Summoners Guide

Lineage 2 (L2) Summoner Guide (Version 1.9.4 - Final)
Table of Contents: 01. Legal Stuff 02. Introduction 03. General Gameplay 04. Weapons and Armor 05. Skills 06. Tattoos 07. Consumables 08. Hunting Grounds 09. Organizing Parties 10. PvP as a Summoner 11. 2-Boxing as a Summoner 12. Quests Appendix: A - Comparison between Classes B - Spellbook Listing C - Chaotic Throne 1 - Age of the Summoner D - F.A.Q. (Frequently asked Questions) E - Version History F - Final Notes
01. Legal Stuff This guide is my own handy work, no information was taken from any other websites and it is based on my experience with playing various Summoner classes for years. It is hosted on and belongs to the opengamer.org network. You may link to it directly, but not copy any information given here and claim it as your own. Also, this document is for personal use only, please do not use it to make money out of it (I wonder how it would be possible, but eh, legal notes, you know)! Disclaimer: I do not own NCSoft, Lineage 2 or anything related to the company or the game and thus, cannot be made responsible for "official" issues with the game. I am just a fan and a player and this guide is supposed to help other people enjoy or understand the game better - there is no guarantee though. Thanks to: Padhamahadhi for Beta-reading and fixing my mistakes. Kim, Paradoxxy and John for contacting me and asking some interesting questions which I added to the F.A.Q. in some way. Calaire for contacting me and pointing to a missing detail in the Weapons and Armor section. Back to Top
02. Introduction Welcome to my little guide about Summoners in Lineage 2. It is supposed to be a general guide for no class especially, you can find a lot of information here that suits all the Summoner classes in L2. I wrote this guide because I could rarely find information about Summoners in L2 generally on the web. Often those few guides that I found were incomplete or held partially wrong information. Also, advice or hints given in forums are often lacking information or are just wrong. You may wonder how you can write a guide about all Summoners in general without being specific on a certain class. Well it's really easy, because all the Summoners in L2 differ only in appearance, some key features and spells. The way of playing is the same among all of them. So what you get in this guide should make you happy with either of the races, it doesn't matter if you choose to be Darkelf, Elf or Human. I do not say that this guide is the only solution and the ultimate wisdom. It is a personal view, but gives every interested player important information and I will always try to explain advantages and disadvantages. It is also a source for those players who want to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of these classes, for whatever reasons. Please note that I do not support this document any longer and won't answer questions about summoners anymore. That doesn't mean that the legal notes above aren't correct anymore, of course they still are. Everything important to start up as a summoner is included here and i suggest you to read things carefully. But, you are invited to visit my LiveJournal, where I wrote down my path as a Phantom Summoner on server Devianne (levels 1-56), maybe you find some interesting hints there or you could probably see it as a useful addition to this guide (german language skills required). Back to Top
03. General Gameplay So you are interested in playing a Summoner? Well, then I hope you don't mind leveling solo for quite some time, because this is what you will do if you don't have very good friends or a nice clan who pick you up into parties regularly. No, you don't have to solo as a Summoner. That's a widely spread rumor and a very bad one. Summoners are definitely worth to be picked up in parties. Beast Shots make their servitors hit as hard as (or even harder than) other melee classes, their party cubics make it easier to deal with enemies of every type and Summoners can support other players greatly. Unfortunately to you as a Summoner: no one knows and no one wants to know. No matter how much you tell people that you are a party-beast, be prepared for being refused, because no one considers you a real damage dealer. This fact is not only sad and fascinating at the same time, but also paradox. Because the Summoner is the only class which is able to solo up to level 80 completely alone without sitting for too long waiting for MP to regenerate, without buffers, healers, 2boxes, bots or whatever most players in Lineage 2 nowadays consider being "necessary" to level up at all. Once, when I asked for a party as a Summoner, a gladiator told me that I should go solo, because I do not deal enough damage for being into a party. I laughed at him. How can a class solo permanently even in the highest levels but not dealing enough damage for a party? Naa, guys, that doesn't make sense. Summoners don't take hours to beat a single mob, they do better than most classes and you will see why. But first, a few notes about your way up to higher levels: You will have to go through an entirely different "type" of playing on your way to a Summoner. During the first 39 levels, until you can finally change your class and actually start to play, you will have to play as a pure nuker, since your most powerful and useful weapons are attack spells. I don't want to say too much about the times that you will spend struggling with No-Grades and D-Grades. Just get yourself some equipment (it doesn't really matter too much if you get top Grade tunics and weapons, because you can blast away green mobs pretty fast with almost everything), start hunting and wait til you get high enough. There is no need to use your servitors during levels 20-39, for several reasons: first, they stay for max 4 hours and then it takes 6 hours until you can resummon. Second, your servitors are yet comparably weak, because you don't want to spend Adena for the relatively expensive Beastshots in D-Grades. So don't even think of this playstyle yet. (You can "try out" of course, to get a feeling, but that's about it) At level 40, the real fun starts. You are able to resummon your servitors instantly and Beastshots are now becoming tasty. You start to get some nice