A 20 year-old game that still has the attention of many players to this day, although most of those players are returning ones, there are those that come from other versions of the game or in some rare cases private servers.
Lineage 2 was at its peak between 2005 - 2009, this is where the game had the most players and its natural for people to come back in a game they enjoyed at some point, especially when the nostalgia kicks in. A lot of things have changed and it is important to look at those changes with an open mind, as it may impact each one differently depending on where one is at the game.
Whether you are returning to the game or starting fresh, there is one thing to keep in mind, there is a learning curve for everything you missed out in your absence. Trust me even 2 months can make a difference let alone 1 or more years away from the game.
As time goes by the gear that was expensive and hard to obtain is added through paid events and helps close the gap with the top 1% of the players, of course there is always something new added that mostly that top 1% can afford to buy or farm. Keep in mind that the top 1% of the server is usually measured with the purchasing capacity of each player The important thing here is that it allows a larger number of players to access the good XP zones.
For the most part, the majority of gear & items that are older than 2 years will most likely need replacing and any if not all old armors/accessories are not going to be of any use. Again this depends on your class, your level and the actual gear that you had at the time you stopped playing. Now for new players, it is a little bit trickier than that to gear up or start fresh. We will dive in deeper as time goes by and if you need a certain topic covered feel free to fill in the form below.
Back in the day, you could select the class you wanted to play and go with it... Now it is a little bit different, your ability to gear up a character from the beginning dictates what class you should play. This is not a personal opinion but a fact, if you select an archer which is the most expensive character to gear and hope that you can eventually get to a point where you can do damage, you are in for a big surprise.
There are massive differences in gear between the free gear that you get, the basic gear you can buy and gear that you can actually do damage as you progress in the game but to be honest the class you choose will also play a significant role in the equation. There is also a smart way to go about it if you are not so adamant on what class/race you want to play, since Red Libra is one of the fixed events we get twice a year. I will be going into a detailed explanation of what it is and what you can do but the short version is that you are allowed to change your class to whatever you want and if you choose a gender or race locked class, along with the class, you change the race as well.
Lineage 2 is not a sprint, it is a marathon and all the changes that have been implemented so far enforce that. You will need a lot of patience to get to the point where you can be self sufficient in terms of hunting for XP, Adena or completing daily raids or times instances.
Finally, this is not another "Should you play Lineage 2 in the year 202x" but a way to do it....