Lineage Blue Clan

L2wh closing down!

2009-12-03T12:13:00.002+02:00

Oh guys, that's sad.

The announcement, made by Himred himself, reads:

l2wh.com has been started very long time ago, to be precise the 24th of september 2004, I maintain it for more than 5 years now .

The actual traffic of l2wh is very small, (6x lower than AionWh) and is decreasing day after day .

We agree that Lineage II is sloping down, however it is sad to see the best ever resource on the subject stopping.

On a brighter note, the site will not stop working in the near future. But they will be no bug fixes and no additions. And there is a poll open on the subject, which could change things - have a look.

Visit Event NPC - Today!

2009-09-09T13:28:00.000+03:00

Seriously. Today. Must-do!

That's just a reminder that today is the 14th day of the current event - ie the day that the best gifts are given. Free for all your chars.

Note: Open the chest when you are ready to use it. Time will start running right-away, thus you'd better be ready to get some kick-ass exp.

Aion Server Joining: Spatalo

2009-09-07T14:09:00.001+03:00

Aion Open Beta has started. Just a quick note:

Clan mates who are currently trying the new game have joined:

Server Spatalo

Urgent: Important Event Changes

2009-09-02T10:14:00.011+03:00

Eva's Inferno, the currently running event, has changed:

Event period resets at 2am GMT (that's 04:00 greek time) for Teon.
On day 10 and 14 we will have more time (24hours!) to visit NPC Jack Sage and get reward.
The rewards for days 10 and 14 change! Contrary to the stupid scroll we got on day 6, the NPC will give:

Day 10: chest with Vitality Replenishing PotionS AND 5hour duration Rune of SP 30%. Started on 10:36pm (GMT+2).
Day 14: chest with a 5 hour Rune of Experience Points 50% AND a 5 hour Rune of SP 50%.

I guess this is NC's way of apologising for all these hours the servers were down.

Remember to go get a chest, with each of your chars, on days 10 and 14.

BlizzCon 2009

2009-08-31T17:23:00.001+03:00

Full tile: BlizzCon2009 - Blizzard (World) Convention 2009

BlizzCon is an annual convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to celebrate their major franchises: Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo. The 2009 edition, featuring a live performance by Ozzy Osbourne, was held on August 21-22.

They announced their new WoW expansion and new Diablo 3 race, they gave away beta keys and game-pets and they had a variety of events held. Subscription cost was about 125$.

The convention also hosted the first presentation of the "Do You Want To Date My Avatar?" videoclip which is definitely worth checking out!

Well that's what Blizzard does.. I am waiting for NC's response to their audience (that's us!).

Hitting 81!!

2009-07-16T17:37:00.006+03:00

We are very proud to announce that her_whose_name_can_not_be_mentioned (in the blog) has reached..

Lvl 81!

I am not allowed to explicitly mention this char name, because she grumbles when I do, but in game she is a powerful female sorcerer and in RL is a tall handsome guy ;-) Grats grats grats!!!!

Picture from her earlier days, when she was

young and innocent (we have

digitally removed the cat ears)

Birthday problems on July 14th

2009-07-15T11:08:00.005+03:00

Just a quick note to let you know that yesterday, after the long update, some chars had problems getting their birthday buff.

If you had any such issues yesterday, or at any other time, be sure to file a petition. The problem might not be resolved, but at least you will get reimbursed with some revita-pops (a.k.a. lolipops).

L33t Sp34k

2009-07-09T12:04:00.002+03:00

L33t sp34k (elite speak) is an alphabet, used primarily on MMOs like ours. Examples include n00b, pwn3d, etc. Try your skills decoding the phrase on the t-shirt.

Hello

2009-07-07T14:50:00.003+03:00

Hello,

1. Well done everyone for the TW on Saturday.

2. Remember to subscribe to 7signs - yes, it's *this* week.

3. Many thanx to Anthi for posting on my behalf till now.

4. There is an L2 facebook group by NC: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lineage-2/8355932093

5. Everybody is lagging a lot, the past few days.

thanx!
- Sofia

Territory War July 4th - Participation Info

2009-07-04T16:30:00.006+03:00

Posting on behalf of SofiaGR:

Today the clan will participate at the territory wars, subscribed to defend Goddard.

All clan members are advised:

1. Get the quest "Path to Becoming an Elite Mercenary" - if they do not have it already.

In order to get the quest, you need to speak to Mercenary Captain, right on the left of Manor Manager. The Mercenary Captain is also marked on the map, so he is very easy to locate. Pick "Quest" and then follow the dialog, until you acquire the quest.

2. Have their characters logged in at 21:00pm (greek time, ie GMT+2).

2a. If they can not be active:

Just leave the char inside a town, where she/he will be safe.

2b. If they can be active:

Contact the rest of the clan (+friends, e.g. Fyonar) at that time, to form parties and port to the place decided ;-) No more info here, but most of you know what's planned!
If possible log in to Skype as well, Ubba is responsible for communications.

3. Do not subscribe as defenders of another town, since this Saturday the whole clan is subscribed to Goddard. Exceptions to this rule would be characters having badges from previous Saturdays, but I do not think there are any.

Added after the war has finished:
4. Visit the Territory Manager to get your badges. The Territory Manager is right next to the Manor Manager again, but dressed better than the previous NPC (see step 1). You will need to check "Quest" and then "Ask for reward".

Rare photo of the leader disguised as an elf. Stupid, aren't they?

Be sure to have fun!
- SofiaGR

Its Birthday Time!

2009-07-01T19:37:00.009+03:00

Our beloved leader, a cheerful and caring dark elf, celebrates today her birthday!
Blue Clan and the rest of your friends wish you:

Happy Birthday SofiaGR !

Without the help, caring and love of SofiaGR the clan, the blog, the meetings and many more, gaming related or not, activities would not be accomplished!
For this and many more things we thank you for your friendship and caring.

The Blue Clan members are proud to call you Leader and Friend!

p.s. now its a good opportunity to see you reach lvl 80!

The strayed silien has return

2009-06-29T00:05:00.001+03:00

It's a long time since Karidad, the strayed yet much valued, silien elf had been seen.

Now she has return, stronger from her adventures in the land of the drows, and better equipped (see sexy photo below), to continue her course in Aden and beyond.

Wearing a tallum armor to strengthen important .. assets.

No comments whatsoever about her weapon of choice.

Hitting 80! (part II)

2009-06-19T18:05:00.001+03:00

More news...

Oracle10g is lvl 80!

So now everyone hurry up and get to lvl 80!

Comic by Scott Kurtz - See Ding!

Hitting 80!

2009-06-16T13:55:00.002+03:00

We are very proud to announce that.......

Ubba is lvl 80!

He is the first of the clan to reach level 80. Grats dear knight!!

Comic by Scott Kurtz - See Ding!

Stuck Again! (or About Flying)

2009-06-10T16:41:00.005+03:00

Most characters level 75 (or more) have probably tried flying - the new feature added in the last expansion.

Flying can be controlled either

using the mouse (click where you want to go), or
using keyboard shortcuts (A/D, W/S, Q/E).

I think a combination of both is most efficient. Usually I use my right hand to click where I want to go, and my left hand to control macros and altitude (Q/E).

The problem? You get stuck. Very often!

Archmage/Fyonar helped me a lot, by noticing that the flying "things" (should I call them "rocks"?) usually have invisible strings, connecting them to the invisible "ceiling" and the "ground".

Another reason I get stuck is because I forget I am in "enter-chat" mode, try to talk, and usually end up with all possible windows (inventory, map, etc) open.

Ding! Comic by Scott Kurtz

Note: "Enter-chat" mode does not mean you can actually enter chat. On the contrary, it requires you to press enter before you try to speak. Counter-intuitive, isnt it?

Game news

2009-06-04T16:02:00.007+03:00

Not-so-new "pumpkin" event (also knows us "Summer Squash Event") with not-so-interesting rewards will take place from June 9th to June 16th. NPCs will remain around for another week. At least you gain quest items by hunting mobs in your lvl, so it's not that bad.

The quest history, about the poor farmer.. nurturing plants with love.. blah blah, evil blah blah, seeds infused with anger blah blah.. Same as last year.

Now for the important news....

The "subclass change" paid service will start! Yeap! On June 9th!

Not much detail has been published, but expectations and rumors are that it will allow swapping between main and subclass! It took place once before, for a limited time (Jolcyk changed from a short dwarfette to a sexy female human!). It will cost €30 / $50.

Excellent news for healers

2009-06-02T18:40:00.004+03:00

You will never believe this! In the next update, healers will be able to choose skills from their fellow healer classes! At least according to the patch notes - it will get verified soon, when it gets live at Korea.

Requirement: 3rd class

Cardinals get 1 skill (used to be 2).
Eva's Saints get 1 skill (used to be 2).
Silien Saints possibly get 4 skills (they haven't changed that yet)!

Choices can be altered, but deleting a skill learned this way costs 10M.

Caution, not all skills are available. For example Balance Life seems to be missing from the table. Oh well. Still we (= Silien Saints) can get clarity! At last those stupid sorcerers will now party with us!

More info and discussion at EllieBelly's site!

Women's Magazine

2009-05-21T15:08:00.003+03:00

You must check this out - it's helarious. A (hypothetical) women's magazine cover, pictured by UpiryGirl. I found it at l2vault, but it is also present at the official forums too.

If you are female, or if you are a male who ever had a close relationship with a female, you will find all article titles very funny. My personal favorite is the one about "Goddess Shilen relationship with her father".

Respect. UpiryGirl, you are very talented!!!

Update 29/5/2009: UpiryGirl is now offically part of the l2vault team.

Various Clan News

2009-05-12T16:53:00.002+03:00

New member, old player: Apollonas just transfered from Sieghardt. I am not sure which username he will finally get on Teon, however he will definitely be a Phoenix Knight. Welcome on board!

Tzonakos birthday was celebrated on Saturday with extra-chocolate fudge cake. Best Wishes young Hero!

Ilias (Destinia) finished his civil service today!

About Elves

2009-05-12T16:05:00.006+03:00

After all this careful studying of the patch notes and all those changes, it's time to have some fun with our favorite fun topic: Elves!

love,
a dark elf

Will we ever enter Aerial Cleft?

2009-05-06T13:57:00.001+03:00

Well, chances are that it will take some time. At least at Teon.

Note added on May 9th, 2009: OK, cleft is finally open. Let's go!!

According to the patch notes :

"One can enter (aerial cleft) only when either the Seed of Destruction or Seed of Infinity is in a stable state".

If "stable state" means that the Keuceraus Alliance (that's us, the players!) should be occupying one of the Seeds, which it does, then I am afraid that a lot of coordination, power and expertise is required.