Buffs which make your servitor stronger in one or the other way and which are essential for your ability to solo, so always keep your servitor buffed. Until level 48 around, you will maybe continue nuking to support the damage of your summon, but after this, your spells will fail a lot and it's not worth considering magic attacks of the old wizard days anymore. Instead, focus on your cubics and start hitting the mobs with a melee weapon, while your servitor tanks for you by doing the first hit. But don't think of yourself as a damage dealer, that is a mistake often done by new Summoner players. You want to hit fast, to trigger your cubic's spells more often, not to do damage. The more you advance in levels, the weaker you become and the stronger your servitor becomes, so use your weakness for your advantage by choosing the right weapons and tattoos (see more about this below in the appropriate sections of this guide). Also, don't use Soulshots for your Weapon, but get a few Spiritshots for stronger heals and additional casting speed. Honestly, you will live on the less expensive side of leveling if you let your servitor do the main job. That's what it is there for. Note: A Summoner, even if originally from the wizard class, is not a wizard or a damage dealer of any type himself. Your servitor is (in most cases) a melee damage dealer and you are it's buffer, healer, recharger and supporter through cubics. If you think of yourself (meaning your toon) as being the one who has to do the damage, choose another class! Don't think of your servitor as of just a pet which runs after you and looks nice (although it can do that). You and the servitor are the class together. Back to Top
04. Weapons and Armor Summoners do want their cubics to blast as often as possible and get the best out of the Crystals which are used to summon them. You should know that the firing rate of cubics (but not the cubic's recast delay) depends on the attack speed of the Summoner. The faster you hit a mob, the more early your cubic's effect will trigger. Knowing this, you will want to use a weapon that is entitled "Very Fast" or at least "Fast". Of course you can go for just any weapon you want, but as long as you want your cubics to react, don't bother with two-handed or other slow weapons. Daggers, Fist weapons or perhaps Duals are usually known to be good for Summoners (there are huge Discussions about Duals and Summoners - I don't want to pick them up here). Since you won't do any real damage compared to your servitor, you don't really need a top-Grade weapon or even SoulShots for yourself. Get something which is cheap and quick to support your summon, but let it (and the cubics) do the work for you. Trust me, even with a top-Grade, fairly overenchanted weapon and Shot-usage, you will deal way less damage than your servitor and it's a complete waste of Adena, carrying weight and time. Oh and one last thing: forget about bows. NCSoft made Spellcasting while using bows extremely slow, so you won't be able to heal your servitor in a critical situation while using a bow, which is much more important than trying to hit the mob by yourself (and probably pulling aggro on you with this behaviour). The Armor selection is not a problem for a Summoner. You won't take many hits, your servitor draws all the hate usually, so you can stick to robes in the everyday grind. Since you get higher Robe Mastery Skills than Light Armor Mastery, this is a decent solution. The features of a Robe are important for you. You want to be able to react fast and give your servitor a quick heal before you continue supporting with hitting a mob. So casting speed is essential, forget about all which don't give you percentages on cast speed and/or a plus on the WIT Attribute. So in C-Grades you will most likely want to wear Karmian, in B-Grades Blue Wolf or Avadon (where BW is the better Set overall, +3 WIT is worth more than a fixed 15%), in A-Grades and higher you will maybe go for either a Tallum or Dark Crystal Tunic Set, because these both give a 15% Bonus and a plus on WIT. Tallum or Dark Crystal are not the only solution however, also Majestic can work for Summoners - it depends on what bonuses you want from your favorite set (and of course what fashion you prefer). See PvP Armor suggestions below in the PvP Section. A note about Shields: your natural Shield defense rate as a Summoner is horribly low, so it almost never makes a difference if you have one with you or not. If mobs or players are really going for you, the one succeeded defense out of a dozen taken hits will not save you. If you do not play with an Elven Elder, Prophet or Overlord of your Clan/Alliance regularly (the only classes which can raise your Shield defense rate via buffs), then you should consider going without one. This will save you a nice amount of carrying weight for having more shots and supplies with you. Back to Top
05. Skills All I want to say in this section is: choose your skills carefully from the beginning. There is absolutely no need to take any skills that you don't get skill levels for after having done the class change quests for your Summoner class (you can check the full skills listing of all classes on the official Lineage 2 website). Passive Skills you can always take, they will be fine, but the only real spell that you may be able to cast later on is wind shackle, so don't bother with any active skills other than those for your servitor or those that you badly need to level up until you are 40. Leave them in the list, you will save a sweet amount of SP and make your growing easier. At levels 40 and above you may want to leave Light Armor Mastery alone, since you won't need it if you wear Robes every day. It depends on your personal taste, style and if you want to PvP in the future or not, but just for grinding, Light Armor is not needed at all. You may take this skill later in the highest levels. And where I am talking about it: if you don't intend to PvP and are low on SP, leave the Betray Skill alone as well or just take it later in higher levels. There is no use for it in PvE. Back to Top
