The Letters event comes to a close today, you can still submit for the next week, but the letters are no longer dropping.

You can also now purchase the 8th Aniversary support back directly in side of game rather than needing to login to the website.

Full patch notes are here: http://www.lineage2.com/en/news/maintenance/server-maintenance-may-2-2012.php

PVP: When 1v1 against a mage/healer use Silent Step to help you keep up with their blinks/pushes. The refresh time on Shadow Chase is 15 seconds, so you can’t always rely on it to cover that distance. Be sure to pop Angel of Death when the fight begins for added debuff resist, run speed, and chance to reflect paralyze your enemy. Use Throw Poison Needle to cancel casting.  Dark Paralysis is a ranged skill and in my experience doesn’t land very often. If you land it however, you will almost certainly win. You should only bother using Clone Attack if you have slowed them, or can keep them stunned. Otherwise they can easily kite your clones. Throw Dagger slows targets by 80% and crits often.

Note: Be wary of using clone around people who aren’t flagged. They force attack anyone in the vicinity including party and clan members, and you will go red if you don’t have a green name.

PVE: When mobs focus on you, there are many skills you can use to get out of it and save your healer some panic and mp. Shadow Hide is a skill all Rogue’s have. This is your go-to evasion skill because you stop taking damage instantly. It also has a relatively low cooldown time of 3 minutes.

Another is Final Ultimate Evasion. This skill has a 10 minute cooldown so you only want to use this if hide is down.

Shadow Dash is a great skill that I use often to evade mob damage. It has a quick cooldown of 60 seconds and the boost in run speed will outpace any mob you come across.

Angel of Death is a great skill to help you survive damage focus, but it is also a great asset to offense. You can stack it with Battle Rhapsody (Iss Enchanter skill) and Clone Attack. Perhaps someone can verify whether your clones do indeed inherit your buffs, because I have not been able to tell.

Please leave questions/comments. Thanks!

There are new items to be claimed in the Path to Awakening section of Lineage 2′s website! Yes, even for your awakened characters who have already claimed everything. And they’re pretty nice goody-packs to boot! NCSoft has added items to claim at both 80 and 85. Here’s what you get:

Level 80 Rewards

Armor Set Pack (S80-Grade) – 90-Day
Jewelry Set Pack (S80-Grade) – 90-Day
Weapon Set Pack (S80-Grade) – 90-Day
Nevit’s Rune 100% 3-Hour Pack
Attribute Stone Pack
Vitality Maintaining Potion (30 Minutes)
Luxury Cocktail
Mount – Darkmane Pacer 30-Day Pack
Lesser Giant’s Codex

Level 85 Rewards

Queen Ant Ring 30-Day Pack
Rune of XP 50% 5-Hour Pack
Rune of SP 50% 5-Hour Pack
Vitality Maintaining Potion (1h)
Black Gem Mask 30-Day Pack
Superior Giant’s Codex
Enchant Weapon (R-Grade)
Enchant Armor (R-Grade)
Attribute Crystal Pack
Heavenly Cocktail

Not a bad goody basket if you ask us! Be sure to claim your rewards and happy hunting from L2GC! (More to come specifically on the 8th Anniversary Celebration soon!)

Without further delay, here are the translated notes reworded to make sense in English.  If for some reason you feel there is a mistake in information please send your correction to info@l2gc.com for review.  This information may not be perfect, as translating Korean to English isn’t cut and dry… phrases come out backwards, and need serious rewording to make proper sense in English. I have noted which patch notes I was unclear upon by underlining.

Light Castle

• Sale Tax of NPC is set to zero, and one cannot set it to a higher value.  (ie you get no taxes)
• All members of clan can take a light themed cloak. (+2 to all base stats, 10% PvP damage reduction, and +15 to all base attribute resistance)
• 3% XP increase to all clan members.
• Skies around the castle are clear and indicate a good aligned castle.
• All characters in clan receive 3000 CP. Previous castle residence skills have been removed.
• 10% damage increase in PvP.
• The clan leader gets a special version of the cloak which adds +3 to all base stats, +15 to all attribute, and 15% PvP damage reduction.

