In this post I wanna talk about the differences I noticed so far between my previously played MMORPG Lineage II and WoW. Bear in mind that this list just reflects my personal opinion. I’ll probably udpate this list once in a while whenever I encounter a new feature in WoW (remember I’m still a newbie).
L2’s biggest advantages
- gorgeous dark and realistic looking graphics (if you don’t count the female dwarf)
- very detailed help system for new players for the first few levels
- one of the best game soundtracks ever (the music is composed by Bill Brown!)
WoW’s biggest advantages
- tons of interesting quests for really everybody at every level
- it’s actually worth doing quests in order to gain levels and new equipment
- very PvE friendly
- huge world with a very detailed and rich environment
- no real penalty for dying (your equipment just gets 10% off its durability, which can cheaply be fixed), thus giving you credit for daring to attack someone strong
- great selection of emotions (and even audio emotions)
- possibility to program and include plugins for pretty much every feature
- very smart chat system: you can click on any player name to see his/her current level, guild and place as well as inlcude this name into one of your messages.
- possibility to rebuy accidently sold items at vendors
- possibility to unlearn your skills in order to relearn them the way you want
L2’s biggest disadvantages
- when you die, you lose about 5% of your xp (very annoying if you’re at lvl 50+ and just lost several hours of leveling play time!)
- everybody can attack you almost anytime anywhere (not in cities)… and believe me they WILL attack you!
- after lvl 15 or so you get very few quests and most of them are boring and not even worth doing (very often your reward is less than the money/time you spend doing the quest!)
- very few emotions available
WoW’s biggest disadvantages
- in my opinion it’s sad that you also gotta pay for official addons (L2 delivers new material for free, even though it doesn’t include as much new stuff as TBC for instance)
- the guide for the first few levels could be a little more detailled
thcgirl77 said,
Wednesday, 12 December 2007 @ 10:11
I came to WoW from Lineage as well. I played them in parallel until i reached lvl 20 in WoW, then i dropped Lineage. I agree with your comparison on some points, except : “shame that you can’t see the battle- and chat-log at the same time (at least I don’t know how)”.
you have the 2 tabs, Chat and Combat log on the bottom left of your screen. You left click the Combat log tab and drag it, let`s say, on top of the chat log. There ya go! Also I suggest changing the combat log text to the smallest size so you can see more.
Riipa said,
Wednesday, 12 December 2007 @ 10:22
Hey Dude, just want to correct you in one point: you actually CAN see battle- and chat-log at the same time. Just drag and drop the window anywhere on your UI. Yes, it’s THAT simple.
You can even create own chat-windows for instance a window just for whispers.
By the way: Blizzards is delivering a lot of new material for free. Since the release of TBC they released 3 new instances (10 to 25 players) , stuff like the daily quests (you’ll for sure love this easy way to pay your repair and flasks without killing tons of monsters in about 45 levels!) and lots of other stuff. Just keep playing and you’ll see for yourself.
Cu!
warcraftonline said,
Wednesday, 12 December 2007 @ 10:37
Thank you both for your comment… I’ll check it out as soon as I get the opportunity to play WoW again.
Roland said,
Sunday, 30 December 2007 @ 12:59
i think youve been very mistaken. in lineage2 they wont attack you 90% of the time because your name will go red which takes a while to get rid of and when u die ppl are afraid of losing their items and getting pk counts. ive never been killed except for a famour pker (madpker) and i dont teleport to otther cities much i walk there so ican train.
and there are raidbosses if u get annoyed by the grind which give about 50% on average in exp.
warcraftonline said,
Sunday, 30 December 2007 @ 2:06
@Roland: I agree with you when it comes to the possibility of doing raids to gain xp but MY experience with PK’s was like I mentioned it already in my post. I got attacked very often and even when I didn’t fight back (which flagged them red) I got killed often enough. Another trick they used not to get flagged is to wait until you attack a mob, then they just joined the mob attacking you without any punishment. Furthermore I’ve experienced it quite often that they healed the mob I was attacking or just buffed it. Actually it doesn’t really matter what you and I experienced in L2 because in WoW you can just join a PvE server and then it’s impossible to get attacked by other players if you don’t want to :-)!
But thanks for your comment by the way ;-).
Silenia said,
Wednesday, 19 March 2008 @ 3:28
Well I love the fact that everyone stated their personal oppinion w/o posting this game>that game. I have to ask warcraftonline, if you played L2 on the oficial servers and how long ago? Because privates aren’t even near to the real thing.
I played WoW on an EU server: Burning Steppes - I got a lvl 60 n.elf Rogue.
Currently I’m playing L2 on Franz [EU server]. - 5x Plains walker
I enjoy playing L2 more then WoW because of the PvP system. I see WoW as beeing REALLY imbalanced in some cases [e.g. warlock, warrior]. As for the PvE, well thumbs up for WoW: the instances are great, the quests are worthy. I dislike the fact that you can find quest guides, the instances are like some paralell universe since it’s impossible for groups to meet inside and for the possibility to boost newbies with high lvled chars. On the other hand, in L2, I don’t see the grinding in a bad way: starting lvl 6x full buffed parties are awesome. Epic raids, the cursed swords, the dino islands are some of the welcomed challenges that NcSoft can offer in PvE.