06. Tattoos Your Tattoos should optimize your general playstyle as a Summoner. Let's summarize: you want attack speed to trigger your cubics and you want casting speed to summon/buff/heal very fast. The DEX attribute is responsible for Attack Speed, Running Speed, Accuracy, Critical Chance and Evasion. You really want all of this. So you will most likely get yourself a +4 DEX Tattoo and lower your STR attribute in exchange for two reasons: first, the higher you get in level, the less damage you will deal to mobs personally (whereas your servitor deals more and more), so you don't need STR. Second, your CON attribute is bad enough already and you can not carry much, so you won't want to make the situation worse. The other big deal is the WIT attribute, which is responsible for casting Speed. Adding a +5 (choose one +3 Tattoo and one +2 Tattoo, because this combination is a lot cheaper than a +4 and +1 combination!) adds roughly between 25 and 40 percent casting speed, depending on your race. Since the game still treats you like a wizard class (actually you are more healer and supporter than anything else), you can happily lower INT for this, which is responsible for your magic attack power. No, doing this won't lower the power of your servitor-heals significantly, nor will it effect the buffs or recharges in any way. Lowering MEN would result in lower MP and MP Regeneration Speed and a lower Resistance against magic attacks, that's what you don't want. Alternatives: of course what I mentioned above is my personal taste and style (and the way I use to play because it is most effective on long-time-grinds in my eyes). If you want to try being a damage dealer who helps the servitor with some secondary damage output, you can go for a +str/+dex/-con combination instead of -str/+dex (or any combination you can think of), wielding an overanchanted, shot-powered top-Grade weapon or even using a bow. You can try anything you want, there is no way I will tell you "this or that is ridiculous and won't work in any way" but always keep in mind that your carrying weight is greatly limited and so is your ability to carry shots for both your servitor and yourself, that your servitor is (not because I tell you so, but because the game is designed that way) supposed to do the main job of killing and that you - even with a few tattoos - are by far not a damage dealer like melee classes. Another alternative could be lowering your MEN attribute instead of INT if you want to increase the chances to land your Wind Shackle spell on other players during PvP. I don't recommend doing this for PvE though, most mobs have not a high enough mdef to resist Wind Shackle, when it is casted while using spiritshots. Hint: if you are low on Adena, consider visiting the Magic Shop in Giran. You can for example buy -5/+4 Dyes for your tattoos there which cost way less than the -4/+4 Dyes which you can only get from the Merchant of Mammon. Especially for you as a Summoner these Dyes are tasty, because lowering STR and INT for one point more doesn't make a difference at all to you. Back to Top
07. Consumables In this section I want to talk about the expensive stuff. Greater Swift Attack Potion, Greater Magic Haste Potion, Greater, Greater, Greater... When you go soloing, you don't need this. The cheap stuff from the grocery store is always fine. Think about it: a Magic Haste Potion adds 15% to your Casting Speed, a Greater Magic Haste Potion 23%, that's a difference of only 8%, but you will pay 4-5 times the price (or more, depending on the market situation on your server). Same to the other potions. For soloing as a Summoner, that's completely not worth it. If you got an invite to a party, you can still reconsider or gladly take buffs from a prophet, but while soloing, you should use the cheap potions. It's definitely not worth throwing away such a huge amount of Adena for these few % more. I mentioned them before briefly, the little things that should save you a lot of Adena: Beastshots. There are both Soulshots and Spiritshots for Beasts which you can buy from the Pet Manager of every town and which work for both "regular" pets and servitors. There is a disadvantage of course: you have to carry them in your own Inventory all the time, your servitors can not carry any items, so be careful with your weight gauge and buy what's really needed on your grind. Compared to Shots for Character Weapons in B-Grades and up, they are cheap and the best of it: the price doesn't rise over time just because you change equipment or become higher level. It will always stay the same, so on your way up you will farm more and more money but spend a constant stream of Adena for Shots. Now that's good news, isn't it? The number of Beastshots used per hit by your servitor will rise as you gain levels, but in affordable ranges. What I told you above is not a way to make you rich in the game. Trust me, you won't be, for one simple reason: Crystals. You will need tons of D- and C-Crystals to keep your servitors and cubics fighting for you and if you are not in the lucky situation to be at least a reroller with items to crystalize or if you don't have a sponsor or the luck to have gotten a huge number of full drops, you will struggle hard to have enough Crystals during your entire summonerlife. Always keep that in mind. Don't waste your Adena on superexpensive stuff that only serves the greed of other players and you will be fine. Here is a hint for all Summoners who are short on Adena and know an Artisan/Warsmith who they can trust fully: keep an eye on NPC weapon/armor shops and buy weapons or armors there when they are cheap (prices may vary depending on the Tax taken by the Castle owner). Then let the Artisan/Warsmith crystalize the items and get the crystals back from him. Depending on the market situation of your server, you can save up to around 150 Adena per crystal that way (and you know, since you need a fantastillion crystals on your way up, the total amount of Adena saved is huge)! On all servers, players sell D-Crystals over NPC price like everything else, but you definitely don't have to buy from them, because you can get them by crystalizing. Visit the official Lineage 2 site for info about how many crystals you obtain for a certain item, then check the price in the NPC shop and do the math. A Note about carrying weight: Only take as many Scroll of Escape, Potions and other things that have any weight with you to a grinding session that you really need, in order to be able to carry more shots. If you, for example, can play only for 2 hours a day, it makes no sense to carry 50 Potions of each type and 10 SoE. You will only need 6 pots for the 2 hours (and 2 more in case you die or get buff-removed) and one or two scrolls (in case you want to be able to help out another person). When you go back to town, restock at the grocery and prepare for the next round, that should take you only 2 minutes. Back to Top