As Elmar said at EllieBelly.net

"Because at least one of the Seed strongholds must be taken for the Cleft to become accessible. In the Seed of Infinity you need a party of lower level players to do the first instance so that the 80+ people can get to the Epic Boss. That's unrealistic on Western servers; even in Korea it very rarely happens. So the only practical way would be to kill Tiat in the Seed of Destruction."

Now I think Tiat has been killed on Teon, however something has not yet been fulfilled since the cleft has not yet open.

L2WH free for few days

2009-05-01T07:11:00.000+03:00

The l2wh site has not yet been updated with all gracia final info.

Thus they have decided to let all advanced site features free, until they update their site, in few days.

Caution: a new sniffer will be released too.

What on earth is a "Vitamin Manager"??

2009-04-30T14:32:00.004+03:00

I can see his mark on my map, but I can not find him (her?).

Even if I find him, what does he do?

I searched the patch notes, but could not find anything.

I searched the Internet, and I found sparse but interesting info, related to .. vitamins!

	Hunting Helper Exchange Coupon - 5 hours Vitamin Item This exchange coupon can be exchanged with a Vitamin Manager for a necklace that allows you to summon a Hunting Helper (5 hours).
	Hunting Helper Exchange Coupon - 5 hours (Event) Vitamin item box A ticket that can be exchanged for a necklace that allows you to summon a Hunting Helper (5 hours).
	Hunting Helper Exchange Coupon - 7 days Vitamin Item Box A wrapped box containing 1 ticket sheet that can be exchanged for a necklace that allows you to summon a Hunting Helper (5 hours).
	Hunting Helper Exchange Coupon 1-Sheet Pack Vitamin Item Pack Contains 1 ticket sheet that can be exchanged for a necklace that allows you to summon a Hunting Helper (5 hours).
	Hunting Helper Exchange Coupon 1-Sheet Pack (Event) Vitamin item box A wrapped box containing 1 ticket sheet that can be exchanged for a necklace that allows you to summon a Hunting Helper (5 hours).
	Hunting Helper Exchange Coupon 3-Sheet Pack Vitamin Item Pack Contains a ticket that can be exchanged for a necklace that allows you to summon a Hunting Helper (5 hours).
	Hunting Helper Exchange Coupon 3-Sheet Pack (Event) Vitamin item box A wrapped box containing a ticket that can be exchanged for a necklace that allows you to summon a Hunting Helper (5 hours).

Info from http://base.l2j.ru/

Now I know you are wondering what these hunting helpers are, no?

Potential answers include various not-so-qute-but-quite-useful pets:

However I am afraid these are not yet available to our servers, and maybe they will not be - since they are probably related to NC Coins, ie real-life money you pay to NC Soft (e.g. Exteel game), or some future event.

Please add any info available - it will be very welcomed.
Some sites with related posts:
L2 official forum thread (most interesting)
Helper Coupons from Vitamin Manager (the one I copied)
Gxzone (but I don't understand a word)
EllieBelly NC Coins (EllieBelly's site always rocks)

Greek translation of Gracia patch notes

2009-04-22T23:54:00.002+03:00

Gracia patch notes are available in greek in lineagegreek.blogspot.com

Currently the following subjects are covered:

During the following days, more subjects will be translated.

Please mail us corrections, additions and clarifications, your help is valuable.

Gracia Patch Notes - Highlights

2009-04-17T05:06:00.003+03:00

Το ίδιο άρθρο στα ελληνικά.

Gracia patch notes are now published:
Part 1 - Territory Battles
Part 2 - Clans, Aerial Cleft, new/change in Hunting Grounds
Part 3 - Skills
Part 4 - Quests, Items and Airships

The patch notes are really really long.
Some interesting highlights:

New continent, called Gracia, is added. It includes new hunting grounds (Seed of Destruction and Seed of Infinity).
Regularly scheduled airships are available from Gludio to Gracia. Exclusive clan airships, which can be used only within the Gracia lands, have been added for clans level 5 or higher. Any players can be aboard the clan airship (not only clan members).
There are special transformations for solo flying (Aurabird Falcon, Aurabird Owl, and Final Flying Form).
An aerial PvP system called Aerial Cleft has been added (9 vs 9, 25 minutes duration).
A Fortune Bug monster, which gives a high reward at a certain rate, strolls in Valley of Saints, Forest of Dead, and Oracle Isle.
No spellbooks are any longer needed to acquire skills from the skill trainer NPC.
The experience consumed for skill enchantment is decreased by 1/10.
Overlord clan skills can now be applied to party members.
Magic critical damage has been decreased in PvP.
A three on three PvP Olympiad game has been added.
The maximum clan level has been increased to 11.

Happy gaming!

PoF, PoW, PoW, CoV and their changes

2009-03-31T15:01:00.003+03:00

Just a quick summary of all the Prophecy Buffs - and some notes on how they are going to change in the next patch!

I tried to cross-check all info, but please comment on any inaccuracies you find.

Prophecy of Fire / Warrior Servitor
HP +20%
HP regen per tick +20%
HP added is restored
P.Atk. +10%
P.Def. +20%
Accuracy +4
Speed -10%
Atk. Spd. +20%
Debuff Resistance +10%

Gracia Final: +10% P.Atk, 20% P.Def, 20% Crit Damage, +20% Atk. Speed, +20% M.Def, +20% M.Atk, +2% Static Magic Critical Rate (effective mcrit rate + 2%), +20% Cast Speed, +20% Max MP (MP added is not restored), +20% HP Regen, +10% Debuff Resistence, -20% RunSpeed

Prophecy of Water / Wizard Servitor
MP regeneration per tick +20%
M.Atk. +20%
M.Def. +20%
Speed -20%
Casting Spd. +20%
Magic Critical Rate +100%
Debuff Resistance +10%

Gracia Final: +10% P.Atk, +20% P.Def, +20% Atk.Speed, +20% M.Atk, +20% M.Def, +2% Static Magic Critical Rate (effective mcrit rate + 2%), +20% Cast Speed, +20% MP Regen, +10% Debuff Resistence, -20% Run Speed, -5% MP Cost on All Skills

Prophecy of Wind
Accuracy +4
Atk Speed +20%
Recover 5% of melee physical damage as HP
Critical +20% from behind,
Critical Damage from behind +20%
(no decrease in speed!)
Debuff Resistance +10%

Gracia Final: +10% P.Atk, +20% P.Def, +20% Critical Rate, +20% tk. Speed, +20% M.Atk, +20% M.Def, +20% Cast Speed, +20% Magic Critical Damage, +20% MaxHP (HP added is not restored), +10% Debuff Resistence, -20% Run Speed, +5% Vampiric Rage

Chant of Victory / Final Servitor
HP +20%
HP added is restored
Speed -20%
Accuracy +4
P.Def. +20%
P.Atk. +10%
Atk. Spd. +20%,
Critical +20%
Critical Damage +20%
M.Def. +20%
Casting Spd. +20%
Debuff Resistance +20%

Gracia Final: Chant of Victory: +10% P.Atk, +20% P.Def, +20% Critical Damage, +20% Atk.Speed, +20% M.Atk, +20% M.Def, +2% Magic Critical Rate, +20% Cast Speed, +20% MaxHP (HP added is not restored), +20% HP Regen, +10% Debuff Resistence, -20% Run Speed, +4 Accuracy

Victories of Pa'agrio
HP +20%
restores the HP added
Speed -20%
Accuracy +4
P.Def. +20%
P.Atk. +10%
M.Atk. +20%
Atk. Spd. +20%
Critical +20%
Critical Damage +20%
M.Def. +20%
Casting Spd. +20%
Debuff Resistance +20%

Gracia Final: Victory of Pa'agrio: +10% P.Atk, +20% P.Def, +20% Critical Rate, +20% Atk.Speed, +20% M.Def, +20% M.Atk, +20% Magic Critical Damage, +20% Cast Speed, +20% MaxMP, +10% Debuff Resistence, -20% Run Speed, +20% MaxCP (CP added is not restored), +20% CP Heal for Alliance

Info (current patch) from:
http://www.gameguides.ro/lineage2-buff-and-debuff-skills.html
http://lineage.amnet.net.au/joomla/distribution/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2509&p=26923
http://www.lineagejunkies.com/forum/showthread.php?t=684goto=newpost

Info (next patch) from:
http://www.lineagejunkies.com/forum/showthread.php?t=684goto=newpost

Race selection: the funny side

2009-03-29T13:46:00.002+03:00

I recently read an article on eurogamer.net, describing the experience of starting to play LII. The description of the races was so funny! I added some explanations (using blue fonts) for english words that might not be common knowledge.

"..
Lineage II's racial menu is quintessentially (quintessentially = typical) Korean - that is, it sounds like standard-issue fantasy, but looks like a headlong (headlong = head first) crash between nineties American comics, Japanese manga, Louis XIV rococo religious art and a Norwegian Goth club.

You can be a Human floppy-fringed fop (fop = vain person), an Elf floppy-fringed (fringe = decorative border - do they mean the hair?!) fop, a Dark Elf dominatrix (i am not explaining that, i am sure you know) in a bustier (you know that too; and if you dont, imagine the top part of a *female* DE), a strangely handsome Orc with chiselled (chiselled = strongly defined) cheekbones and cornrows (cornrow is a hairstyle), or a Kamael, which is a kind of one-winged, fallen-angel Goth-tart (tart = mmm let's say a female with loose sexual morals)

Only the Dwarves look like you'd expect - apart from the females, who are pigtailed manga chicks.
.."

It's worth quoting eurogamer's description for the game interface too - looool!

"..
a man with a deep voice and an educated American accent talks you through a tutorial as studiously non-threatening as an airline safety video. To be honest, there's not that much to explain. Click to talk. Click to move. Click to kill. Click to loot.
.."

Oh it was worth reading, not for the actual article content, but for the author (Oli Welsh)'s style of writing.

EOGamer's L2 wiki project

2009-03-26T12:30:00.003+02:00

Are you interested about Gracia Final and translations from the Korean texts?

You wonder about EllieBelly's quest guides?

Or maybe you feel good with sharing information about our beloved game?

Check EOGamer's new wiki project about L2!

Arcana Lords get Cat Appearance!

2009-03-06T17:20:00.002+02:00

Arcana Lords are the Warlocks (human summoners) who have completed their 3rd class transfer. I am noting that since not many people play summoners :) Having recently discovered the charms of the class (and they are many, trust me!), here is some more info, regarding a very special skill Arcana Lords get at level 83.

Data and picture come from EllieBelly's site - a major source of info!

The skill is called Spirit of the Cat (lvl 83).

The Arcana Lord takes on the appearance of a cat and the abilities (movement speed etc.) of the Cat Servitor.

It's possible that the other summoners get equivalent (but not so scary?) transforms too! I wonder if the previous picture is a male or a female character. Humm...