Dark Castle

• Sale Tax of NPC is set to 30%.
• NPC sale tax condition is set to 10%.
• All members can collect a dark themed cloak. (+2 to all base stats, 10% PvP damage reduction, and +15 to all base attribute resistance)
• 3000 CP, and 10% damage increase in PvP.
• One can PK clan members that own a darkness castle without incurring PK increase or negative reputation. (essentially a 2-way war)

Taxation Territory Changes

• Talking Island Town is now under Gludio territory tax system.
• Floran Village is now under Dion territory.
• Tax income of all castles will be dictated by the major castle they are attached to, Rune and Aden castles.
• Gludio, Dion, Giran, Oren, Innadril Castles are now under jurisdiction of Aden castle.
• Goddard, Shuttgart are now under jurisdiction of Rune castle.
• All castles will inherit parent castles tax if and only if the parent castle has darkness alignment.

I have some more patch note information coming in a few days. Currently, however, I am struggling with a word that comes across translated from Korean as “Blood Alliance”.  I am not sure if this is a new classification of people, like an alignment to join, or if this is just another word for clan?  If anybody in the community would give me their opinion on this information I would have much greater clarity for the coming articles on the new daily battle system titled “Festivities of Confusion”.

A Player Commendation Lottery has been added for 1 week. Talk to any Adventure Guildsman NPC to receive a lottery ticket for a chance to win anywhere from 100-100,000 PC Points.

Bad news for all the people taking advantage of the “Attack Sailren!” quest on Primeval Isle. The EXP/SP reward for the quest has been changed from 15,000,000 XP and 16,500,000 SP to 1,500,000 XP and 1,650,000 SP. That means no more running circles gathering ‘raptors to AOE for quick quest turn-around.

Apparently you poor Iss Enchanters out there were having some targeting issues after using a trasnform skill. No worries, though. NC fixed it with this patch.

REMINDER:

For those of you still waiting on those paychecks to enchant those Power Shirts: the Heavenly Pack will cease to be available for purchase from the L2 Store and L2 Galleria on April 4, 2012 as well as the Blessed Enchant Scrolls that go with it. So either stockpile those scrolls or get to enchanting. We have a more detailed post on the Power Shirt as well if you’re trying to decide just how high you’re willing to go. Personally, we suggest for people not wanting to spend that much cash +5 is a relatively safe bet and the stats are nothing to snub your nose at. If you don’t mind dropping (on average) ~$50 USD give or take then go for +6. If you’re feeling really ballsy then go for +10 and send us screenshots!  According to the official Lineage 2 website, as of right now, the highest Power Shirt on any server is +8, and there are only 2 in existence across all servers.

Also being removed from the store are the free daily PC Point coupons so keep on collecting them up until that date.

Fortuna Instance – Party Breakdown

Ultimately if you wanted to get this thing done successfully at lower level you should take in the following party with you.

• -Wynn Summoner
• -Iss Enchanter
• -Two Aeore Healer’s
• -Feoh Wizard
• -Sigel Knight
• -Tyrr Warrior

Quick Tips for Completing the Fortuna Instance Zone

•  -The Wynn summoner should bring at least three Zaken Transformation scrolls with him or her as possible.
•  -Battle Rhapsody should be used on the third and seventh bosses if you wanted to complete it quickly.
• -Feoh Wizards – Shadow Snare should be used after stage three to bring together the minions for aoe and also disrupt the mobs long enough for the party to kill them.
• -At each stage the Sigel Knight gathers up the bigger mobs and brings them towards the beacons of light, which when destroyed will de-spawn each large mob into two smaller mobs.  This is one of the most important tricks I can tell you for getting this done quickly and correctly.
• -It is normal to group wipe on stage six, when this happens have all members de-spawn from the Fortuna Instance zone outside, resurrect the party members and with organization re-enter simultaneously.