08. Hunting Grounds Basically, you have two choices: Catacombs and Necropolises, or not. You can do fine in Catas and Necros, but if you solo there without an additional buffer or damage dealer, choose the smaller 4-mob rooms instead of pulling from the big ones. It is easy to clean out 4 mobs and then wait for the respawn while doing some necessary healings, rebuffs or resummonings. The exp may be a bit more slow compared to the killing in soloing areas, but you are definitely able to get Seal Stones completely solo! And the best of this strategy: Small rooms are often ignored by bots or regular players, so you can level and farm without being bothered for a long time. When you play in soloing areas or regions with mobs that have x2 HP or higher, make your life easier by taking care of the following two simple rules: first, don't fight crowds of magic users or archers, they hurt just too much and give you an MP drain when you have to heal a lot. Second, avoid mobs with stun ability, because that effect can give your servitor (and therefore you) a hard time if it lasts long, because your servitor will stand still, doing nothing, while taking hits and sucking your MP for nothing. Always remember: HP is what keeps you alive, but MP is what keeps you going on! Note: when you play in soloing areas, you and your servitor will share the herbs which are picked up by you. This means, both you and your servitor will recieve the effect, but it will last for only one minute on both of you. Back to Top
09. Organizing Parties What I will tell you in this section is (as always) my personal view. If your ideas or taste differ from what is written here, walk your own path. Just always keep two simple things in mind: first, you are a one-(wo)man-party and you can handle absolutely everything alone if you need to. Second: based on this thought, you can add absolutely every class to your party that you think it can fit your personal style, it can work out. The most important thing that you should be aware of: you will most likely not be invited to parties in the first place because other players are often prejudiced against Summoners, so you will want to create your own. As a general idea of a party where you are the leader and aim for something big (e.g. Tower of Insolence, 8-mob Catacomb rooms, Imperial Tomb entrance, etc.), you will want to keep it comparably small. Adding a Buffer/Healer and one or two powerful melee damage dealers is often the perfect solution. Both your servitor and the melee players will be able to play meatshield (often misunderstood as "tanking", but there are differences) without major problems. Also, duo-ing or even having a party with a bigger number of other Summoners can be a great experience, give it a try! You will be impressed how powerful a Summoner-Party can be. (This counts also for a Dark Avenger with his Cat - in combination they can do awesome damage!) In bigger parties, you will want to act as a pure damage dealer through your servitor while you support other party members with party cubics or spamming Battle Heal, if the main Healer is getting low on MP. The nice fact about party cubics is that the firing rate of each cubic will depend on the current cubic-wearing toon, not your own. So you can lean back and enjoy watching your servitor and all the nice little cubics do the work for you. What may give you a harder time is adding Nukers or Archers to your party. They do great damage of course, but that's also why they will aggro mobs quite often. If you and the Nuker/Archer become a good team and your mate is not too trigger-happy but waits until your servitor has hit the mob 2 or 3 times in order to get enough aggro until he shoots, it should be fine though. Just stay away from pure Nuker- or Archer-Parties, you are almost hopelessly ineffective there. Lowest cubic firing rate and your servitor won't do many hits to mobs, so you won't be very effective in either way. There are two general things that you can always do: add a Healer/Buffer, these are easy to add and they often do a great job. Also, like you, they will probably be desperately seeking for someone to play with, so getting one of them will be easy. The other thing is adding other Summoners or melee players - you will most of the time do best with them. Even if they are sceptic first, most of them will see that playing with a Summoner is worth their time and shots. Creating parties as a Summoner is always fun. You can try out different combinations and teach people "by doing" that you are by far not playing a useless class. You will get a lot of friendinvites once you start making parties and get to play with the good people again. As mentioned before, these are just personal views, so if you want a real advice: go out and try for yourself. There is no ultimate wisdom about parties, everything can or can not work, depending on how people play and think. Back to Top
