The Subclass system is one of the unique features of Lineage II and that is what won me over so many years ago. This feature would allow you to add up to 3 different classes to your main character with a max level of 80 on each, of course certain restrictions on race and class would apply and some of them still apply to this day, like not being able to have a Dominator as a subclass/dual or a Warsmith. Of course back in the day there were more restrictions regarding both class and race for example, no Light Elf could have any of the Dark Elf classes and vice versa.

This changed at some point and you can only have a single subclass to your character, once your character hits 105, you can either click on the notification message to add a subclass or you can visit the NPCs at Aden and add the subclass of your choise.

Joachim will help you add a sublcass or reset it, if you want to. There are certain restrictions for classes that are race/gender locked. You cannot have as a dualclass a Death Knight, a Dominator, a Maestro, a Sayha Seer or an Eviscerator. In terms of resetting, as of the November 2023 update, keeping your level when reseting a dualclass is a game feature since up until this point keeping your level was only possible during Red Libra Events.

The benefits from having a high level dualclass is passive skills and a collection, there are 2 categories of skills, the ones from 85 to 105, and 107 to 110. There are 7 certificates for levels 85, 90, 95, 99, 101, 103 and 105 and 3 more for 107, 109 and 110. You can only use each group of certificates for its respective category, so a 85-105 cannot be used to acquire a skill from the 107-110 and vice versa.

Gallias will allow you to get certificates based on the levels of your dual class, learn the skills or forget them (reset). You get the certificates while being on the dual class and you learn/reset them, when on main class.

You cannot see the list of skills if you do not have at least 1 certificate in your inventory.

These are the 2 skill categories that you can choose skills from, there are 7 certificates for 105 skills and 3 for 110 skills.

Attack, Defense, Speed ( attack & cast speed), Condition can have up to 4 levels each, 1 certificate per level, Vampiric, Physical, Magical and 2 certificates each, the same goes for Vital, Recovery and Death, finally the proc skills Berserkers Rage, Masters Rage and Light of Protection require 3 certificates. Now the 110 skills require 1 certificate per skill.

Using the skills now is something that depends on your class, what your goals are and at what point in the game you are, if that is purely PvE or you are more PvP oriented.

Since May of 2021 Lineage II has changed a lot especially on the lower level content, first it was the element boost for the mobs on that years Warrior Update and then slowly the lower level content has become a challenge. This is not to say that higher level content is easy but the amount of gear you need to get your character going is what some would say, a serious investment, the tradable items alone you can put on a character are 90!

With that in mind, many newcomers and returning players need to know what they are up against and since the main “features” of the game are still in place, like too much grind, not as many drops etc. many question their choice to come back in the game. It is not my place to tell you what to do, but I would like to help as much as I can.

In lower levels, there is not much to do, unless you have people you know to give you a lift to at least 110 – 112 it is going to be a lengthy journey! It is not a matter of levels, its a combination, levels & gear that will allow you to do content, mobs hurt and they have good defense/element resists, you will have to use a second or in some cases a third toon in your party to level up and the more toons that are in group, the less XP you get per toon, which means it is going to take longer to get to a good level.

I am not trying to give anyone a hard time, I am simply explaining how things are, if you are high level and have the gear you can farm plenty but that is a costly and lengthy process, if you really want to play the game, you will figure it out.

There is light at the end of the tunnel and if have you played in the past, you will quickly pick up on how things work.

A few things to avoid is getting gear from the Store, a Blessed Exalted set is good to begin with but NEVER make a weapon +21 or an Armor +20, the Armor at that enchant is only useful for collections. The weapon might come in handy in some classes but overall a 30 gold coins per Enchant x 21 is too much, 630 coins ( on average 220m per coin) is roughly 140bil adena, which can get you a +13/14 weapon, that you will not need to change for quite some time.

You should also avoid opening loot boxes and enchanting on your own. Although there are 2 things that will “Fix” your problems in Lineage II, Money and Time, for enchanting you need LUC and opening loot boxes is not recommended especially when you are missing crucial gear on your character. It is better to pay 10-15-20% more in the long run for items that will give you a guaranteed upgrade, rather than gamble and end up downgrading what you already have.

For most of the content, if you are either low level or do not have gear, you will have to go with the “trial and error” approach, see if you can do 106 zone, then test 108, then 110, if you can do 110 zone, you will most likely be able to do the 105 zones Jamoa, Crisis, Pantheon and Fiorens, your daily Castilla and Lurins in Aden and at 110 you can try to do some of the content in dethrone, even if you do not have gear, leveling the skills will give you a nice boost to your character.

Lineage II is a marathon not a sprint, there are features of the game that need quite a bit of time to complete, sometimes not even money can help speed up the process!