New round of bans

2009-02-26T16:47:00.000+02:00

Many accounts were yesterday banned, following a short server down-time.

Chromatic, Hot Springs and other busy places were empty this morning.

NC profits down 40%

2009-02-17T11:03:00.002+02:00

NCSoft has issued a report with interesting facts:

Profits down 40%, to $20 million.

Number of concurrent players for their MMOs; LINEAGE, LINEAGE II, CITY OF HEROES/VILLAINS, AION, and GUILD WARS. That's the snippet for L2, but I am not sure what the numbers indicate.

GUILD WARS 2, widely-believed to be arriving this year, has been postponed in a very broad release window , with the explanation that release timing is still "to be announced." (does this mean 2010 or 2011?)

Sources:

Official NCSoft's earnings report for 2008 Q4

also:

Should I use these cubic pieces today or not?

2009-02-09T17:39:00.149+02:00

If you have a cubic (award from A Special Order quest), you daily get a cubic piece.

Each cubic piece (plus some adena) can be exchanged for an enchant scroll.

Scroll Exchange Prices:

EWD: 1 Fine Blue Cubic Piece + 150.000a
EAD: 1 Rough Blue Cubic Piece + 18.000a
EWC: 1 Fine Yellow Cubic Piece + 330.000a
EAC: 1 Rough Yellow Cubic Piece + 45.000a
EWB: 1 Fine Green Cubic Piece + 1.500.000a
EAB: 1 Rough Green Cubic Piece + 80.000a
EWA: 1 Fine Red Cubic Piece + 5.400.000a
EAA: 1 Rough Red Cubic Piece + 720.000a
EWS: 1 Fine White Cubic Piece + 15.000.000a
EAS: 1 Rough White Cubic Piece + 1.500.000a

I would assume that it's always worth getting your enchant scrolls like that, instead of buying them in player shops. However few weeks ago, there was a strange phenomenon and the scrolls were sold in very low prices, even less than the adena needed to exchange your cubic piece for a scroll. Rumors said that this was due to a bug exploit. In any case, it was not worth exchanging your cubic pieces any longer.

Recently I had a look at l2wh.com (Teon sellers) prices and here are the results, comparing the price:

if you directly buy the scroll from a player shop
if you already own the cubic piece, and exchange it for a scroll
if you buy the cubic piece from a player shop, and exchange it for a scroll

	buy scroll	exchange piece	buy + exchange piece
EWD	270k	150k	120k + 150k
EAD	27k	18k	10k + 18k
EWC	600k	330k	300k + 330k
EAC	150k	45k	55k + 45k
EWB	3M	1.5M	1.3M + 1.5M
EAB	200k	80k	170k + 80k
EWA	5.8M	5.4M	2.5M + 5.4M
EAA	800k	720k	300k + 720k
EWS	79M	15M	60M + 15M
EAS	7M	1.5M	45M + 1.5M (?!)

So things are back to normal, keep exchanging your cubic pieces!

If you do not have enough of the pieces you need, check the table above to see if it is worth buying the scroll or the (respective) piece.

Misc News

2009-02-04T10:21:00.025+02:00

1. Mr Playmobil died. Hans Beck, the creator of Playmobil toys, the tiny figures loved by children the world over, has died aged 79 on 30/1/2009 (newspaper article in greek). It's interesting to note that so many Playmobil figures have been produced that, if they were real people and had their own country, it would be the most populous nation on earth: 1.3 billion!

2. We get a new ingame event on Tuesday. It's about valentine's day, but it doesn't include any bows! It *does* include chocolates - which is yet another proof that the story writers at NC Soft have increasingly better ideas.

Battle / Spell Force No Longer Available

2009-01-29T16:40:00.000+02:00

Elmar has posted on EllieBelly.net an interesting article regarding CT 2.3, mentioning that

Battle Force (lvl 77 skill for Warrior classes) and Spell Force (lvl 77 skill for Mage classes) will no longer be available in CT 2.3.

SP spent will be refunded.

Read more about it.

New Noblesse @ Blue Clan

2009-01-27T10:48:00.009+02:00

Guys, you'll never believe that..

..SofiaGR completed her path to Noblesse - she got the tiara!

Well I guess better late than never!

CT 2.3 Boss Changes

2009-01-26T04:00:00.002+02:00

Elmar has posted on EllieBelly.net an interesting article regarding CT 2.3 Epic Boss changes:

Zaken
Commander in Chief Diyad, the Epic Boss in the Seed of Destruction
Immortal King Equimus
Beleth

I got ElliBelly's permission to translate it for our greek blog, so here are the changes in greek.

Mini Search Engine Added

2009-01-23T12:28:00.004+02:00

Hello all,

After having difficulties locating posts in our *own* blog (oh my..), we decided to add a mini search engine on the right hand side of this page. I hope you too find it useful.

An alternative way to locate a post is using the "blog labels" (e.g. game info, humor, etc) which can be found below the mini search engine.

Now forget about the labels and check the mini search engine - it's actually helpful!

GM @ Teon (again!)

2009-01-21T16:57:00.003+02:00

Chryssa told me that a GM was seen yesterday!!

.. of course there was lots of banning too.

.... followed by heros cursing each other for unknown reasons ;-)

Rune @ Teon

2009-01-04T11:42:00.000+02:00

It seems that ITT (Unforgiven) still holds Rune, after this week's siege.

Usernames and character names

2008-12-30T02:32:00.004+02:00

Trivia on naming:

A user name can be the same as a character name.

Test:

Created (by mistake) a character named after my account.

Question:

Can you have the same character name in two different servers?

Additional info for computer scientists (all others please don't read):

Accounts and characters are probably stored in different database tables. Do you think the character name is the primary key? Alternatively, there might be some kind of surrogate key, e.g. a sequence number. It is an MS SQL Server, isn't it? About a year ago Sofia deleted a character named oytis and she has now re-created a new one with the same name. Thus either the character name is not a primary key, or the characters are indeed deleted and not de-activated.

X-mas agathions

2008-12-23T22:19:00.007+02:00

One of the possible Santa presents is this plush-looking agathion. It is the cutest little creature!

I do not know the actual chance of getting this present, but it seems very slim. Some people suggest that hitting an NPC overnight helps (force-attack, make sure you are outside a peace zone).

Lady Equistrius (who I do not know) was my model for the pictures, and a kind dark elf named Introspect demonstrated the agathion skill. Soooo cute (the agathion, not the dark elf)!

The description of this event, and the design of the agathion, make me think that there are new people in NC Soft's Lineage II team!

PS Chryssa had told me that the agathions (try to) sing x-mas carols, but I guess she was pulling my leg!

l2wh is free for x-mas

2008-12-23T00:15:00.001+02:00

The well-known http://www.l2wh.com site has all functions freely available for Christmas!!! Go on, try it - if you havent already. Pasting their message:

For Christmas, Advanced features are enabled for everybody !!
Discover and enjoy all advanced features !

Merry Christmas !

Himred.

Disappearance of "walker" site for few days

2008-12-19T14:33:00.004+02:00

During the past few days there were some problems concerning the company which sells the software program named walker.

Walker is a botting program for L2, probably the one with the largest number of users. It requires a monthly fee of 4-5 euros that you can pay online in order to receive a "walker code" which you use to unlock the software.

The site selling the codes went allegedly offline for few days - although inner pages of the site, and alternative urls, were still available to buy the necessary codes. Users who had already bought their codes, continued to play normally.

According to South Korea media, NC Soft asked the police to investigate the companies involved in botting for multiple NC games - walker being just one of them (chinease article, translated version).

A detailed discussion started at l2blah@guru - as expected :)

We will not publish the url of the walker site in our blog for obvious reasons.

However we tested it, and it seems to be fully functional.

screenshot about GMs

2008-12-16T01:10:00.000+02:00

We were sent this screenshot link - someone was shouting at Giran about GMs not banning (him) for using walker.

Bug Rumors!

2008-12-15T11:21:00.006+02:00

Recent rumors suggest that there was (is?) a bug with the cubics!

The players, who have found a way to exploit the bug, were able to re-use the cubic continuously, without having to wait the regular 24 hour interval, producing a plethora of enchant scrolls!

Results:

=> More enchant scrolls available in the market.

=> Lower prices for enchant scrolls.

=> Lots of overenchanting trials.

=> Lots of broken weapons/armors.

=> Lots of crystals available in the market.

=> Lower prices for crystals (especially S and A).

=> Lower prices for shots (especially S and A).

Time to go shopping :)

Rioting dragons

2008-12-12T15:09:00.006+02:00

That's a Chris Riddell's (British illustrator of children's literature and a political cartoonist for The Observer) illustration, as a comment for the current events in Athens.

E.U.L.A Humor

2008-12-08T12:39:00.002+02:00

It is also worth reading the Santa Event description in the latest L2 newsletter. I wish I knew who wrote it, he/she definitely has a sense of humor. Well done.

Comic from http://www.xkcd.com/
Excellent (geeky?) humor

Darkfall and theNoobComic

2008-12-04T16:13:00.006+02:00

Have you heard of a MMORPG called Darkfall Online, currently in closed beta but announced a long time ago? We have waited and waited and waited, but it' s not ready yet.

The game is expected to feature unrestricted PvP with no peace zones, full (i mean *full*) looting, a huge, dynamic game world that evolves in response to player actions. The majority of player capabilities are determined by the possession of skills, which improve in response to in-game use. Cities can be built, sieged, captured and destroyed by players; all items are craftable; the weather (including directorion winds!) influences the play, and there are many more advanced features.

Gianna Masseti, the author of TheNoobComic.com, was invited to preview the beta. I guess writing one of the best web comics .. has its advantages after all :-) Gianna is an experienced RPG player with a witty pen, so her comments are interesting to read:

In 3rd person view the camera is pretty close to your character and it’s fixed, so you can’t mousewheel back until your character is tiny and you can see for twenty yards behind you. Your chance to spot other people is to actually turn and look. Period.

This is not all, though. If you happen to be a tall guy, like my ork, and you’re fighting someone shorter, like a goblin, you have to aim DOWN at the little fucker while he runs figure eights around you, which means that you have even less awareness of your surroundings.

You don’t get a big ass name on your head, so it’s quite possible to hide behind trees and rocks (not like in other games where some poor sap is trying to ambush you from behind a tree and you can see the end bits of his tag sticking on the sides.

Darkfall seems interesting, it seemed interesting from the first moment Pavlos told me about it. Make sure to check the site, they have a wonderful dragon and lots of impressive artwork.

Note: Aventurine SA, the producing company, is norwegian/greek (!), situated in Athens (!!), with job openings (!!!).