10. PvP as a Summoner This section is not about "being skilled in PvP" and does not discuss what happens if another player is an experienced PvP-player or not. The behaviour in PvP is always the key to winning or losing and if you want to make your own experiences aside from the following, general points, go out and fight someone. There is no ultimate truth about PvP and it's always about who fights how and the level difference between the toons, so don't blame me if you can't win a battle or something you have seen differs from what is written here. There is a group of classes that you can handle very well if you treat them just like another mob: the melee damage dealers and tanks. You can win against them by using your servitor and cubics, spamming heals, casting wind shackle and making early use of your Transfer Pain skill. The only thing that is complicated about PvPing as a Summoner against melees is that you have to take care of two HP bars instead of one. Fighting healers is easy up to 56, because they have nothing to throw against your summon, but at 56 they get the erase spell, which - if lands - de-summons your servitor and you will have to face the healer alone from then on (you won't have much time to recast a summon spell if you get hit). Mostly, this is where you probably lose the battle, because a healer can buff himself and will be slightly more powerful than you, but again, it depends on how good both of you are and who acts better. Against Nukers and Archers, you will most likely lose. There is not much you can do against their powerful range attacks, but if you are lucky with spamming heals at the right time and using CP potions quickly, your servitor may be able to take them down before you die. PvP against another Summoner is very hard up to 56, because both of you will most likely try to send the servitor directly against the Summoner, using Transfer Pain and spamming heals. It's only a matter of time until one of you changes tactics slightly or does a little mistake that leads to death. From 56 on it's a sheer matter of luck who turns the enemy's servitor against him first with the Betray Skill. Fighting not only the servitor of your enemy but your own as well is impossible to survive. To summarize this, there is nothing that you definitely can not fight and where you stand no chances, but it's always tough if your enemy knows how to handle his class well. It will always depend on whether you can effectively use skills, your servitor and if either of you has buffs, a partner in battle or whatever can happen during the fight. All I can say besides the things above is, stay calm, use what you have, learn your class and also what the other classes can do and you will always stand a fair chance. A Note about Armors in PvP: You may want to exchange Robes for Light Armor in PvP (probably Dark Crystal or Tallum), in order to take less damage, but besides siege there is rarely a chance that you can tell your opponent "Hey, wait a second, got to change clothes before we start!", so either just deal with what you have or make compromises while leveling - for example if your Clan is at war. Where I talk about it... if you are at war or have to deal with Player Killers, Bots or just Jerks quite often, it's a good idea to always have your PvP servitor out and buffed, when you are on your way to hunting grounds, to your party or just outside of Town to finish a quest (Transfer Pain activated of course). By taking only one D-Crystal for full 4 hours of protection this should definitely be worth it, especially in higher levels, where farming back the lost exp or waiting for Clan/Alliance members to resurrect you costs you more than just one D-Crystal. One last thing to mention: your servitor is still able to attack even if you are asleep, stunned or dead meat on the floor. So even if you lose a battle, your servitor - if still alive - always has the chance to take bittersweet revenge! Back to Top
11. 2-Boxing as a Summoner In this Section I won't tell you how to 2-Box or which class is the ultimate for you to use as a buff-pet. I want to discuss the options that you have if you decide to 2-Box. First of all, it's not a very good idea to 2-Box at all when you are a Summoner, for three simple reasons: first, you already have two toons under your control and that takes a lot of attention if you are not completely used to it (Yes I know, there are people out there with no life and 5 Computers which actually play 5 toons at once, but I try to not think of these "specialists" in this guide - they wouldn't play as a Summoner anyway). Second, since you already have the most important buffs for letting your servitor fight for you, there is not such a desperate "need" to have a buffer running behind you all the time like for other classes. Third, you will be one more player who makes other people, who enjoy playing buffers and/or healers, stop playing because you are one more person who never invites one and therefore make "actively played" buffer/healer classes much more rare than they already are. But let's say you really want to 2-Box, whyever. The standard solution, having a Shillien Elder behind your Summoner, is not a bad one. Offensive Buffs like Focus etc. and Vampiric Rage really can do the difference and you get Empower, which may be interesting when you are forced into a PvP battle or even want to join an AoE Group. Some people may think that a Prophet is a better solution, but in my opinion other buffs that you get in exchange for Vampiric Rage and Empower, don't give you a real advantage. Let's face it: Haste is the Buff that is the main reason (I don't say the only one, calm down you Prophet-only geeks :P ) why you have a Prophet as a 2-Box, so you don't have to buy Potions all the time. But all Summoners can Haste their servitor themselves already, so no big deal there. The real advantage that you may get through a Prophet is Berserker Spirit, Bless the Body and Greater Might. Another Buffer often underestimated is the Elven Elder. If you want to wear Shields or not, it got all the range of defensive Buffs for you and your servitor. If you don't like PvP, you can always get out quick with Party Return and it is the perfect assistance Healer for your servitor when you want to concentrate on assisting it and letting your cubics fire. Note: in some areas where Mobs use Stun or Poison, the Elven Elder can buff you nice resistances against these effects which can make your life easier. And as a last, often completely forgotten effect: it provides the Buff Decrease Weight, which allows you to carry way more shots and supplies without penalties. Let's forget the Overlord, it's buffs are definitely the worst solution as a 2-Box for a Summoner, even though it's huge debuff abilities may be interesting. The only really positive things here are the equivalents to Berserker Spirit and Guidance. More interesting to you should be the Warcryer. It provides the equivalents of Haste, Vampiric Rage, Acumen and a lot of other offensive buffs that you may want. It is nice for assisting your heals and it also can - if you really care - wield a weapon effectively and do some nice damage assisting the servitor. Back to Top