The Eight Bosses and Seven Stages of Fortuna

The text on the screen says you are a higher stage then your at, this is because they are some preliminary stages prior to the bosses.  Either way call it what you will, I am starting on stage one for the purpose of this guide.

Boss 1 – “Weeping Yui”

This boss is extremely easy, just kill it.   You really will not have to care to much about the mobs around… you should just be able to straight tank and spank without too much difficulty.

Boss 2 – “Enraged Master Kinen”

Before you can kill this boss you will have to clear the room of the mobs as that he will not spawn until a certain number of them are dead.  Just have the tank run around gathering things up and then smash the light orbs to despawn them into multiple of the little mobs.  Have the tank rally them up, the nuker bring them together using Shadow Snare.

This boss splits into two on spawn.  One of them will have celestial shield, and the other will be completely open.  You should obviously kill the one that does not have the shield, when it dies the other becomes vulnerable to attack a short time later.  Once the second is nearing dead another copy of the boss will spawn, this is the real one, kill it and the stage is over.

Boss 3 – “Magical Warrior Konyar”

This boss is fairly simple as well, the mobs spawning are still quite bad so bringing them together and using the orb is acceptable.  He has multiple forms but is generally not that much of a threat.  Just have everyone attack it, get the debuffs up and it shall fall down in short order. Using battle rhapsody on this boss is acceptable as that it will be back up for when you need it again later in the instance.

Boss 4 – “Sir Lesyinda of the Black Shadow”

This boss is also quite easy if you know what to do.   He does have one catch however, the area of effect damage attack called “Black Lotus”.  It hits very hard and will generally one shot things that are not the tank when inside of its sizable range.   I believe the range is about 1000 in size, as that even while at maximum range using skill it still seems to hit you.

The Bonus Round

You will be given time to kill some very easy monsters, resurrect dead party members and refill mana levels.  You will have dropped to you many mana herbs from the monsters, there should be enough to fill the whole group multiple times over so don’t flip out when somebody takes more than he or she should take.

Boss 5 and 6 – “Mushu the Coward  and Blind Hornafi”

This boss does not spawn until you kill a number of the minions in the room.  The area is getting much harder now though and when you break the big mobs apart you will find that the damage gets much stronger due to the Berzerker’s that spawn in larger quantity then before. Please note that the spawning is when the big monsters are struck with the orbs on the ground around them. The majority of the roaming mobs are placed in the backside of the room for this boss so keeping the group members on the front side while killing the bosses is recommended.  It is a waste of time to kill the monsters on the backside if you do not have to.    Not long after you kill a few of these things you should see the two bosses spawn.

The Blind Hornafi has a melee based stun that knocks you and your party members out cold for twenty or more seconds, you can attack them to release it though so putting somebody with a ranged ability on this duty may be helpful in getting the boss down quickly. There are two methods for completing this stage from here.  Most groups just kill the little boss first while he runs around the room and then focus on the large boss until its dead.  Some groups may want to just avoid both bosses until the reflect damage skill fades (about 60 seconds in length) from the big boss and then kill it.  Upon killing the big boss the room will reset and take you to the next stage.

Boss 7 – “Yoenturnak the Waiter”

This boss can be a real pain if you are not careful.  It disappears repeatedly and reappears whenever it feels like it – a seemingly random amount of time later.  I recommend leaving it alone and focusing on the monsters that spawn on the right hand side of the room when facing from the entrance.  If you do not kill these monsters correctly you will find your entire group on the ground from the awesome damage given out by the berserkers.  You should have the tank very carefully gather five to ten of these monsters at a time, bring them next to the light as before and bring down the berserkers that spawn.  If you have too many of them up at a time you will find many of your group members dead before any normal person can heal them.   Having extra blessed resurrection scrolls handed out to the party members, especially the enchanter, healers, and summoner is a wise play.   Work your way around the room trying not to pull more then you have to breaking them apart a small chunk at a time.   Once you have the monsters down begin on the boss.   He will vanish a number of times before you kill him but eventually he will go down.  He has no other special quirks or strong abilities other then the amazingly annoying disaperate / reaperate.