In June, Aventurine confirmed they had signed with Greek company AudioVisual Enterprises to distribute Darkfall in Europe. On October 16th, 2008, Darkfall was publicly presented at Athens Digital Week (i still cannt believe I missed that) and it was mentioned on TV.

OK Aventurine guys, where are you? Please please please invite us for a short visit to your HQ!!

Article List

2008-12-01T14:56:00.004+02:00

List of articles in this blog (lineageblueclan) and its greek sibling (lineagegreek). Will try keep it up to date!

Transformations
http://lineageblueclan.blogspot.com/2008/10/transformations.html
http://lineagegreek.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post.html (greek)

Elemental Stones s-FAQ
http://lineageblueclan.blogspot.com/2008/10/elemental-stones.html

IOP shards s-FAQ
http://lineageblueclan.blogspot.com/2008/10/iop-shards-faq.html

Crystal Production
http://lineageblueclan.blogspot.com/2008/09/crystal-production.html
http://lineagegreek.blogspot.com/2008/09/blog-post.html (greek)

Enchant scrolls from Freightman
(A Special Order quest guide)
http://lineageblueclan.blogspot.com/2008/08/enchant-scrolls-from-freightman.html
http://lineagegreek.blogspot.com/2008/08/special-order-quest-enchant-scrolls.html (greek)

Foundation items
http://lineageblueclan.blogspot.com/2008/08/foundation-items.html

Idiot's guide to Sillien Saint
(3rd class change quest)
http://lineageblueclan.blogspot.com/2008/07/idiots-guide-to-sillien-saint-3rd-class.html

NC firing ppl, Tabula Rasa stops

2008-11-24T10:57:00.002+02:00

Can it be true? Tabula Rasa will shut down on February 28, 2009. Before it does, however, the game will become free starting on January 10th. Reason is the low player population. And it is true, I checked.

It is only recently, that in an open letter on the Tabula Rasa web site, the game creator Richard Garriott has announced his separation with NCSoft, the company he partnered with to develop and publish Tabula Rasa.

It will be interesting to see if the Austin branch of the Korean headquartered company will continue to exist considering it was opened to work specifically with Garriott.

NCSoft is going to lay off an undisclosed amount of their employees, too. Their spokesman, David Swofford said, "We're going to be scaling down. We currently don't know how many people will be affected by that."

How will this affect L2 players??

Some (few though) players are expected to migrate from Tabula Rasa, especially given the free time that NC will offer them as a retribution. More importantly though, less NCSoft stuff (especially in Austin), might mean less communication between the players and the (korean) game developers.

L2wh.com Upgraded

2008-11-21T12:04:00.004+02:00

Our favorite site has new functionality added! Now you can limit the results of the market-price list. In this new field you can (optionally) enter part of the item name you are looking for.

During the past few months, the l2wh team has been working hard to implement a variety of tools for us. Some of them include:

Black Marketeer Helper:
Tools->Shop Tools->Black Marketeer Helper
Lists the prices of the Black Marketeer NPC (but he sells few items!)

Blacksmith Lahm Helper:
Tools->Shop Tools->Blacksmith Lahm Helper
Lahm is the NPC for the S80 sets/recipes (arktic.net has a list compiled too). This tool lists all the necessary items (shards mainly) you need for each of them.

Mammon Foundation Helper:
Tools->Mammon Tools->Mammon foundation helper
Lists what you need in order to start using a foundation item (usually some special varnish-enhancer). If you ever get a foundation item, that is.

Note: Make sure you re-load the initial page, in order to see all the new menu items (shift +pagereload helps).

Grats L2wh team!!

Aion beta

2008-11-19T14:18:00.006+02:00

It has been a week already, that Aion has started its open beta in Korea. Just in case you don't know, Aion is a new game by NC Soft, scheduled to launch in Korea within the year and launches in China, North America, Europe and Japan planned for 2009.

According to NC, the number of players has reached an un-proceeded record

More than 11,000 people were logged into the game after only two minutes of open beta service. In less than an hour, that number had ballooned to 40,000. Currently the number of concurrent players has leapt up to more than 170,000.

According to pirate-ninjas (I like these guys more and more every day), it might be a mistake to implore only korean testers.

There are no plans for any non-korean open beta. There are only a few short Preview-Events planed North America/Europe. So the real beta testing and playerbase influence gonna be again Korea. For NCSoft self proclaimed next big triple A IP (thats supposed to become an international success) this isn’t too promising. With that and the Lineage 2 failure in mind: Aion will be NCSofts next international failure, event tho it got a huge potential - just like Lineage 2 had.

I could be persuaded to give it a try.. Anyone else interested??

Some more Aion-related sites:
Official site: http://eu.aiononline.com/en/
Greek article: http://www.mmorpg.gr/features.php?read=1829
Pirate-ninja's article (and sneak view!): http://www.pirateninjas.net/aion/aion-korean-open-beta/
Aion Global: http://www.aionglobal.com/
Aion Source: http://www.aionsource.com/

Celebrate!

2008-11-18T16:39:00.003+02:00

Best Wishes to Ubba, Aristotelis and Chryssa. It's birthday, birthday, and saint's day respectively.

Lolcatz @ Pailaka

2008-11-18T15:34:00.003+02:00

Following Summoner's advice, I tried the second Pailaka named Devil's Legacy with an alt toon. As indicated in pirate-ninja guide, the NPC gave me an Ancient Legacy Sword which came with a special skill called Summon Tigress!

After killing each of the first two mini-RBs, I got the weapon enhanced, so finally I had both Ice Chill and Chill Strike. I so much wanted to keep the sword after finishing with the dungeon!! Maybe add some divine stones one day ;-)

On a more serious note, you can find an excellent guide at http://l2vault.ign.com/View.php?view=Guides.Detail&id=453

GMs have a sense of humor

2008-11-14T12:33:00.002+02:00

System Announcement:

That's from http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9115/spam2tt7.jpg , you can also check http://s1.ipicture.ru/uploads/081111/kM5g7c2vw1.jpg for another similar shot.

Many thanx to Archmage for digging these.

Gracia flying videos!

2008-11-11T18:12:00.002+02:00

Links from the official forum about the future impressive flying features in Gracia:

Solo flight and combat

Flying ship

Grinding Comic

2008-11-08T15:20:00.000+02:00

I need two of those for the endless solo grinding nights!

From the Adam@home comic series.

GM Spam

2008-11-07T09:40:00.001+02:00

Check this out - it's wonderful! Click on the picture to load the larger version of the image and make sure you read GM Spam's words.

It is said that half an hour later, IT was empty :-D

Many thanx to a lovely Nercocerer for sending the shot.

Coffee and Cookies, November the 9th

2008-11-04T15:53:00.002+02:00

On Sunday, November 9, there will be a meeting for coffee and cookies in Athens, Greece.

Time: 12 o'clock, somewhat sharp :)
Place: Flocafe at the Aleksandras & Eslin junction
How to get there: Metro station "Ampelokipi" plus various buses (like trolleys 3,7,13,14)

Any non-greeks are of course welcome if they happen to be in the area!

Rift SA crystal nerf

2008-11-03T12:56:00.003+02:00

It has been reported by Teon's PP hero that after the patch the hero rift RB does not level SA crystals in the same way.

Before the patch the whole party had a chance to level a crystal (i.e. all 9 at once), now just a few of the members have the chance.

Transformations

2008-10-29T12:21:00.006+02:00

This article is also available in greek. Το άρθρο αυτό έχει δημοσιευθεί και στα ελληνικά, στο ελληνικό blog.

Appearance
You look like the transformation mob, so no one can discern your real appearance, class, level grade and equipped items (armor,weapon).

Skills
You can use only the active skills of the transformation, no skills of your class, noble, weapon or event.

But.. all passive skills are working normally, including masteries, augments and SA.

Notes:

You must complete the transformation quest ("More than meets the eye - Hardin's Academy) in order to be able to transform.
Some transformations are general and some are class-specific.
In order to learn a transformation, you need the specific sealbook.
When carrying a flag during a siege, transformation is unwise, as you cannot use your transformation skills while carrying it, only the flag skills. At the same time, you cannot see the flag skills.

Onyx Beast

Sealbook: Do the transformation quest (More than meets the eye-Hardin's Academy) or buy at the Trader NPC in Ivory Tower.

General Transformation (same for all classes)
STR: 40 DEX: 28 CON: 45
INT: 24 WIT: 11 MEN: 25

Skills:
Power Claw: Attack with more power [like Power Strike]; Power: 1008
Fast Moving: Raises runspeed for some seconds [like Dash]

Comment:
Only good for running fast.

Death Blader

Sealbook: Can be bought from black marketeer mammon for 660.000 AA

General Transformation (same for all races)
STR: 40 DEX: 28 CON: 45
INT: 24 WIT: 11 MEN: 25

Skills:
Rolling Attack: AoE Melee damage [like Whirlwind]; Power 984
Curse of Darkness: DeBuff against enemy (have to check the effect)...
Dig Attack: Earth melee attack; Power 1406
Darkness Energy Drain: Drains HP from dead mobs [like Corpse Drain]

Comment:
Good for solo ΧΡ

Dragon Bomber

Dragon Bomber is weakest for Humans and best for Kamael.

Sealbook: Adventure Guild NPCs in Aden (costs 4 Memento Mori, 4 Dragon Heart, 4 Earth Egg, 4 Nonliving Nucleus, 4 Angelic Essence, 600,000 adena)

Race related transformation
STR: 41 DEX: 31 CON: 33
INT: 29 WIT: 11 MEN: 25

Skills:
Death Blow Lv2
Active Skill
MP Cost : 70
Range : 40
Inflicts deadly blow. Lethal Strike is possible. (1/3 success, lethal is really really rare)

Scope Bleed Lv2
Active Skill
MP Cost : 70
Range : 40
A deadly frontal attack puts enemies in bleeding state. Power 984. Effect 6

Assimilation Lv2
Active Skill
MP Cost : 70
Blend in with enemies to avoid their notice. (Stealth Lv2)

Sand Cloud Lv2
Active Skill
MP Cost : 70
Uses blinding sand to decrease nearby enemies' accuracy.

Comment: Silent Step is extremely useful and worth it (unless you already have that, as a Dagger class). Especially good for healers/buffers, who wish to get someplace without aggroing.

Unicorn
Unicorn is best for LE, worst for DE

Sealbook: Adventure Guild NPCs in Oren (costs 4 Memento Mori, 4 Dragon Heart, 4 Earth Egg, 4 Nonliving Nucleus, 4 Angelic Essence, 600,000 adena)

Race related transformation
STR: 36 DEX: 33 CON: 38
INT: 23 WIT: 14 MEN: 26

Skills:
Horn of Doom: Melee attack with more power [like Power Strike]; Power 1406
Horn Assault: Ranged attack; Power 1055 Range 900
Light of Heal: Heal [like Major Heal]; Power 731 Range 600
Gravity Control: Aoe DeBuff which reduces enemies attack speed and speed [like the SWS aoe debuff]

Comment: Good for Healing as an alternative/extra healer.