12. Quests The one thing that you learn from other players early in the game is: quests are boring, quests are stupid, quests keep you away from grinding. To people who have lots of Adena and can spend them to keep themselves leveling up at max speed, that's probably true (and in case of the class transfer quests even more, because these send you around and cost more than they give you). But there is another side of the coin. For Summoners who solo a lot and have to keep an eye on their Adena very closely, nearly all quests can be a huge help. In this section I will not tell you what quests to take and where to level in order to be most efficient, but I want to discuss your options. You should consider visiting the official Lineage 2 website for more information or a website which provides guides, like stratics. There are two types of quests. One-timers and repeatables. One-timers often have a fixed reward that you get when you finish it, but sometimes, their outcome is so poor that you may think it's not even worth the teleport costs to the target place. In this case, keep an eye open for other one-timers or repeatables which are unlocked only after finishing this quest, it may be worth it. The rewards of one-timers can vary a lot, you may get Adena, materials, complete items, XP or even SP. Repeatables are the ones which you can take and return to the NPC anytime and go on with it until you are too high level for it. Usually, in mid-levels, these quests give you extra adena for the mobs that you killed, but in later levels they become almost necessary if you want to earn key materials for armors or weapons. Consider this when you leave town for grinding and take all quests that you can have in your level range with you (max. amount of quests that you can have at once is 25). If you are prepared for places all around Aden, you will be surprised how much more you can get out of the game. And one last personal note: to me, quests were an excellent way of keeping me busy and always have targets on my way up. With the quests I used, I didn't even notice when I leveled up, I earned lots of stuff to sell, had ways to go and (what might be not interesting to you but was for me) learned about the history/background story of the game, which actually was fun (unbelievable, eh?). Back to Top
Appendix A - Comparison between Classes In this comparison Section I will not judge any type of Summoner. All have advantages which can be used effectively both while soloing and in parties. I will just list the unique Skills, servitors and Cubics of every Summoner Class and explain what they do. The choice is yours. Note that Necromancers, Dark Avengers and Warsmiths also can summon certain types of Creatures, but they are not considered pure Summoners because their playstyle doesn't rely on their servitors entirely, so I will concentrate on the "pure" Summoners. The numbers given in brackets are the Character Levels at which the according summoning Skill becomes available. Warlock (Human, summons different catlike Creatures) Servitors Mew the Cat (20) - Takes 90% of exp. May cast a Windstrike spell. Kat the Cat (20) - Takes 30% of exp. May recharge it's Master. Kai the Cat (40) - Takes 10% of exp. Reflects 20% of received damage. Queen of Cat (56) - Takes 5% of exp. May use Party-Spells: Blessing of Queen - increases crit chance and atk speed. Gift of Queen - increases patk and accuracy. Cure of Queen - Cures Party members from status effects. Cubics Storm Cubic (40) - casts a Windstrike spell on the target. Binding Cubic (40) - chance to paralyze the target for some time. Note: "Mass Summon Storm Cubic" is the party cubic version. Unique Skills Servitor Wind Walk (35) - enhances the running speed of the servitor. Elemental Summoner (Elf, summons different Unicorns) Servitors Unicorn Mirage (20) - Takes 90% of exp. May cast a Windstrike spell. Unicorn Boxer (20) - Takes 30% of exp. May recharge it's Master. Unicorn Merrow (40) - Takes 10% of exp. May cast an AoE water damage spell. Unicorn Seraphim (56) - Takes 5% of exp. May use Party-Spells: Blessing of Seraphim - decreases skill reuse timer. Gift of Seraphim - increases MP recovery rate of party members. Cure of Seraphim - Cures Party members from status effects. Cubics Aqua Cubic (40) - casts a water based spell which deals damage over time. Life Cubic (40) - Heals the Summoner or a party member. Note: "Mass Summon Aqua Cubic" is the party cubic version. Unique Skills Bright Servitor (35) - increases matk of the servitor. Phantom Summoner (Darkelf, summons different Ghostlike Creatures) Servitors Silhouette (20) - Takes 90% of exp. May drain HP from the target. Shadow (20) - Takes 30% of exp. Regenerates 15% of dealt damage to own HP. Soulless (40) - Takes 10% of exp. May use AoE spells: Toxic Cloud - AoE Poison damage effect. Parasite Burst - Makes a corpse explode for AoE damage. Nightshade (56) - Takes 5% of exp. May use certain Spells: Curse of Shade - uses Aggression and decreases pdef and mdef. Wide Curse of Shade - see above, but this spell is an AoE effect. Sacrifice of Shade - uses own HP to heal the target of its master. Cubics Phantom Cubic (40) - chance to lower patk, patk speed or pdef of the target. Spark Cubic (40) - chance to stun the target. Note: "Mass Summon Phantom Cubic" is the party cubic version. Unique Skills Mighty Servitor (35) - increases patk of the servitor. Back to Top
