Lineage 2/The Player Character (PC) Classes & Character Guides/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 big problem here, as they are easily stunned, but 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.

General Warriors

• 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, as they have more hitpoints than anybody else). Guts however doesnt give any defense against magic.

• Swordsinger are much tougher than many people first believe. Thats to their songs they reach high P.Def and very high Evasion values, enough to become a concurrence to the pure tanks. Towards archers they are fatal, because they also get a very high running speed and the first skilllevel of resist archery. Against nukers they arent too bad either, as they have both running speed and magic resistance.

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 truely 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 darkevlen archers.

Nukers

• Necromancer is the most dangerous kind of wizard in PvP. They have all the good debuffs, most importantly the Anchor spell which paralyzes the victim, but also Silence etc, as well as the most deadly dark magic damage spells. Thanks to Anchor even archers shouldn't feel too safe when facing a Necromancer, because that spell has to hit only once to terminate the contest. Additionally, they can summon and share hitpoints with the summon, even if they lack other support spells for them.

• 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, including the most powerful Death Link Curse (the Necromancer gets this one as well) and the Shadow Flare (while this is dark magic, this spell is unique to the Spellhowler).

• 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. Still, they get Cancel to remove all buffs from their opponent.

• Sorcerer are the most general kind of nuker, neither extra fast nor extra strong in their spells, but decent in both respects. They get Cancel, and they get the very essential Concentration buff up to level 6, while all other nukers only get level 2.

Summoners

• Warlock, Elemental Summoner and Phantom Summoner are relying on their summon and their cubics to do the work. As they are essential healers and buffers for their summon, the later isnt easy to kill. Neither is the summoner himself, as 70% of damage dealt to him will go into the summon, and summoners can wear light armor. Finally the cubics are not attackable, but have nasty effects; the Warlocks Binding Cubic even paralyzes.

Other Classes in PvP

The Gladiator is another general warrior, but lacks the special features of the Destroyer and overall deals less damage than the dagger users and the Tyrant. The polearm specialist Warlord is even worse, even if they get a special skill to attack a single opponent with a polearm more efficiently.

Buffers and healers are obviously in the disadvantage in PvP. Warcryers and Overlords get a stun skill with blunt weapons, but thats really all they have; their ultra low spellcasting speed makes it next to impossible to cast anything in PvP. 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.

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, for example, only has Paralyze - but no other way to slow the archer down.
• 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 ?

For PvP, especially during sieges, one should know which buffs are important for your current character.

The WC, the SwS and the BD often have special buffs which either overload or stack to the "normal" buffs. The OL gets some buffs for clan and alliance.

• 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, EE) is especially important for tanks.
  • Bless the Body (Prophet, also Bishop) gives additional hitpoints.
  • Bless the Mind (Prophet) gives additional manapoints.
  • Agility (EE or the SwS and WC 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 Aqua (Prophet) helps against the water (maybe also ice?) 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 (not much help as they will probably rely more on dark magic, and there is no defense against that except high M.Def)
  • 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 BD dance) improves the effectivity especially of dagger users and archers as well as people wielding a weapon with some on Critical SA.
  • Death Whisper 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 twobladed 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.

(Remember: SwS = Swordsinger, BD = Bladedancer, EE = Elven Elder, SE = Shillien Elder, WC = Warcryer, OL = Overlord)

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). This is called "min-maxing" your character.

A very important tool for PvP is having good jewelry. Having this will lower your chance to get disabled (rooted, slept, silenced, or otherwise cursed) or debuffed (for example, by darkelven warriors), and it will decrease the damage nukers deal to you (even if it is doubtfull this will help much unless you really have insanely good jewelry).

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, as a fighter, to increase your Dex for more running speed, or, as a Mystic, increase Wit to get more castspeed. The effects of lowering Men for Wit are either not important for PvP (you will die or have won before your Mana pool is down, that is for sure), or can be compensated by good jewelry - except, unfortunately, the chance to get the spell disrupted, but that is already worked on by your higher castspeed.

Instead of raising your Str or Int, you can always get a better weapon instead. As Str and Int have no other effect but raising P.Atk and M.Atk, sacrificing other properties of your character for them might be a bad idea.

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.

How to avoid being victim of Playerkillers ?

Get a party. As a general rule, PKs are cowards and will fear any group of players, even if it objectively stands no chance.

If you can get them, you can protect yourself against PKs with a blessed scroll of escape (unless the opponent has succeeded to stun or paralyze you). Prophets get almost the same as spell. A party with an Elven Elder will have the same effect for the whole party, but parties are only very seldom a victim of PKs anyway.

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 were 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.