Although a lot of people are aware that World of Warcraft is the most popular MMORPG in the world, relatively few could name the second most popular franchise, which is Lineage. The bulk of the players are in Korea, where the series has millions of fans, but the North American version of Lineage II is showing steady growth as well. Chronicle 5, Oath of Blood has just been released, and I had a chance to tour some of the new content on the test server with staff from NCsoft.
Easing the Grind
As I mentioned in my review of the game, progress in Lineage II is slow, and entails many hours of relatively repetitive monster bashing. Each new Chronicle has introduced something to hasten the process, and Oath of Blood is no exception.
One improvement is that, for character's under level 40, they have increased the health regeneration rate while sitting, which makes a significant difference when you're soloing.
They've also reduced down time by adding a number of instant effect items that drop from mobs in the hunting grounds. These items give one of your stats a boost much like a potion, but they are used as soon as you pick them up and cannot be stored in inventory.
Travel between some of the world's towns has been made easier with additional teleporters, and there are also a couple new hunting grounds for low and mid-level characters.
The Demonic Sword Zariche
In an interesting twist on the open PvP nature of Lineage II, the first Demonic Item made its appearance in Chronicle 5. The Demonic Sword Zariche can drop from any mob in the game, there is only one per server, and the ground shakes to announce its arrival.
The character that wields this unique sword temporarily becomes a killing machine. The normal penalties for dying in a PvP fight are suspended where Zariche is involved, so when it drops a PvP free-for-all ensues, which is unexpected fun you won't find in most other games of this kind. There are plans to introduce more Demonic Items in future updates.
Clan Features
Clans are central to Lineage II gameplay and considerable work has gone into the clan system in Chronicle 5. The clan level cap is up from 5 to 8 and the maximum size for a clan has been raised to 140 players. Reputation points can now be earned by clans and put toward special clan abilities. Another new feature is that level 5 clans have the option to create an Academy to facilitate long-term expansion. The clan interface has been redone to accommodate all these changes, which seem to be the most well-received part of this update.
High-Level Content
As you would expect from a MMORPG on its fifth major update, there is quite a bit in Oath of Blood for high-level characters. The player level cap has been increased from 78 to 80 and monsters have been given some new tactics to make up for this.
Behind a secret wall connected to the Imperial Tomb resides Frintezza, the son of Baium of Elmoreden. Frintezza sits at a giantic organ and will charm the raid party with his musical skills if they're not careful. This encounter is designed for up to 45 high-level characters, and is clearly among the most difficult bosses in the game.
Substantial additions have also been made to Rune and Schuttgart Territories, including castles, hunting grounds, and raid bosses. While I was playing we did a quick run through the Ice Queen’s Castle, which is an instance for players of about level 60. The party has just 35 minutes to defeat the Ice Queen's minions and her trusted servant, Sirra, who has healers that make the fight quite challenging.
Bot Patrol
Although Lineage II has seen many improvements since release, there are some lingering issues that continue to cause problems. If you spend enough time in the low-level parts of the world, you'll eventually come across groups of bots: player characters that are automated using scripts. Bots are typically deployed to accumulate game currency, which can hurt a game's economy and interfere with bosses and NPCs that legitimate players need to progress. Almost every MMORPG prohibits bots, and they are by no means unique to Lineage II, but it does seem to have more than its share of them.
Bottom Line
Chronicle 5 is a commendable addition to Lineage II, especially for high-level players and guilds. The guild features themselves are a big improvement to the end-game, and it's nice to see that they've given players a variety of ways to contribute to guild reputation, which should make being part of a guild even more rewarding. Low-level characters don't get quite as much out of this update, although they continue to make the grind less severe for newcomers. I'm not sure it's enough, but you will notice a difference if you haven't played in a few Chronicles. There's still nothing like it when it comes to large-scale PvP castle sieges, and the word is that future updates will no longer be called Chronicles, which suggests that something big is in the works.