To summarize everything up, early in the game, you need to try new items, there is no right or wrong way to do this but I have a suggestion on how to start building your character and the why is also included! As you get more familiar with the game, everything will start to make sense and eventually, you will be able to make upgrades on your own and start making adena, early on, you will most likely will have to buy your gear, since the normal exalted gear you get from the main quest line, will not take you far! Levels, gear, will come as you play and try not to rush things!!

Lineage II since the implementation of the “auto hunt” function has been more of an “set it” and “forget it” type of game. Before they introduced Dethrone and the latest changes in level 120 instances ( summer of 2024), you could find players in every corner of the map.

Now its more of a race against the clock to get things done before the day ends. The majority of the players that are level 122 or above ( yes there are some players that are 121 with pretty good gear as well) do not have enough time within the day to complete everything the game can offer.

We usually say that “there is no content” but its the exact opposite, there is already too many things to do and more changes/ additions/ features are coming in 2025 and beyond ( hopefully) but there is not enough time. So one thing that most players focus is Dethrone, a dimensional place that is open twice a day from Monday to Thursday for 2 hours each (with the exception of Tuesday, that is 1 hour less, due to weekly maintenance) and Friday to Sunday for a single session of 5 hours on each day.

The times are fixed since both servers Chronos and Naia join at the same time and offers the best XP in the game. So there are about 4-5 hours per day reserved for that. Then you have all 120+ zones, Jamoa, Crisis, Pantheon and Fiorens which are 1 hour each by default and for some you can extend the time by an extra 2 hours (Jamoa, Pantheon and Fiorens).

One very important piece of information is that most players were doing double spots in 110-115 instances and on some occasions 3 spots ( Fiorens).

In the Summer of 2024, they introduced “Hyper-spawn” to all 120 instances. This means that mobs spawn twice as fast and if the player can keep up with the spawn, the rewards from each instance are more than double. For reference , 3 hours of Pantheon in 115 zone on a double spot, would be about 4.8 billion adena, in new Pantheon 120 its around 10.2 billion on a single spot. 3 spots in Fiorens 110 was around 1bil adena, but in 120 its 2bil every 3 hours, Jamoa was something a lot of people did not really do but with the hyper spawn, you can drop anywhere between 10-22 scrolls and around 1-3 Crystal of Dawn in 3 hours. Lastly 120 Crisis is a goldmine, I am not really talking about drops, you get the standard 100 boxes that you would get in 105/110/115 but you can complete the Clan Quest about 3.5 times per day, so about 7 times every 2 days, its the one that rewards Freya scrolls and Buff Pots that keeps you going in places like Dethrone. On the rest, you can do about 1.5 times per day or twice if you are doing double spot which has always been too much effort.

Fast forward to December 2024

Prior to December 2024 update, recharge stones were acquired for the most part from the Mentee Shop with Mentee Coins or dropped from Rune Raids ( Clan Raids), so the vast majority of player were focusing on Pantheon for 3 hours, Fiorens for another 3, 1 hour of Crisis and maybe 1 hour of Jamoa, now recharge stones, drop on each ones respective instance, so players can freely do about 10 hours of instances per day without having to make mentees, spend money to buy stones, for a chance to get better drops etc.

So far we have 10 hours of instances, 4 & 5 hours of Dethrone per day! Oh and those instances give great XP, it sure beats the good old “grinding on a single spot” or now that I am thinking about it, its better than a double spot too.

In terms on timed instances we have 10 hours of ToI (Tower of Insolence) and 10 hours of Rift per week that is 20 hours, about 3 hours per day and finally we have the Daily Raids in Adena from the Venusta NPC, Baylor, Kamaloka, Kroffin, Gludio which are about 15 minutes total, plus FoS ( Forest of Spirits), that is a 60 minute instance for XP, add a couple of minutes as well to do the daily Castilla and finally Lurins instance (for Virtual Equipment) the whole time you spend doing content in Aden is around 90 minutes.

For those that live in timezones that are favored ( pretty sure its unintentional) there is also the option to do Swamp of Screams, an hourly session twice a day ( after early DT and right before the next DT) that also spawns a boss at the end of it, in terms of XP, it is not that great, but in terms of adena (drops), if you can kill in that area, its around 2.3 to 4.4b per hour, depending on how big of a spot you have.

So based on what it was mentioned so far, on a daily basis there is:
4 hours -> Dethrone ( 5 on a weekend)
3 hours -> Pantheon
3 hours -> Fiorens
3 hours -> Jamoa
1 hours -> Crisis
1.5 hours -> Aden Content (FoW 60min & Baylor, Kamaloka, Kroffin, Gludio)
2.5 hours -> Swamp ( 2x 60min sessions and about 10-12 minutes to kill the boss)
3 hours -> Toi/Rift
A Total of 21 to 22 hours of content per day.