Grail Apostle
Apostle Grail is best for Human, worst for Kameal

Sealbook: Adventure Guild NPCs in Gludin (costs 4 Memento Mori, 4 Dragon Heart, 4 Earth Egg, 4 Nonliving Nucleus, 4 Angelic Essence, 600,000 adena)

Race related transformation
STR: 40 DEX: 28 CON: 45
INT: 21 WIT: 11 MEN: 25

Skills:
Power Slash Lv3
Active Skill
MP Cost : 74
Range : 40
A Powerfull frontal attack that involves swinging a spear to assault enemies. Power 1568.

Blessing of Angel Lv3
Active Skill
MP Cost : 74
A divine blessing that increases the P.Atk. of all party members. (same as Dance of Warrior but doesn't stack)

Wind of Angel Lv3
Active Skill
MP cost : 74
A divine wind that increases the Evasion of all party members. (same as Song of Water but doesn't stack)

Spear Lv3
Active Skill
MP Cost : 74
Range : 40
A strong spear thrust that has a chance of causing bleeding. Power 1129. Effect 7.

Comment: If the party lacks a real BladeDancer, you can substitute for the above dances

Golem Guardian
Golem Guardian is best for dwarf, worst for Orc

Sealbook: Adventure Guild NPCs in Schuttgart (costs 4 Memento Mori, 4 Dragon Heart, 4 Earth Egg, 4 Nonliving Nucleus, 4 Angelic Essence, 600,000 adena)

Race related transformation
STR: 39 DEX: 27 CON: 47
INT: 20 WIT: 10 MEN: 27

Skills:
Steel Cutter: Melee attack with more power (like Power Strike); Power 1568
Double Slash: Ranged attack; Power 1176 Range 600
Bomb Installation: Sets a trap which explodes after enemie passed it
Earthquake: AoE Attack with Stun effect; Power 784

Comment: the trap is good only as a firecracker, creating a lot of noice but not much damage.

LILIM KNIGHT
Best for DE, worst for LE

Transform Sealbook – Lilim Knight: Guild Adventurer NPC in Oren (costs 4 Memento Mori, 4 Dragon Heart, 4 Earth Egg, 4 Nonliving Nucleus, 4 Angelic Essence, 600,000 adena)

Race related transformation

Attack Buster Lv3
Active Skill
MP Cost : 74
Range : 40
Detonates an Energy charge to attack the enemy. Level 2 Energy charge is required. Power 1568.

Attack Storm Lv3
MP Cost : 74
Range : 500
Unleash a magical attack on distant enemies. Level 3 Energy charge is required. Power 784.

Attack Rage Lv3
Active Skill
HP Cost : 50
MP Cost : 5
Range : 600
Gathers force while attacking an enemy. Critical hit is possible. Can be charged up to Level 3. (like Sonic Rage 78 skill from Duelist)

Poisoin Dust Lv3
Magic
MP Cost : 29
Spray a poisonous powder all over nearby enemies. Effect 7

Inferno Drake
Best for Orc, worst for Dwarf

Sealbook Inferno Drake: Guild Adventurer NPC in Schuttgart (costs 4 Memento Mori, 4 Dragon Heart, 4 Earth Egg, 4 Nonliving Nucleus, 4 Angelic Essence, 600,000 adena)

Race related transformation

Paw Strike Lv3
Active Skill
MP Cost : 74
Range : 40
Inflict a powerful attack with your forefeet. Power 1568

Fire Breath Lv3
Active Skill
MP Cost : 74
Range : 100
Gushes out a fire attack that attacks enemies in front of you. Power 1098. (My favourite! Flamethrower like valakas skill)

Fire Armor Lv3
Active Skill
MP Cost : 74
An instense flame ignites and protects the body. Immobilized while in effect. (Highly Increase P.Def. and M.Def last 30sec reuse time 5min)

Blaze Quake Lv3
Active Skill
MP Cost : 74
Inflict a burning fire attack on nearby enemies. Power 784. Effect 7. (DoT)

Transformations full list and extra info: http://l2info.arktic.net/cgi-bin/transform.pl
and http://l2nemesis.de/index3.php?id=transformguide

S-FAQ: Elemental stones

2008-10-29T10:45:00.007+02:00

What kind of elemental stones are there?

Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Dark, Holy.
They are also called "attribute stones".

Why are elemental stones useful?

Adding an elemental stone to a weapon adds elemental damage to the weapon's attack.

Adding an elemental stone to an armor piece adds elemental resistance to the armor's defense.

Ideally each armor piece should be enhanced with a different element, in order to have some resistance to all.

Caution: Only S and S80 grade items can have stones added.

Where do I find elemental stones?

1. Elemental stones drop from mobs. For example south Isle of Prayer mobs drop
fire stones and Hellbound mobs drop divine stones.

2. You can also exchange stones in the attribute-npc found in some towns (Aden etc.):
Fire <--> Water
Earth <--> Wind
Dark <--> Divine

3. Alternatively you can buy them from player shops. Note that fire/water
stones are about 10 times cheaper than Wind/Earth stones.

4. Lastly, there is an IoP quest (maybe more?) for contaminated crystals.

How do I apply an elemental stone to an item?

Double-click the stone, then select the item you want it applied.

Caution: the application process is not always successful! If it fails, the stone disappears but the item is unaffected for better or worse.

It is suggested that the success rate of the application process depends on your level (as is skill overenchanting).
The chance seems to be something like lv76 = 70%, Lv77 = 78% Lv78 =83% Lv79 =88% Lv80 = 95%.

If you are level 76-78, it is recommended to have a higher level friend (preferably 80+) do the application for a better success rate (that is before you augment the weapon ofc).

How many elemental stones can I add?

Enough to get the attribute value to 150 for weapons and 300 for armor.

After the Gracia final patch, the max attribute value increases with the use of "Element Crystals", which can be produced from certain items players collect during Air-Warfare.
Weapons: from 150 to 300
Armor: from 300 to 600

What is the difference between elemental and attribute stones?

No difference. Elemental stones are also called attribute stones.

Which elemental attribute should I choose for my weapon?

Pick the elemental attribute which is similar to your main attack skill, i.e.
Fire for Sorcerers, Water for Spellsingers, Wind for Spellhowlers, Dark for Necros etc.

Paladins or Swordsingers should consider a Divine attribute as it will add directly to holy weapon and related skills.

Each class has some sort of preferred elemental attribute which they will have in their arsenal. Thats the stone you should go for.

What if I already have an elemental attribute in my attack?

The attribute on the weapon "wins" over all other things which influence your attack attribute.

For example:
o If you are a SH and have 150 wind on your AM, you will attack with wind attribute, even if somebody buffs with Holy Weapon (would be pointless anyway). You could use Seed of Wind skill which adds 20 wind, so that you would attack with 170 Wind, because same attribute stacks.

o On the other hand, if you had a AM with 150 Fire, you could use Seed of Wind, but the extra 20 wind attribute would not do anything at all - your attack attribute would still be 150 Fire and you would receive no additional damage at all for your wind type nukes.

I am a buffer, should I buff holy weapon to my party mate?

No, if your party mate has a weapon with earth/water/fire/dark stones.
Yes, if your party mate has a weapon without any stones.
Yes, if your party mate has a weapon enhanced with divine stones.
No need, if your party mate is a support class.

I am a destroyer, should I use the "Infernal form" self buff?

This buff adds fire to the attack, which stacks only with fire attribute you might have on your weapon. So
Yes, if you have firestones on your weapon.
Yes, if you have no stones on your weapon.
No, if you have earth/water/wind/dark/divine attribute on your weapon.
Therefore, get firestones for your weapon.

I have used fame points to enchant my weapon for PvP. Can I add stones now?

No, you cannot. Add stones first, enchant your weapon for PvP afterwards.

I have augmented my weapon with a Lifestone. Can I add stones now?

Yes, you can. These two are totally independent, so you can augment first and add stones later; or you can add stones and then augment; or you can add some stones, augment, then add some more stones - whatever suits you best.

How much extra damage will my weapon do, when I add these stones?

The added damage is determined by the difference between:

the value of the attacker's attribute (= how many stones you have successfully applied) and

the value of the defensive attribute of the target against this element (= how well is your target protected against such attacks, e.g. by adding opposite stones to his/her armor).

Analysis and test results can be found here.

Some examples please?

Success on 28 Firestone applications will wield a maximum fire attribute of 150, which provides a fire damage bonus of up to 70% extra fire damage.

A clean draconic bow with a fire attribute of 150 was equivalent to a +8 draconic bow.

The target's resistances (e.g. fire resistance) make a big difference. On most buffed high level players with decent jeweller, the result will be around 20-25% damage bonus.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suggested link:

http://boards.lineage2.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=questions&Number=1199211&page=2&fpart=all

What is a "Simple FAQ"?

2008-10-29T01:02:00.001+02:00

Well you know what an FAQ is:

FAQ, or Frequently Asked Question(s), are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be frequently asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic.

An S-FAQ, or Simple FAQ, is an FAQ with just the basic material needed to understand the topic.

The Blue Clan tries to gather information on some issues (e.g. IoP shards, Elemental Stones) and post it in such a format, making it as clear as possible, for clan members and readers alike. Since we are noobs, we can only gather basic info :)

Stay tuned for more S-FAQs!

Waiting for the servers to start

2008-10-28T19:49:00.001+02:00

Gracia Final: Patch Notes

2008-10-28T01:02:00.004+02:00

The korean PTS server gets the last Gracia update soon, so the patch notes are already published. The PirateNinjas.net people have translated the notes in english.

Some interesting points:

Gracia land added west of Gludin for 75+ chars.

Air-ships added. Air warfare added!

S82 and S84 grades added.

Icarus Weapons are now classified as S82.
Fewer materials required for Dynasty items.

3 vs 3 Olympiad matches added.

Belts and capes added.

Maximum element values for weapons and armors increased (new item needed for the extra amount).

Drops will vanish after 10minutes not picked up.

Check the translated notes for full info.

Halloween event: second item revealed

2008-10-27T10:26:00.002+02:00

On Tuesday 28th, together with the new upgrade, a Halloween event starts.

NC Soft has posted most of the details, indicating the first gift we all get is a pumpkin transformation item that will last for 30 (calendar) days.

It is only recently though, that the second gift was revealed: Five vitality-replenishing items with no expiration day.

Funny Tag

2008-10-24T18:41:00.000+03:00

Try not to interfere in matters with a dragon..