B - Spellbook Listing The following list may be useful to all Summoner players who wonder where to get the spellbooks for their class. I will list the books here which are available by killing mobs and making them drop the according books only. The list provides the skill name (the level at which the skill becomes available in brackets), the mob name (the mob level in brackets) and the mob location. Note two things: first, you may not be able to solo every mob as soon as a skill becomes available and if you play entirely solo and cannot spend lots of Adena for buying them from other players, you will have to wait long times until you can go get them yourself - but if you do so, you will be even more satisfied, because you did everything by yourself and that's a great feeling. Second, some of the spellbooks needed in the 50ish levels drop from low 40ish mobs, so you better get those early. Spellbooks used by all Summoners: Servitor Cure (40), Vault Priest (47) Worshippers Necropolis Servitor Physical Shield (40), Liele (46), Enchanted Valley (lower level) Transfer Pain (40), Giant Fungus (40), Sea of Spores Servitor Haste/Magic Shield (44), Fline Elder (51), Enchanted Valley (upper level) Servitor Empowerment (52), Vault Priest (47) Worshippers Necropolis Betray (56), Massive Maze Bandersnatch (54), Frozen Labyrinth Summon Friend (56), not a drop, check the Magic Shop in Goddard Servitor Blessing (62), Crypt Sage (62), Necropolis of Devotion Final Servitor (78), Forgotten Ancient People (77), Silent Valley Spellbooks used by Warlocks / Arcana Lords only: Mass Summon Storm Cubic (40), Gigant Raider (39), Pilgrims Necropolis Summon Binding Cubic (40), Hatu Windsus (40), Bee Hive Summon Storm Cubic (40), Manashen Gargoyle (40), Ivory Tower pit (north) Summon Kai the Cat (40), Liangma (49), Cruma Tower (level 2) Summon Feline Queen (56), Farhite (39), Field of Whispers (Heine) Mass Surrender to Fire (58), Frost Tarantula (58), Frozen Labyrinth Warrior Servitor (77), Forgotten Ancient People (77), Silent Valley Spellbooks used by Elemental Summoners / Elemental Masters only: Mass Summon Aqua Cubic (40), Gigant Raider (39), Pilgrims Necropolis Summon Aqua Cubic (40), Hatu Windsus (40), Bee Hive Summon Life Cubic (40), Satyr (48), Enchanted Valley (lower level) Summon Unicorn Merrow (40), Liangma (49), Cruma Tower (level 2) Summon Unicorn Seraphim (56), Farhite (39), Field of Whispers (Heine) Mass Surrender to Water (58), Frost Tarantula (58), Frozen Labyrinth Wizard Servitor (77), Forgotten Ancient People (77), Silent Valley Spellbooks used by Phantom Summoners / Spectral Masters only: Mass Summon Phantom Cubic (40), Gigant Raider (39), Pilgrims Necropolis Summon Spark Cubic (40), Hatu Windsus (40), Bee Hive Summon Phantom Cubic (40), Manashen Gargoyle (40), Ivory Tower pit (north) Summon Soulless (40), Liangma (49), Cruma Tower (level 2) Summon Nightshade (56), Grave Keeper Dark Horror (40), Pilgrims Necropolis Mass Surrender to Wind (58), Frost Iron Golem (59), Frozen Labyrinth Assassin Servitor (77), Forgotten Ancient People (77), Silent Valley Back to Top
C - Chaotic Throne 1 - Age of the Summoner The following is a loose collection of improvements that NCSoft made to the Summoners in Lineage 2 and will be updated as soon as CT1 goes live. You may have noticed that almost everyone talks about the VR nerf, which hits Pole users very hard and the Shield reinforcements for Tank classes. Sure, those are probably nice game balancers, but to be honest, I see the most interesting (and most means both in quality and in quantity!) being made to Summoners. With CT1, playing a Summoner becomes much more tasty! And here is why (note that this list is yet incomplete!): The servitor's HP/MP-bars become visible for every party member, they get an own spot in the party window right below the Summoner. Servitors can be leveled up beyond "natural max level" via Skill enchants (up to 85). A lot of Skills of servitors have been improved. For example: the AoE Poison of the Soulless now deals more damage over time. The most important change: some Servitors use up less experience of the master, when their skill level rises! (For example: a skill level 10+ Merrow Unicorn/Kai the Cat/Soulless doesn't take any exp from it's master anymore. Now that's some huge news! :D The spellbooks for the lv 79 servitors become available via Quests. Back to Top
D - F.A.Q. (Frequently asked Questions) Question: Why do my servitors take different amounts of Exp from me? Answer: The servitor which takes 90% of your exp and costs the least Crystals is considered the PvP summon. The 30% servitor is usually considered the soloing servitor and features a helpful skill for doing so. The other servitors which take 10% and less are considered party servitors, but you can even solo with them as long as you are careful with using them. Note that they not only differ in exp-sucking and skills, but also in the amount of Beastshots that they use per hit and in the amount of Crystals that you must have to summon them. Question: Which Summoner class is the right one for me? Answer: Honestly, how should I know? You may want to compare the individual cubics and the abilities of the servitors in the list above in order to find the Summoner for your favorite playstyle, the rest is just look and feel. Question: What is the "Summon Friend" Skill about that I get at level 56? Answer: If you are in a party with someone, you can use this spell to summon him directly to you, no matter where on the map he is. The person to be summoned just has to get a summoning crystal from the grocery store and place it into his inventory. This is very useful for example if the way to the party is very dangerous (for example into Imperial Tomb) or it takes a long time to get where you are (for example higher levels of Tower of Insolence - who doesn't hate to run up there?). Also, when your raid parties have gathered in front of a raid boss already and some members are late, you can just summon them. This skill will save you and your friends lots of time! Question: Why does my servitor sometimes stay only for an hour, then on another day for more than an hour? Answer: The amount of time which your servitor stays in "the world" depends on if you let it fight or not. When engaged in battle, the green bar will run out about 4 times faster than if it just stays around with you while you do anything non-fighting. The max time that it can stay is 240 minutes, the more you let it fight, the earlier you will have to resummon it. Question: Can I use any type of Soul- or Spiritshots to make my Cubics stronger? Answer: No. Cubics never use any Shots. All that you need to keep them running and doing their job is to have a certain amount of D-Crystals, which depends on the Skill Level for summoning them and to hit quickly. Question: Why does my servitor get attacked when I pass an aggro mob? Answer: Because they "naturally" produce more hate on aggro mobs than player characters. And it's good that it is so, you don't want the mob on yourself, do you? Question: When should I use my mass summon