Next time that your high level friend tell you, that he has no time, remember this!

To top everything off, on the same update of December 2024, they added 4 new raids with 5 hour spawn times, and 2 bosses with fixed spawn and a 20 minute window to kill them, so I would say we have plenty of content to do for now and in the near future we will have to choose what to skip!

Ahhh… the one question that players never stop asking, yet the one question that doesn’t have an answer that satisfies everyone.

The 2 updates on August and December of 2024 have brought some significant changes to the game that have also affected the way newer players or players with low gear make adena. First change is the players level required to join Olympiad, went from 100 to 110 and the second change was the removal of the Recharging Stones from the Mentee store, since they now drop on each ones respective dungeon.

Now what? Well that is a very good question and the answer is something that some may not like. I am pretty sure there might be additional ways that I may not be aware but the options are now limited and the solution is complicated. There is always the option to buy gear with Ncoin but for the most part players are interested in making adena without a heavy investment on the game.

This is where I believe the real issue is, one side wants to play for absolutely free and the other side wants to make money, there is not an “in between” solution and changes that happen do not favour anyone.

If you are not already prepared, you should start planning on playing the long game, this means, prepare the right toons and start a process where you build multiple toons aiming to be able to farm adena down the road.

Although mentee leveling is not out of the picture as a way to make adena, the items that are available now vs what you could sell before the 2024 December update, have a different demand. For example, Dark Beads/ Orb of Abyss and lv3 Blood Red Soul Beads and key components for a number of collections but is it worth for players to buy them or is it better to farm them on their own.

Most demand for those collections is from players who already have the Gear/ Levels and have the ability to level new toons 0 to 105 in a very short period of time, about 60 to 90 minutes ( of course during events that the XP penalty is lifted) so unlike before, you cannot be sure on when those items (from mentee store) will sell and at what price.

A few of the recent changes in the game is the removal of self buffs* and the mobs are now aggro, which means that a plain exalted gear is no longer suitable at 102+ areas and a toon with just that gear will have issues surviving, this also makes reaching level 110+ a harder than before task.

*New lv1 buff cocktails have been added in the Buff Master next to each Mentor Guide, in every town.

Now, let me introduce you on “my way” of making adena with a very small investment in gear but as I mentioned, this is something I have built overtime.

As I mentioned earlier, you need to play the long game, this means you need to collect all free accessories/ golden beads, attendance rewards and any coupon that is provided. You need to do that on multiple toons, more information can be found here.

Once you have the toons ready, you will need to do Innardil of Crisis and Jamoa 105, the reason you do not want to do Pantheon, is the low amount of adena vs the gear required ( you might be able to do it in the long run or if one of your toons is a Dagger or a Summoner). First of all, you can easily build a toon that can kill 1400 mobs in 60 minutes of Crisis, that will give you the clan quest reward ( daily) 2 boxes that contain 1 of the 5 buff pots (Cocktails, Rose, Dragon Potion, Beer, Nevits). That is why you need to collect rewards from Attendance, you would need a really bad streak not to replenish the used potions. Then you have the 100 boxes ( up to 100, that is the indication that the toon is ideal for Crisis) that may contain Forgotten Book lv1, Artifact Crystals, Accessory Augment Stones, on occasion Insanity Talisman and other items such as soul ore/spirit ore/R crystals.

Now Jamoa vs Pantheon, the reason for not doing both is the limited amount of buff pots you get, even if you do Castilla daily, there is a good chance that you will run out for the simple fact that you will only be able to do Castilla 110 at best and for that you also need buffs and in many cases Rose as well.

An hour inside Pantheon with a toon built to do Crisis (that can get 100 boxes/1400 mobs) is around 45m to 50m max (with prestige its around 180-200m) but it is not worth it unless you are buying tons of coins and want to do that as well. The mobs inside Pantheon are really tough especially for newer toons and keep in mind that the 50% Crit Damage Reduction from buffs has been removed so the Archer mobs inside Pantheon, really hurt.

Jamoa on the other hand, drops all kinds of scrolls, Circlet/ Shirt/ Brooch/ Kaliels/ Seed Bracelet/ Artifact Book that have a price range from 50 to 250m per item plus a chance to drop a Crystal of Dawn, which is 600-800m depending on the ongoing events etc.

An “Army” of 7 toons, can bring you anywhere from 9 to 15bil per week “On Average”, I have had weeks with less than 9 but those were very few, in most cases I am at around 12 bil a week with just 2.5 hours per day.