..for you are crunchy and taste uber sweet in ketchup.

from an asian l2 forum

IoP shards simple FAQ

2008-10-22T17:18:00.026+03:00

- What do I need these shards for?
To craft S80 items.

- What kind of shards are there?
Yellow, green, blue, red, white, black.

- Where do I find them?
In IoP. That's "Isle of Prayer". One way to get there is: port from Heine to Alligator Island and then swim east to the island.

- What's so special about IoP?

In most IoP places you can only exp in duo. If there are three or more players in the party, and one of them attacks a mob, then some very aggressive mobs called Witch Warders spawn - and usually kill you. This is true even if the additional players are not on IoP, just in party.
Most IoP mobs have high-damage water attacks. Make sure you get some kind of protectional buff (e.g. the PP buff Resist Aqua)
IoP mobs have nice drops - e.g. firestones and orichalcum. Thus many people go there to bot and farm.

- Which mobs drop the shards?
Yellow and green are easy to find since they drop at the easier parts of the island and players (bots) usually do not pick them up. Blue and red are harder. Black and white drop from RBs - good luck.

	Item	Obtain From
	Seed of Evil Shard - Yellow	Mobs on Isle of Prayer (but not on Chromatic Highlands area)
	Seed of Evil Shard - Green	Mobs on Isle of Prayer (but not on Chromatic Highlands area)
	Seed of Evil Shard - Blue	Mobs in Chromatic Highlands
	Seed of Evil Shard - Red	Mobs in Chromatic Highlands
	Seed of Evil Shard - White	End Bosses in Emerald, Steam, and Coral Cavern
	Seed of Evil Shard - Black	End Bosses in Emerald, Steam, and Coral Cavern

- Can I buy the shards? How much do they cost?
You can not buy them. And you can not sell them, trade them or freight them. That's nature's way of telling you to go exp on your own.

- How do I exchange shards for items?
You trade them at Blacksmith Ram, at the Crystal Caverns Emerald Square, for S80 parts and recipes.

- Is it worth it?
Some people say no, since
"Its easier, faster and in the end cheaper to enchant "normal" S-grade armor to +6, and your weapon to +7/+10". Most people though are going after the shards. There is some discussion about it on l2guru and l2nemesis.

- An example please? What should I gather?
1 try @ 60% for S80 heavy set (without shield) counting parts & recipes
Yellow: 12131
Green: 6078
Blue: 4065
Red: 2421
White: 42
Black: 33

Assuming you have a dwarf who has the recipes registered. And not even taking into account the strange craft mats and mountains of normal mats you need.

So how many shards, will I need?
Here is the list from arctik.net.

Item	# items	Yellow Shards	Green Shards	Blue Shards	Red Shards	White Shards	Black Shards
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Boots	1	280	139	94	55	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Breastplate	1	1120	561	373	224	2	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Circlet	1	419	209	139	84	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Earring	1	272	136	90	55	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Gaiters	1	699	350	233	140	1	2
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Gauntlets	1	280	139	94	55	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Gloves	1	280	139	94	55	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Helmet	1	419	209	139	84	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Leather Armor	1	839	420	280	168	2	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Leather Boots	1	280	139	94	55	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Leather Gauntlets	1	280	139	94	55	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Leather Helmet	1	419	209	139	84	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Leather Leggings	1	524	262	174	105	1	2
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Necklace	1	364	181	122	72	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Ring	1	181	90	61	36	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Shield	1	294	146	97	59	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Shoes	1	280	139	94	55	1	1
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Stockings	1	524	262	174	105	1	2
Recipe: Sealed Dynasty Tunic	1	839	420	280	168	2	1
Sealed Dynasty Boot Piece	2	120	60	40	24	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Breastplate Part	2	381	191	128	76	1	1
Sealed Dynasty Circlet Piece	2	160	81	53	32	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Earring Gemstone	2	126	64	42	25	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Gaiters Piece	2	256	129	86	51	1	1
Sealed Dynasty Gauntlet Piece	2	120	60	40	24	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Glove Piece	2	120	60	40	24	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Helmet Piece	2	160	80	54	32	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Leather Armor Piece	2	299	150	100	60	1	1
Sealed Dynasty Leather Boot Part	2	120	60	40	24	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Leather Gloves Part	2	120	60	40	24	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Leather Helmet Piece	2	160	81	53	32	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Leather Leggings Part	2	200	100	67	39	1	1
Sealed Dynasty Necklace Chain	2	165	82	56	32	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Ring Gemstone	2	89	44	30	18	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Shield Piece	2	120	60	39	24	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Shoes Piece	2	120	60	40	24	1	0
Sealed Dynasty Stockings Piece	2	200	100	67	39	1	1
Sealed Dynasty Tunic Piece	2	299	150	100	60	1	1

Please mail us any corrections and additions to this article.

Gracia Part 2 on PTS + Helloween event

2008-10-17T12:24:00.005+03:00

Gracia Part 2 will go live on October 28th! All CT 2.2 expected changes are published, including:

Instace "Kamaloka - Labyrinth of the Abyss" added, 45 min duration, 2-9 members party.
Instance "Pailaka" added, need quest to enter, covers lvls 36-73 , 60 or 90 mins duration depending on lvl range.
PvP instance "Kratei's Cube" added, for characters above lvl 70. Each holds a max of 25 characters at a time with various nice rewards.
When armor over-enchanted to +4 or higher, bonus to HP given.
Vitality Replenishing Herb added.
A bot reporting button has been added to the Actions window.

Gracia Part 2 is already released on PTS.

Characters start at lvl 40 with 100M.
A boost will be made on the 23rd of October.
Experience is set to times four (x4).
Drop rates are set to times six (x6).

A Helloween event will start on October 28th too. Helloween is one of the american things I love!

Each char gets pumpkin-ghost transformation stick. Can be used for 30 days, then it disappears, at the same time for everyone. Cannot be exchanged, dropped or destroyed.
Various (still secret) gifts.

The Helloween event is already available on PTS.

A GM, Omega, will be setting up buy shop in Giran on PTS, looking for random items.
Selling him items is not mandatory but it helps in getting better event awards.

News Flash

2008-10-15T13:43:00.011+03:00

No comments on the Gracia 2 preview site (CT2.2), there's no much info anyway.

I really enjoy our new alliance. People there are kind and nice. I have already met Darkscreen (still confused about his rl name), Lefteris (Lefteris), Errikos (Lefteris or Errikos?), pipifakidomiti (clan leader), FyrmasterGR (Nikos), also Ioanna and Marios (whose char name I dont remember) and some more. It's also good that they have the same attitude we have, regarding botting and ebaying.

A guide for Phantom Summoners (in greek) was posted in the greek blog. An excellent article from an experienced summoner (actually the most experienced summoner of the clan) - LAXTARAS.

Skype teleconferencing is fun! We talk daily, usually after 10pm. RuneBlade and HyperhealerGR and Ubba and more friends. All welcomed.

There will soon be an item clearance, with items given free to clan/ally members/friends; and discounted to blog readers. So be sure to check this space often.

SofiaGR WTB dragonic bow clean. Or not-so-clean-but-cheap :) Please pm her, I am bored of listening to her.

Archmage has a Noblesse Tiara

2008-10-08T11:32:00.007+03:00

We are proud to announce that as of today

Fyonar is Noblesse

Fyonar, a.k.a. Archmage on the blogsphere/fora, one of the blog's writers, a clan friend and an expert game - mechanics consultant, has completed his quest! He now has the distinguished tiara, numerous teleports and lots of respect.

Grats Fyo!!!!

It's hard being a girl

2008-10-08T10:11:00.000+03:00

Can you imagine being a PP with a majestic mini-robe?? You love it or hate it - mainly depending on your gender.

Change of Server Downtime

2008-10-07T01:01:00.000+03:00

Reminder:

This week's maintenance is moved from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Corollary: This week's coffee / going out / staying late at work is moved from Tuesday to Wednesday.

New ally - New friends

2008-10-05T01:21:00.002+03:00

As of now (just few minutes ago), the Blue clan is part of the

STRANGERS Alliance

together with the

Europe Clan

October Heroes

2008-10-02T12:39:00.002+03:00

Duelist - Aurelija
Pheonix Knight - TheHaunted
Saggitarious - Mitskablos
Archmage - Localhost
Arcana Lord- Kamil
Hierophant - Nyae
Sword Muse - PureSoul
Moonlight Sentinel - Fierra
Elementar Master- Meleneara
Shiellen Templar - Lowbyyhn
Ghost Hunter - lianviks
Stormscreamer - Mirael
Shiellen Saint - Malda
Grand Khavatari - Aantaria
Doomcryer - Oner
Maestro - ayperos
Soul Hound - burgis
Dreadnought - GabrielKnight
Hell Knight - Jabari
Adventurer - FlamedAnger
Soultaker - exDiegito
Cardinal - Oblivi0n
? Evas Templar - CountChocula
Wind Rider - MadPamers
Mystic Muse - Nestia
Eva Saint - Petibras
Spectral Dancer - Jolinar
Ghost Sentinel - Sovenok
Spectral Master - Wilgoth
Titan - C0ren
Dominator - Pendraig
Fortune Seeker - Tzonakos
Doombringer - z1ob
Trickster - Chiika

Gratz Tzonakoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations to all heroes.

List of heroes from L2Blah

The Sky Is The Limit

2008-09-30T21:41:00.003+03:00

COMING "SOON"™!

Giran Tax 0%

2008-09-30T11:29:00.002+03:00

Today Giran's tax is 0%, which means that all items are sold in the lowest possible prices. It is time to stock on soul and spirit ore.

As far as crystals are concerned, check this post (in english) or the greek-equivalent (excellent comments in the greek post) before purchasing, and decide if it is a good idea to buy items for crystallising or it is better to directly buy crystals from other players.

Many thanx to Knulp for the info!

Where do mice come from?!

2008-09-25T11:10:00.007+03:00

I do not know what is wrong with me, the past 2 days I have been seeing mouses (is it "mice" in english?) everywhere!

Where do all those come from? How come they multiply in such numbers?

September 22, 2008

During the maintenance period on Tuesday, September 23, between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM Central Time (3:00 PM to 5:00 PM GMT), the following changes will be made:

Account Services

All account service requests that were applied before today's maintenance will be executed today.

Events

The Great Mouse Hunt event will be implemented during this maintenance window. Romantic music, chocolates and specially equipped dens will be provided to all participating mobs.

Detail from the noob comic

Languages useful in L2

2008-09-22T14:55:00.007+03:00

Have you ever wished you understood what all these people say?

Those people speaking russian (sps? tut?), chinese (mmm i dont know of any examples), portuguese (q tal?) - seeming 'all greek' ('ela mlka') to you?

I soooo much wish I knew russian! And (thank god) I have studied french at school. And I had a spanish boyfriend, so I know the basic expressions. Still, it is not enough.