Boss 8 – “Ron”

Ron is a relatively easy raid boss if your group has very high damage output.   If you are like most groups you will not have a fun time with him.  He has two forms, the second of which is just a tank and spank, the first of which you will need to be paying attention.  You will want to setup the party members position in the door way and have the healers place there tree’s a little bit into the room.   Ron has a group fear which will cause all of your party members to flee into the room drawing more aggressive mobs to aid him.   If you place the trees correctly a majority of the group members will receive cleanse and be able to assist on the boss again as soon as possible.  I would not worry about killing the minions or breaking the orbs during this stage as that focusing on Ron directly will be by far the quickest and also the safest.  You should have Battle Rhapsody up for Ron, if you have followed my instructions on previous stages.  It should be used the moment the summoner has used Transformation scroll and all of the de-buffs that the party can place are on Ron.

Re-entering Fortuna upon Failure.

Usually on stage six many mobs are spawning – or a number of your group has done something stupid.  If one of your group members does not do his job correctly and despawns to many large mobs at once it is very normal to receive lethal damage to the party.  This usually means you will have to reset the group outside.  Do not panic, many of the first times when I wanted to complete the instance we had to do this same routine.  The easiest way to get back inside is to communicate which each other and re-enter simultaneously.   Once landing on the inside you should have one of the Aeore Healers throw Celestial Party Protection, mean while having the Iss Enchanter use sonata and melody buffs.  If necessary ensure nobody in the group attacks anything and use the Iss Enchanter Party Celestial.  When you realize a group wipe is imminent before de-spawning outside instruct your group members to die on the other side of the room from the entrance, with some luck this should keep a majority of the mobs of you when you re-enter the area.  Obviously having another extra healer around to resurrect your party is beneficial to getting you up and running again quickly.

Prices for certain NCoin items have been decreased. Among these are both the 100% and 200% Nevit Runes and the 50% XP and SP Runes. For example, a Rune of XP 50% – 3 Hour Pack used to run 240 NCoin ($3 USD), and now costs 160 NCoin ($2 USD). This means your dollar goes a bit further and who doesn’t enjoy that? Click here to check out the full list. In addition to price changes on these Runes, NC has decided to add in 1-hour XP, SP, and Nevit Runes. And that’s not the only XP bonus items they’re offering. New to the store is Vitality Recovering Herb Tea. This 30-minute item comes singularly and in packs of 5 and will recover your vitality while you gain XP through hunting.

The Adventure Pack and Destiny Pack both boast new items as well. The one that caught our eye the most was certainly the Vitality Recovering Cake. Not only does it work for your whole party but it doesn’t count toward your account’s weekly seven Vitality item limit.

Box of Destruction
Double click for a chance to acquire a Destruction or regular Enchant Scroll, Soul Crystal Change Stone, or Attribute Change Crystal at random. Note that the possible items inside a Box of Destruction are not tradable.

Feather of Blessing
You can resurrect right away at the spot where you died if you have the Feather of Blessing in your inventory.

Vitality Recovering Cake
Summons a Vitality Recovering Cake that recovers the Vitality of nearby party members while they acquire XP through hunting for 20 minutes. This Vitality cake does not count toward your account’s weekly seven Vitality item limit!

There’s a new way to get those difficult awakened dyes now as well. Your wallet. The STR/DEX/CON/INT/WIT/MEN Symbol – Dye (R-Grade) Box contains separate boxes for each of the six stats. Each box contains one symbol of the respective stat level 1-5 at random among the following: Giant, Ancient or Legendary. Note that the possible items inside a Dye Box are not tradable. A little warning about these dyes, though. They do not stack with regular in-game dyes.

There’s also a slue of cosmetic items, both permanent and time-sensitive. Items include Color Title Packs, extra passes to Kamaloka and Kartia, as well as some exclusive permanent hats, mounts, and cloaks.