cubic skill? Answer: Basically, when you are in a big party where there are mostly fast hitting melee damage dealers included, because they are able to make their cubics trigger often. If you are just duo-ing with another Summoner, a Buffer/Healer, Nuker or Archer, or playing in a small AoE Party, you should not use them, because the effects will not be seen often and it is not worth spending so many Crystals on that. Question: How can you make Adena as a soloing Summoner? Answer: Basically, there are four (entirely legit) things which you can do for some nice Adena: first is using the manor system. Since you support your servitor with melee attacks anyway, you are close enough to the enemy in order to use Seeds and the Harvester all the time. Second, you may want to learn the market on your server and then react. Set up private Sell-Stores and give away crafting materials or other drops that you don't need for a good price. The third takes a lot of time, but is often underestimated: fishing. You don't need anything but a rod, lures and maybe fishing shots (you can get tons of them for free by taking the quest of any Fishing Guild member in a town and just hunt mobs) in order to get common crafting materials and/or proofs. A cheap way of making Adena, just takes time away from leveling if you care. The fourth is a grinding-like way of making money. Summon your PvP servitor and use it to farm green solo mobs. Question: In your List the new Interlude servitors are missing, right? Answer: That's correct, but I intentionally left them alone. First, you will get these servitors at Level 79, by then you shouldn't need a guide for playing a summoner anymore (hopefully!). Second, those servitors should not be the reason why you play a Summoner, maybe looking at them as a reward for walking a damn long road would be better. Third, I didn't get one of those servitors so far, so I don't know what exactly they can do. Since I don't want to make my guide rely on rumor found on the internet, but what I experience personally (or at least what other players show me first hand ingame), I won't give the information. It may be an interesting fact for you though that the spellbooks for the Interlude servitors drop only on Dino Island. Question: Why do I get the Ability to summon three Cubics at once at Level 56? There are only two available for my class, isn't that a waste of SP? Answer: Not at all - but yet again it depends on how you intend to play. The description of the Skill isn't very exact for Cubic Mastery Level 2. It should be something like "Ability to hold 3 cubics active at once". Keep in mind that your class is not the only one which can summon cubics. If for example a Warlock, a Phantom Summoner and an Elemental Summoner play together and all summon their party cubics, you will be one of them who is able to recieve them all at once and carry 3 floating objects above your shoulders (and fire a hell lot of damage and debuffs onto the enemy out of nothing!). Characters with no Skill Mastery Level 2 will not recieve this amount of cubics; respectively one cubic of at least the same level as another will replace a previously added one. Back to Top
E - Version History Version 1.0 © June 4th, 2007 by GraveThorn Chapters 1 through 10 completed and checked. Version 1.1 © June 5th, 2007 by GraveThorn Added a little more specific information in most chapters Fixed some spelling and grammar issues. Made the document valid HTML 4.0 Transitional. Version 1.2 © June 6th, 2007 by GraveThorn Added a little more specific information in chapters PvP and Consumables Added 11th chapter Added Appendix Section Version 1.3 © June 7th, 2007 by GraveThorn Added information in chapters hunting grounds and 2-Boxing Fixed some spelling and grammar issues Version 1.4 © June 12th, 2007 by GraveThorn Added information in Appendix Section Fixed a Skill Name mistake Version 1.4.1 © June 26th, 2007 by GraveThorn Fixed two minor Skill Name mistakes Version 1.5 © July 10th, 2007 by GraveThorn Added information in chapter Tattoos Version 1.6 © October 16th, 2007 by GraveThorn Added information in chapters Consumables, Appendix A and B Fixed a minor Skill Name mistake Version 1.6.1 - 1.6.3 © October 17th, 2007 by GraveThorn Added information in chapter Weapons and Armor Added a question to the F.A.Q. Added information in chapter PvP Version 1.6.4 © October 19th, 2007 by GraveThorn Fixed a Skill description in Appendix B Version 1.6.5 © October 24th, 2007 by GraveThorn Fixed some info in Chapter Tattoos Version 1.7 © October 25th, 2007 by GraveThorn Added information in chapters Consumables, Hunting Grounds and PvP Version 1.7.1 © October 30th, 2007 by GraveThorn Fixed an information in the F.A.Q. Version 1.8 © October 31st, 2007 by GraveThorn Added chapter 12 (Quests) and another Appendix (Spellbook Listing) Version 1.8.1 © November 1st, 2007 by GraveThorn Moved the Version History to bottom of the Document, because it became too long Version 1.9 © December 3rd, 2007 by GraveThorn Added another Appendix (Chaotic Throne 1) Version 1.9.1 © December 4th, 2007 by GraveThorn Added information to Appendix C Version 1.9.2 © December 7th, 2007 by GraveThorn Corrected the word "summon" throughout the guide and made it "servitor" Added information to chapter 6 (Tattoos) Made some minor corrections and additions throughout the guide Version 1.9.3 © February 27th, 2008 by GraveThorn Updated Appendix B - added missing Spellbooks Corrected a mistake in Appendix C Added information to the F.A.Q. Version 1.9.4 © March 6th, 2008 by GraveThorn Added Appendix F - Final Notes Made this document final, this is the last version Back to Top
Final Notes This document is considered final with version 1.9.4, because I decided to leave the game for good. After four years of Lineage 2 it's time for me to say good bye and move on. The ongoing problems in the game and NCSofts ongoing ignorance of them - first, but not only, to mention bots of course - are not the prime reason for me, but I would lie if I said they wouldn't matter at all. I wish everyone who reads this good luck inside and outside the game. To all who wonder what will happen to this document: no worries, it will remain at this place and continue to support all summoner players of Lineage 2. Back to Top