Now what you can also do is try and see if those toons you have built, can survive 110 zone without buff pots, you can of course use enchanters ( since some of those toons, should be enchanters), then you can farm Blood Red Soul Beads that are used in collections and Aden Boxes. A single bead is anywhere from 34-40m adena and you can get anywhere from 0 to 11/12 per day, as long as you have proper toons and a stable connection, having 3 parties of 2, should not be an issue to maintain and the profits are about 5 beads per day per party, roughly 160m x 3 parties x 7 days, which amounts to 3.3 to 3.5b per week.

Given what I have mentioned above, running 2 instances per day and then XP for another 21-22 hours should bring you about 14b per week, I will have to remind you that this is on “average”. There might be weeks that Scrolls from Jamoa are not sold, or you may have a bad streak with Forgotten Books from the Crisis boxes. Keep in mind that the toons, should not go at lvl 116, then the color of the mobs in those instances goes from Green to Light Blue/Purple.

There is also Olympiad if you have the time, all you need is 25 games per toon per month to get around 800-900 Marks of Battle, that will allow you to buy Giant Codexes ( from Olympiad Manager) it costs 80 marks and 13m Adena which can be sold for about 300m+ per codex, so around 3bil per (level 110) toon per month. If you take those 7 toons that is an extra 21b per month. So 14b a week is around 56b a month, plus 21b from Olympiad, it is a solid 75b per month.

Lastly there is Dethrone, which is an “overtime” money maker, killing flowers gives you both Individual and Server points, server points are used to Rank you in Dethrone, Individual points are used to purchase items from the Dethrone Store, something that will increase your income over time is trying to rank an toon between Top 30% and 49.9% to get around 3000 Bloody Coins, and with 6000 coins you can get a Soul Potion which sells for about 1.2 – 1.8 depending on the supply and demand. There are guides both on Dethrone Skills as well as how to Level them up.

One thing I left out intentionally is playing the market, as this is a high risk low reward activity. When playing the market a “long term” investment might be 7 or 8 months, depending on the type of events. Even for mid-tier players that make 150-200b per month, that investment may not be ideal which you will end up either with your money back or depending on how fast you want to liquidate items, with a 10-20% loss in your initial investment. That is for people with deep pockets or for those that do play the market for a long time and holding items for a long period of time is not an issue.

In the world of Lineage 2, success is a marathon, not a sprint. The game is crafted to test your patience and strategic planning. Many achievements require time and careful resource management, as you navigate through content and complex challenges.

I am sure that most of you have seen people with high level main and a high level alt DD as well or a buffer, while you are struggling to hit 112/113 or whatever level you currently are, thinking how they did it. The game is 20+ years older players are bound to have multiple toons but what about the gear?

First things first, getting high level now is still a lengthy process but Dethrone has made it much shorter. Does that mean that you can go in Dethrone and get your XP? Unfortunately no, this is not the case but there are people that are offering powerleveling as a service that will boost your character pretty fast, for reference, a good “party” would get you 15-18% an hour, 6-7 hours would earn you a whole level that would otherwise take you months in normal XP spots anywhere in the map.

Why I am telling you all this? Well its simple, there are certain things you can do with a higher level toon and free gear which will inherently allow you to farm a few billions adena per month easily but the whole process does take time in terms of preparing toons, and logging them in for events that offer free pots and/or Attendance rewards and right about now we are getting into the lengthy game features.

A) Characters/Toons: Having the right classes for this project. After the latest Iss update on December 3rd, the classes that you can farm easier than others are, Spectral Dancer, Hierophant, Eviscerator, Spectral Master, with a few more items you can include Fortune Seeker on the list.

B) Black Coupon accessories: Blessed Valakas / Antharas, Lindvior Earring, Rulers & Truth Seeker Rings are items you can get once every big update that comes in the game about twice per year and “usually” there might be a 3rd one in Attendance Rewards.

C) Dethrone Skills: Although adena is required, when leveling up dethrone skills the main “issue” is time, you get a few % a day (which drops later as the level of each skill increases).

D) Attendance Rewards: myTeleport scrolls / Homunculus Hourglass / Golden Beads / Buff potions

E) Levels 115/107 (main & dual): It may sound too much to get there but it is necessary, at lv115 a character completes the 7th part of the exalted quest and gets 100 element attack/defence , 25 element attack and defense from the new Giants Forgotten book ( at lv5), 50 element attack from the lv107 dualclass certification.

F) Homunculus: Any green homunculus is a great start for every character, the hard part is to gather around 600 enchantment points to get it lv5 and also level up the skills to lv3 as well.

I hope by now the reference “its a marathon, not a sprint” makes more sense, since based on the classes mentioned earlier, pretty much everyone has a couple of buffers and 1-2 alt toons.

Additionally, they gave a free Greater Rune stone and a free Blessed Exalted set on the 20th Anniversary and it is very likely they will give another Greater Rune stone on the 21st!