Please mail me all words (or "words" or expressions) you find useful in L2, no matter the language. We can compile a tiny dictionary :)

Make sure to vote at the current poll, checking all answers that apply!

Update 23/9/2008: Submissions so far are da/niet, spasibo, quoi, salut, xaxa, kak (not mentioning the english words)

Mice Event (Humor)

2008-09-20T08:30:00.001+03:00

source: http://www.thenoobcomic.com

Titbits of info

2008-09-18T11:00:00.000+03:00

New event starting on Tuesday, something with mice! Sounds a lot like the pig-event we had some time ago. Again we will see special bows for the mice, and salvation bows (souvenir item) with "hapiness" skill to play with.
L2vault is looking for class-specific experts to write guides. I hope Archmage applies for the SE class, and I am sure many more of you would be excellent experts too. Go go, apply.
Ancient adena prices have sky-rocketed. Player shops buy with 6a and sell with 8a, 9a, even 10a! Of course all related consumables have had their prices increased as well, including bsoe and brez scrolls.
RuneBlade, a veteran player and a good friend has joined the clan. Excellent!!!!
Tip to stop your pet from following and healing you: overload it to 100%. It wont be able to move. Alternatively ctrl+doubleclick. It wont be able to move.
Saturday siege results were interesting, with castle changing sides, lots of drama.

A Little Girl

2008-09-16T11:25:00.004+03:00

Summoner just had a baby-girl!

I wish we had a picture to post, i hope there will be some soon.

The clan would like to wish the little girl all the best - including happiness, love, health, friends. Congratulations to our clan-mate and the rest of the family.

And on a personal note, lots of skills, magic, chocolate, hugs and kisses :)

You might be playing online too long if..

2008-09-11T12:31:00.001+03:00

...you talk about your characters as if they are real people.

...you alternate between referring to your characters in the first and the third person.

... and none of your friends gets confused.

...you're still reading this list.

...you hang out with people you actively dislike because you need them in party.

...you have a PhD in manipulating the market to the best effect, even though you failed school economics.

..you can consume your body weight in junk food.

...you consider coke, chips, alcohol and chocolate a balanced diet (or even an acceptable combination)

...you can do money conversions between your game currency and dollars/euros in your head.

...you've ever tried to explain gaming to a school counselor, parent, or other PW/OC (Person With/Out Clue).

...you've suceeded.

...you're STILL reading this list.

...you've ever discovered, after gaming with your significant other, that you like their character better than you do them.

...you worship idols of Gary Gygax in your basement.

...you have friends or acquaintances who regularly refer to you as "Og." (Or something similar.)

...you've ceased responding to your birth name.

...you know a lot of gaming jokes that used to be funny once.

...your friend(s) who does not game feels very left out of all of your conversations.

...you've been gaming for more than half of your life.

...you knew a female gamer once.

...you were a female gamer once.

...you tend to play characters as different from you in race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and what have you as possible, just to confuse your friends.

...you've thought of four or five additions to this list.

...you've ever tried to discover the strengths and weaknesses of a haemophiliac werewolf.

...someone is attempting to explain the floorplan of a building to you and you immediately start thinking in terms of 10X10 squares.

...your character has more close friends than you do.

...you can't find your favorite shirt, but you know where all the dice that came with your first D&D set are.

...you feel that Gaming has played a part in your developing a personal philosophy

...you've thought about designing a game, and actually wrote more than 20 or so pages.

...and self-published it!

...you've ever taught your children to use the mouse using your favorite game.

...you don't know the sex of three of your closest friends, because they have gender-neutral nicknames and you never bothered to ask.

...you wake up at 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom and stop and check your shop/auction on the way back to bed.

...you tell the kids they can't use the computer because "Daddy's got work to do" and you don't even have a job.

...you refuse to go on vacation where there's no electricity, phone lines, or hotspots.

...you've gone a little blind trying to figure out if all those corpses had a blue glow or not.

Ubba

2008-09-07T21:21:00.009+03:00

We are proud to announce that as of today

Ubba is Noblesse

The 3rd class change quest was completed quite fast (.. for a 3rd class change quest that is), with Thoe, Aristotelis, SofiaGR and some more friends helping in the last part. Oracle10g (that's me!) tried to help too, but it was only few hours later that I got PoF.

Grats Ubb-ako!!

Grind spots at B+ grade

2008-09-04T14:19:00.007+03:00

Where should one hunt after hitting lvl 52?
Before that level, you can check Archmage's February post on grind spots
Now, after careful reading relative posts by wiser people, I would propose:
52-60 Bandit Stronghold or Cemetery or Forsaken Plains
60-66 Cata of Witch
67-75 Garden of Beasts (melee classes only)
72+ Wall of Argos (aka Wall of Bots) or Hot Springs

Problem is, I have heard that most of these areas are heavily botted/farmed.

Moreover, I lack the knowledge about which area combines well with worthwhile quests... meaning basically quests that award recipes/parts for A grade gear.

All suggestions and advice will be most welcome.

News Flash

2008-09-03T14:56:00.010+03:00

Wooot! tZoNaKoS is a hero again!! Grats!!!!!!

Make-your-own crystals tutorial recently posted. Tkx Summoner!

Make sure you have a cubic for enchant scrolls to all your chars > 40 lvl. Contact the clan for extra fishes or fruits if you are missing some. Tkx Archmage!

The greek blog is growing up nicely, with an increasing number of articles and visits.

Chryssa is Noblesse now! And PrOpHeTi who was already Noblesse, now got her sub up to lvl 77. O.o

The new issue of MMOZine is out with just a minimal reference to Gracia. Interesting comment: "it remains to be seen how the established Lineage II hardcore will take to such a massive opening up of their world to the masses".

On an unrelated note, the Spore game has been released. It allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature. I am sure LittleOrc will like it a lot.

Coffee and cookies meeting on Saturday Sept 6th. All welcomed!

Crystal production

2008-09-01T08:19:00.005+03:00

Here is what you need to create crystals by Crystallisation.

Buy everything in Giran. The tax should be 10% less in another town to have the same NPC price or with the exception of the dwarven village, the tax difference should be 5% (i.e. if the tax in Giran is 12% and in Schuttgard is 6%, it is cheaper to buy in Dorfland, which belongs to the Schuttgard castle).

For D and C grade crystals buy any normal item (weapon,jewel,armor) from the NPC and crystalise it. (check New Crystal Prices post). If you buy common items, some come out as cheaper; the best value is with the Common Item - Crafted Leather Gloves / Common Item - Leather Boots which give 2 D crystals at 534 each and the Common Items - Karmian Gloves/Chain Gloves/Boots of Seal/Chain Boots/Dwarven Chain Boots/Reinforced Mithril Gloves/Karmian Boots/Tempered Mithril Boots/Plate Leather Boots, which give 2 C crystals at 2700 adena each. The problem with common items is that if you need 1000 crystals, you have to buy and crystallise 500 items, in order to get the cheapest deal.

Now for B crystals, follow these instructions.
1) Buy 2 Tsurugi swords, at 4 Million each
2) Buy 41 Stone of Purity (SoP) from PC shops at around 10K each
3) Go to Aden BlackSmith, who will make the Tsurugi Duals for a 20K fee.
Total cost at around 8.43 Millions and crystalising the Tsurugi*Tsurugi will produce 891 B crystals for a final cost of around 9461 per crystal.

For A crystals, follow these instructions.
1) Buy 2 Keshanberk swords, at the Giran luxury shop for 579 B cry and 1737 C cry=~ 10.7 Million each for a total of 21.4M
2) Buy a Dual craftstamp from a PC shop at around 750K each now, or if you have access, buy it from a Fortress chamberlain or whichever NPC is selling them.
3) Go to the Mammon BlackSmith, who will make the Keshanberk duals for a hefty fee of
1953000 AA.
Now the market for Ancient Adena is blown out of proportion, but I will assume you set a Buy shop and got them at 4:1. So the BS fee would be about 8M.
Total cost at around 30.14 Millions and crystalising the Keshanberk*Keshanberk will produce 1128 B crystals for a final cost of around 26720 per crystal.
Apparently it is better to buy A crystals from PCs in Giran these days.

Griefing Definition

2008-08-29T11:02:00.007+03:00

For all us noobs out there, a short explanation of what a griefer is about:

"A griefer is a player who plays a game simply
to aggravate and harass other players." (Wiki)

It refers to a player whose only objective in the game is to cause grief, and who cannot thus be deterred by penalties related to in-game goals, because they have no in-game goals other than to cause grief (see Summoner's post about PK motives).

A form of cyber-bullying.

Activities one player considers griefing may be understood by another to be part of normal gameplay.

It is often a form of emergent gameplay, the creative use of a game in ways unexpected by the game designer's original intent. In several games, e.g. first-person shooters, game glitches or physics quirks can become viable strategies, or even spawn their own game types. I think we have lots and lots of those in LII, although in each update they try to stop them.

An act of griefing involves the following three types of actions to be considered grief play:

The use or abuse of a game mechanic that was not intended by the game's developers.
The inability of the victim to exact some means of retribution beyond utilizing similar unintended game mechanics.
The intended purpose of an act of griefing must be to negatively impact the game play of another person.

An act of griefing usually meets all these criteria as well as any game specific criteria set by the developers of the game.

The South Park Episode 1008, titled "Make Love Not War", is an excellent parody of the issue based on WoW.

Note: Next week there will be a blog post examining the possible motives and solutions of the issue.

PK motives

2008-08-28T09:12:00.004+03:00

It happens quite often that some people will attack a live player for no reason at all apparently.
I understand the motive behind bot-killers or the marking of territory by attacking someone who entered and started stealing mobs from one's grinding spot.
Yesterday, as I was moving around places, I was attacked once by a Red (AKA marked idiot) and another time by a white-turned-purple player.
Since the recent patches (the previous one I think), there is no chance of dropping any item upon the death of a non-red player. So there is no possible bonus for PK a white player.
The penalty for turning red can be quite annoying:
1) the town guards will attack a Red player on sight and they are lvl 62, so this should be especially annoying for the PKers running around Dion, who cannot be higher than 45.
2) the NPC stores will not trade with Reds, except 3 special NPCs (Floran,Hardin's,Spider Nest), but who charge double prices then.
3) The Sin Eater quest is a huge pain.

So what could be the motive for attacking a harmless live player?
I asked the purple man attacking me, why he wished to turn himself Red and he was kind enough to enlighten me:
"I want to increase my PK count" said the player "GreekPower"... (apparently power does not get along well with wits)
Can someone please explain this to me?
Can a high PK count on mid-levels lead to anything other than an adena-drain and possible delevelling from town guards and higher level players, who can easily kill a Red without getting Karma (no penalty and besides there was Hero chat yesterday calling for high-level people to go to Cruma and enjoy a feast on Reds).
Finally there is still the chance to get a dropped weapon from Reds (only the Red players still have a chance to drop their weapon upon death), which should be a detterent for people turning red, provided their brain could process the situation rationally.