And one more thing, in WoW you can make it to the top lvl w/o a guild. In my opinion having a guild in WoW is like having a friends list, you have no other benefit.
warcraftonline said,
Wednesday, 19 March 2008 @ 4:10
Hi Silenia and thanks for your comment!
I played L2 on a private server (Infinity –> Dragon Network) between September 2006 until August 2007. At first it was still C4 client and in the end C5 with all its features. I can very much imagine that the official servers are a lot better than private ones but the leveling took already ages on my server (x3 rates)… I don’t even wanna think about taking three times as long ;-)! In the end I had two chars: one lvl 61 Dark Elf Phantom Ranger and one lvl 58 Human Paladin.
In WoW tanking is just a lot more complex and fun than in L2, where you just gotta press one, max two, buttons as often as possible ;-). This way it’s also more of a challenge and good for long term motivation in my opinion.
Could be that L2 is better suited for PvP players than WoW but for me (as a total PvE fan) this advantage is totally irrelevant :-). But I must say that L2 seemed very imbalanced too back in my days. Either your were a Necromancer (which totally owned) or you played any kind of archer.
I don’t really know what you mean with finding quest guides for WoW but if you refer to web sites… well, they’re dozens for L2 too :-).
Boosting is something which can be done in every game L2 or WoW. This is just something everyone gotta decide for himself… I don’t like it while some others love it.
Well actually in my opinion a guild is a kind of club of friends… so I don’t really see the bad thing in that :-). If the lvl difference is too great (L2 and WoW) they can’t really help you that much but if you’re more or less on the same lvl you can lots of stuff together (again, both in both games). I don’t see the difference here to be honest.
Silenia said,
Wednesday, 19 March 2008 @ 9:08
Let’s say that in L2 you have a 76 archer and a lvl 40 buffer. The buffer won’t receive experience at all. Also if a high lvled char will try to help out a lowbie group with a raid, he will be petrified [unable to move].
I’m sorry to say this, but dragon net doesn’t even have the c4 files. Proof? You could subclass and have the skills of both classes at the same time. That’s not how it was ment to be. And i’m pretty sure the skill formulas were pretty much outdated.
Yes in c4 there was a major imbalance.
Regarding guild/clans: well in case you haven’t been reading de patch notes, a clan in L2 can offer some unique passive skills, clan armors and by having a 2 way war the exp penalty when dieing is reduced. But i guess in WoW there is no point in adding bonuses for beeing in a guild because wars are only available between the 2 factions and there is no exp loss, ever. :]
I hope you at least play WoW on the official, cause you’ll surely be missing out the good stuff as you did with L2. Oh, speaking of PvE you should take a look at Aion.
Peace
warcraftonline said,
Thursday, 20 March 2008 @ 9:39
It’s true that after a certain lvl difference the lower char won’t get any xp in L2 but like I said, I’m never using this method anyway ;-).
Even though Dragon had subclasses, which are really great imo, the rest was genuine C4. But of course you’re right: an original server would most likely have been much more fun!
I leveled both of my L2 chars without any clan, so this is also possible in L2 (at least until lvl 61) :-). The other thing about the armors and passive skills is really great on the other hand… didn’t know that. About the reduced penalty for dying while at war: well, I hate PvP anyway so this is not really useful for me if I could choose a sole PvE server ;-).
Don’t worry, I’m enjoying WoW on an official server: Doomhammer EU.
I like WoW that much that’s even worth paying for :P!
Belfegor said,
Thursday, 21 August 2008 @ 4:05
Well…. guys I read your disscusion and i have to say i agree with 90% of the said… But there are things i disagree with and i am gonna state them here:
1) The grinding… well its true that L2 is a grinders paradise but there are alot of things that help you level without grind and as it was stated there are bosses, there is primeavil isle. And after Interlude there are alot of places where grinding isn’t so booring at all…
2) The PvP… Well L2 is famous for its balanced PvP where skill is the thing you need not the right class… coes in L2 pretty much every class is a PvP chalenger…. Its true that before The 4th Chronicle: Scions of Destiny the PvP was unbalanced and a guy with the right character could have killied almost anybody in the game… But if you can show me one server that is C4 and still uses the old PvP system i wll say “OK its unbalanced” but for now L2 is the PvP master.
3) Well… here I will discuss the thing nobody actually talked about here - graphics… and i think that L2 is “grinding” WoW in the ground with its graphics as L2 is one of the best Graphically designed MMORPG’s.
Well thats about it for now… everything else is discussed here and there is no need for me to repeat it.
P.S. I know i sound like an L2 fan and I am but what i have said here is not provoked by that its all true
warcraftonline said,
Thursday, 21 August 2008 @ 4:33
@Belfegor
Thank you very much for your comment!
But I gotta correct you about something :-). I DID mention the beautiful graphics in L2. May I quote myself on this :-): “gorgeous dark and realistic looking graphics (if you don’t count the female dwarf)”.
Even though I totally prefer WoW over L2, it’s true that the graphics in L2 are by far better and more realistic than in WoW… there’s no denying it ;-).
Also I must admit that all my experiences are based on L2 Chronicles 4, so there might have been so many changes that L2 got a lot better by now… I don’t know.