about it there.

The top candidates are probably: Necromancer, Dark Avenger, Tyrant, Hawkeye, Treasure Hunter, Abyss Walker.

Dangerous PKing classes

Now PvP is one thing but PKing is slightly different as the awareness of players and reaction times weigh heavier than in upfront battles. Remember that the candidates listed here are probably the most lethal when it comes to PKing which does not necessarily mean the victim being able to fight back.

Archers (Hawkeyes, Silver Rangers, and Phantom Rangers) - particularly dangerous because their high damage and range gives them priority to hit.

Treasure Hunters - Very lethal PKers as they can deal large quantities of damage even on passive skills alone. Their melee range makes them a little easier to spot than the Archers so it's a little easier to react to them assuming you are using a ranged character yourself.

Spellsingers - Probably the most dangerous of the three main nuking classes because of their fast spellcasting and access to close range less than a second to cast damage spells, (i.e. Aura Flare) combine this with a high MEN which also makes their spells very very difficult to cancel.

Necromancers - If you see a rotting corpse or zombie like creature coming to you with a player name start running. A necromancer wants you dead. Do not be afraid of the servitor as necro summons are relatively weak and easily killed. The problem is it usually means that a necro has you in sights for a Curse Gloom Spell. If you want to fight make sure that this spell never connects with you, because once it does it'll be a better idea to start running as most of the Necro debuffs will land on you.

Which class beats which other class ?

Again, there is no common agreement.

• Nukers are most likely beaten by archers. But a Necromancer is a deadly foe even against an archer.
• Archers are beaten by tanks. But only the Dark Avenger really gets all the good stuff against them (Shield Stun, Drain Health, Hamstring). The Shillien Knight have paralyze, freezing strike which slows enemy down, and arrest(root)
• Melee warriors are beaten by nukers. The exceptions are Dark Avenger (gets Magic Resistance for better M.Def, can slow the nuker down and use Shield Stun), the dagger users and Tyrant (fast running speed, high attack rate to disrupt spellcasting, high damage to finish the nuker off very fast), who really stand a certain chance. In any case, having a bow is a good idea against a nuker.

What are the most important buffs ?

The WC, the SwS and the BD often have special buffs which either overload or stack to the "normal" buffs.

• Defense Buffs
  • Wind Walk (and the SwS group buff) increases running speed - very important in many PvP situations.
  • Shield (or the WC group buff) increases P.Def.
  • Bless Shield (Prophet) is especially important for tanks.
  • Agility (EE or the SwS group buff) increases evasion, especially interesting for classes with high evasion (dagger users, archers, and destroyers, dwarves and warriors in light armor).
  • Magic Barrier (or the WC group buff) increases M.Def.
  • Mental Shield helps against various nondamage attacks (root, sleep).
  • Resist Water (Prophet) helps against the water attacks from elven Spellsingers.
  • Resist Fire (Prophet) helps against the fire attacks from human Sorcerers.
  • Resist Wind (Prophet, SE) helps against the wind attacks from darkelven Spellhowlers (only a partial solution as they also are capable of launching dark attacks)
  • Resist Shock (EE ONLY) is the only protection against stun - besides having high Con and wearing one of the a-grade Majestic sets.
  • Invigor (Prophet) helps against classes with bleeding skills (dagger users)

• Fighter Buffs
  • Might (or the WC group buff) increases P.Atk.
  • Haste (and the BD dance) greatly increases Atkspeed and total damage dealt.
  • Focus (and the SWS song) improves the effectivity especially of dagger users and archers as well as people wielding a weapon with some on Critical SA.
  • Death Whisper (also BD dance) increases the damage dealt by criticals and is especially desired by dagger users and archers who very often have criticals.
  • Guidance increases Accuracy, especially important against opponents with high evasion (dagger users, archers, SwS).
  • Vampiric Rage (or the BD or the WC skills) gives healing from real melee damage (not from skills).

• Mystic Buffs
  • Concentration greatly helps against getting disrupted in spellcasting by taking damage.
  • Acumen (or the WC or BD buff) is the Haste for spellcasters and substantly lowers chance to be interrupted.
  • Empower (from SE, or the WC group buff or the BD dance) increases M.Atk.

• Special Buffs
  • Berserker Spirit (or the OL spell) is a two-bladed sword. It lowers P.Def and since C4 also M.Def, but it increases all offensive values (P.Atk, M.Atk, Atkspeed, Castspeed). Especially the lowering of M.Def is a big problem, as M.Def protects against various negative effects such as root, sleep, and debuffs. If your class is based on outlasting the opposition (tanks for example), not worth getting, but otherwise it is recommended.

What equipment for PvP ?

The best equipment for PvP is notexistent, of course - everyone has his personal concepts. You should identify the strengths of your class and improve them (max out). You should identify the classes against which your class is in the disadvantage, and try to compensate these weaknesses (hide your back).

A very important thing is good jewelry. Having this will lower your chance to get disabled (rooted, slept) or debuffed (for example, by darkelven warriors), and it will decrease the damage nukers deal to you.

Another important thing is having a good selection of weapons. For example, having a good bow and some arrows might be a big improvement in various PvP situations. And it is of course of utmost importance that you have your class weapon and can use your class skills.

For PvP, it is often a good idea to give yourself running speed by increasing your dexterity, or as a Mystic Wit to get more castspeed, and Int to get more damage. The effects of lowering Men are either not important for PvP (you will die before your Mana pool is down, thats for sure), or can be compensated by good jewelry - except, unfortunately, the chance to get the spell disrupted.

How to react on being Playerkilled ?

The most natural reaction is of course fighting back.

This is however a bad idea if the opponent is superior, because it means that the opponent has a chance that you drop equipment (which is why they started this thing), but there is no risk that he would gain Karma.

A better idea is therefore trying to run away and trying to get close to friendly players, or into town. If there are trees and the opponent is a nuker, run between the trees to make the nuker loose his target.

If you are in a clan, you might get that player on the KOS (Kill on sight) list. If you don't fight back, this might not be necessary - everyone fights a red player when they see them.

Notes

NC Soft has, in their statements about C5, explicitly stated that their want to enforce the rock-paper-scissor idea in PvP, and that no superior PvP class should remain. They left it however unclear what classes they where talking about, and given the complexity of the problem and the many minds that will work on finding a weakness in it, it is very doubtfull that they will actually succeed. It is more likely that they will shift the problem around and that other classes, given the right equipment, will end up being superior.

In any case, the most important things you need to be successful in PvP is high skill and good preparation; the best class can't help you if you don't know how to use it, and if you have bad equipment or lack some other important resource (such as buffs during sieges, not having the right weapon for the class, not having a bow to try to disrupt a nuker, being out of shots etc), you stand no chance either.