Is there any logic really behind increasing the PK count ?

Gracia Part 2

2008-08-25T13:04:00.018+03:00

It's time to start exploring the next update, Gracia Part 2!

Today we introduce few pictures only, but more news will soon be made available.

	To start with, players will be able to acquire one of those little followers. Contrary to angel and devil agathions, these guys (how should I call them?) are actually useful, each of them producing different results.
The player will be able to choose whatever follower suits him/her best. Can you imagine a well-known short hero of Teon (Tzonakos!!) with a cute little and fierce squirrel like this one? He said he will definitely get one :)
	I personally love the blue mage-on-robes one! "Mom? He followed me home, can I keep him?"
I wonder what they do and how much they will cost. It is possible that they will be part of the (new) paid services, which means that we will have to pay for those little guys with real world currency.

Included a picture of a character plus follower, in order for you to see the relative size.

Some mini games will be included too! I wish we could play these at work :-)

Propheti told me about a new mount made available, so here it is! A white stallion, just for you. Each of the race (and probably gender too) will have a different position when on top of the horse.

More info will be soon added - stay tuned!

Clan news: Zenais back!

2008-08-22T14:06:00.006+03:00

Update 27/8/08: Zenais is in Athens!!

Woot!! Zenais, our beloved Kamael is coming home for short vacations next week!

During the past months, Zenais is doing his military service somewhere close to Orestiada - the northeasternmost and northernmost city of Greece, working 24x7 in awful conditions.

I have an old picture of Zenais and his s.o. Sarafi,

from the academy graduation ceremony :)

Welcome back!!

Lineage in Greek

2008-08-21T14:35:00.002+03:00

A new blog has been created: Lineage II στα Ελληνικά

The new blog will be in greek and the articles will mainly be translations from game guides and news announcements. Long term planning incudes a site to properly store all the translations (..hopefully!)

Please forward the link to anyone who could be interested, especially greek-speaking game fans who do not read english articles.

Guys? What are you doing on Friday night?

2008-08-20T09:36:00.000+03:00

Have you heard about the Game Convention 2008? Have you heard about NC Soft's party??

As far as the Convention is concerned, it seems that NC provides some means of following what's going on there, even from home.

As far as Clan Members are concerned, remember there is a coffee-and-cookies meeting on Saturday morning (..in Athens), so please don't stay up too late on Friday's party (..in Leipzig).

Gracia Poll Results

2008-08-18T23:59:00.000+03:00

Gracia - First Impression?

I like it! 83%
Hate it! 10%
n/a 7%

Thank you all for your votes!

Mammon Suggestion

2008-08-18T10:33:00.002+03:00

Suggestion:

Always keep an alt toon in the level range 20 to 39 for two reasons:

Free teleports throughout the map.
Free subscription to 7 Signs.

Thus you can have this toon moving around the catas and necros to deal with the BS and Merchant of Mammon. Your main char will not spend any money/time and will not have to move away from the current hunting place.

Vitality Summarised

2008-08-16T02:57:00.010+03:00

1. Basic info at http://www.lineage2.com/guide/vitality_system.html

2. You gain Vitality Points the quickest if you are logged out (Alyra).
o Staying logged in a Peace Zone will still earn you Vitality Points, but not as quickly as being logged out.
o It doesn't matter where you log out -- the rate at which you earn Vitality Points is the same.
o It doesn't matter if you are dead while logged out -- the rate at which you earn Vitality Points is the same.

3. Vitality Points are only depleted when you kill a monster that is not a raid boss or quest mob, but not while running around at TOI, trying to reach floor 114 (needs further testing). Note that kamaloka are not RB, thus you loose points, not gain.

4. Vitality points are calculated per character, not per account (Alyra).
Which means that it is a good idea to have a dwarf at your account. When you finish exp-ing, you can relog with your dwarf, arrange to sell/buy what you need, then go to sleep. Your main char will gain vitality points all night through!

5. Karma drops faster when vitality level is higher.
This is because karma drops based on the number of exp points gained.

6. The "Energy Points" earned when killing an RB are actually "Vitality Points", which are counted towards increasing your vitality level sooner (Alyra).

7. Once you reach a certain number of Vitality Points, you get bumped to the next Vitality Level.

8. The Vitality level affects both the XP and SP. So if you get have vitality x3, that means that you get triple the XP AND the SP for hunting a given mob.

This text will be updated as soon as we have additional info. Please post your ideas and we will incorporate them.

Info gathered from related posts at the lineage2.com forums and endless testing.

The addition of the "Alyra" mark means that the specific piece of information was given by Alyra, the official voice of NCSoft.

Enchant Scrolls from Freightman

2008-08-14T14:34:00.017+03:00

Post updated on 18/8/2008

News Flash: The quest A Special Order (lvl 40+) was finally activated!

1. Go to Helvetia in Giran Grocery, take quest. If you get the fisherman, go to step 2, if you get the warehouse chief go to step 3. You can abort the quest and re-take it, in order to try the other path.

2. The fisherman asks you for 30 Orange fish (10 ugly, 10 nimble, 10 fat). Talk to him again (with the fish!) and he gives you an item for Helvetia. Go to step 4.

3. The warehouse chief asks your for 120 manor fruits (Cobol). Talk to him again (with the fruit!) and he gives you an item for Helvetia.

4. Talk to Helvetia. She gives you a Wondrous Cubic and the quest ends.

Now that you have the Wondrous Cubic (non-tradable), you can use it once per 24 hours. It produces a colored item (tradable), randomly, which you can give to any warehouse freightman (plus adena) and buy enchant scrolls!

Scroll Prices:

EWD: 1 Fine Blue Cubic Piece + 150.000a
EAD: 1 Rough Blue Cubic Piece + 18.000a
EWC: 1 Fine Yellow Cubic Piece + 330.000a
EAC: 1 Rough Yellow Cubic Piece + 45.000a
EWB: 1 Fine Green Cubic Piece + 1.500.000a
EAB: 1 Rough Green Cubic Piece + 80.000a
EWA: 1 Fine Red Cubic Piece + 5.400.000a
EAA: 1 Rough Red Cubic Piece + 720.000a
EWS: 1 Fine White Cubic Piece + 15.000.000a
EAS: 1 Rough White Cubic Piece + 1.500.000a

Some additional info on fishing:

Small, big and high grade fish are no good for this quest.
Buy an equal quantity of each lure color (green/yellow/purple), since you need an equal quantity of ugly/nimble/fat fish. Presumably 'nimble' = 'fast'.
Fishing expertise lvl 13- 15 required for orange.
If you have higher level of expertise, use orange potion from Fishing Master (6.750a). It lasts for 1 hour. There is also an antidote-potion, which gets you back to your initial expertise level (also 6.750a).
Fishing guide.

Some additional info on manoring:

You can buy seeds from any area/manor that offers the appropriate seeds, not only Giran. You can check which seeds are sold in every area/manor from any town, you do not have to travel there.
Manoring guide1 and guide2.

NEW CRYSTAL PRICES

2008-08-13T08:15:00.004+03:00

After the Gracia went live yesterday, the current crystal cost in LIVE are presented after crystalising weapons bought at Giran NPC shop at 10% tax.

D crystal: 650 adena
C crystal: 3000 adena
B crystal: 9461 adena
A Crystal: ?

Note
The mammon merchant prices have not changed.

FOUNDATION ITEMS

2008-08-11T10:28:00.004+03:00

Here is the deal with the new rare type of equipment called "foundation".
Whenever a dwarf artisan (warsmith,maestro) crafts an B or higher grade item, be it weapon, armor, jewel, there is a chance that the item will not be normal, but a special (improved) "foundation" version of this item.
Hence, I guess that in lower grades (D and C) the chance for bonus is to get 2 items instead of one.
If you craft such an item, then you can unseal its bonus by following these steps:
1) Go to the Merchant of Mammon and buy "Mammon's Varnish Enhancer" (VE) for Foundation items... for B grade Foundation items you need 1 VE, for A and S you need 2,3 up to 7 for S/S80 grade weapons. The VE cost is 100K adena (thankfully not AA)
2) Go to the Blacksmith of Mammon with the given foundation item and the "Varnish Enhancer" and he will unseal the bonus.

Now the general rule for the bonus on each item category is:
WEAPON
The weapon will get an extra special ability, which can be similar to Focus (extra Crit rate), Health (extra HP), extra max MP (most mage weapons get it) etc.
For special dual swords, you craft and unseal a "foundation" sword, for example a "Damascus - Lightning" and use it at the Mammon BS as part of the dual set. Then the Dama*Dama duals will have the "Lightning" foundation ability and you can enchant the duals to +4 and they will get their usual special ability as well (e.g. for Dama*Dama "Accuracy will increase by 6").
As another example, I recall the "foundation" bonus for the Kris (mid B- grade dagger, actually most/all? Foundation daggers get this); increased Evasion special ability, which can stack with its usual "Evasion" SA if you choose it instead of the popular "Focus"...or you give it the "Focus" SA and it gets increased Evasion from its "foundation" bonus.

Note that the "foundation" bonus is predetermined for any given weapon... you do not get any choices or random results after unsealing the "foundation" weapon. e.g. the Kris will always get extra evasion.

ARMOR
The armor piece will get a bonus similar to the armor bonus of the normal set, plus a bit extra. So for pieces of a robe set, the extra bonus is PDef, for parts of a LA set, the bonus is extra evasion, and for pieces of a heavy set the bonus is extra HP. Unfortunately a masterwork item does not combine with normal items as a set. Moreover, it does not combine with other masterwork items to create a set... it just gives the bonus by itself. So if you have a complete set of masterwork items, you get a bit higher bonus than the standard set, but no attribute modifications.
For example, a complete masterwork Dark Crystal Robe Set gives a total 18% casting speed increase instead of the normal 15%, but it does not modify the attributes WIT +2, MEN -2, so that the final result is that you get less casting speed with the masterwork set than the normal set. I have already read many posts complaining about this "feature".

JEWELS
I checked a few jewels and the "foundation" bonus may give extra CP or MP, resistance to poison or bleeding or magic etc.

Gracia 1 Launch: 12/8/2008

2008-08-07T12:05:00.004+03:00

Just Released:

The 2nd Throne - Gracia™ 1 update going live on Tuesday

Tuesday 12/8/2008 - that's less than a week!

As announced, the estimated maintenance period is 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM GMT (I think this is 14:00 to 20:00 greek time - damn!). Event Gatekeepers will come, but I don't know for which event %-)