Last but not least is the limited time offer Heavenly Pack and Blessed Power Shirt Enchant Scroll. The Heavenly Pack is what contains the infamous Power Shirt we’ve already written about so please check out that post to get the details on enchant success probability, stat increases, and more insight on the item.

Shadow Hide – Removed speed penalty.
Final Ultimate Evasion – added 20% magic resistance, 60 M.Evasion, increased P.Skill evasion rate from 40% to 60%
Angel of Death – increased skill evasion from 40/45 to 75/80 (Lv.1/Lv.2)
Reverse – Removed lethal effect, decreased cooldown from 300 seconds to 5 seconds
Shadow Chase – reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 7 seconds
Superior Light Armor Mastery – speed/skill crits change according to user’s DEX (I guess this is in addition to STR?)
Heartbreaker – Additional physical evasion effect? It is unclear; the description of the skill itself doesn’t say anything besides the +40 speed.

Chain Blow – removed the requirement for the target to be bleeding

Maximum Critical – added +blow land rate (I guess same as critical rate increases?)
Assassin’s Reflex (I think it’s this skill – the trigger from Superior Light Armor Mastery; Google translates it to something sounding like force of assassination) – removed the +blow land rate effect
Poison Zone – increased land rate
Poison Zone Poison – added P.def/M.def decrease
Scorpion Poison – Lv.3 and Lv.4 also slow enemy affected by it

Needless to say this is going to change the dynamics of Olympiad a touch. I am interested to see Othell Rogue vs Sigil Knight

Thank you DarkDrag0n

Sources:
Korean Power Wiki

Power Shirt +4
+3 → +4 55/100; 55% (total chance 55% – 1/2 attempts from +0)
M.def +34
P.def +12 
CON +2

Power Shirt +5
+4 → +5 34/100; 34% (total chance 19% – 1/5 attempts from +0)
M.def +37
P.def +13
CON +2, MEN +2, Speed +7

Power Shirt +6 
+5 → +6 27/100; 27% (total chance 5% – 1/20 attempts from +0)
M.def +40
P.def +14 
CON +2, MEN +2, STR +2, INT +2, Speed +7

Power Shirt +7 
+6 → +7 25/100; 25% (total chance 1% – 1/100 attempts from +0)
Mdef +43
P.def +15 
CON +2, MEN +2, STR +2,INT +2, Speed +7, Decreased MP Consumption, Physical Skill damage by 93, Active Skill: Blessed Escape.

Power Shirt +8 
+7 → +8 9/100; 9% (total chance 0.1% – 1/1000 attempts from +0)
M.def +46
P.def +16
CON +2,MEN +2, STR +2,INT +2, WIT +2, DEX +2, Speed +7, Decreased MP Consumption, Physical Skill damage by 93, Crit Damage +41.3, M Critical +20, Active Skill: Blessed Escape

Power Shirt +9 
+8 → +9 9/100; 9% (total chance 0.01% – 1/10,000 attempts from +0)
M.def +49
P.def +17
CON +3, MEN +3, STR +2, INT +2, WIT +2, DEX +2, Speed +7, Decreased MP Consumption, Physical Skill damage by 93, Crit Damage +41.3, M Critical +20, Active Skill: Invincibility for 7 seconds.

Power Shirt +10 
+9 → +10 1/100 of 1% (total chance 0.0001%) – 1/10,000,000 from +0)
M.def +52
P.def +18
CON +3, MEN +3, STR +3, INT +3, WIT +2, DEX +2, Speed +7, Decreased MP Consumption, Physical Skill damage by 93, Crit Damage +41.3, M Critical +20, Active Skill: Invincibility for 7 seconds.

This is an obscene amount of money. Any math wiz out there want to calculate the average cost to go +7,8,9,10 including all failed attempts at median rate of failure? Lineage 2 is no longer the same game!

Realistically though the differences, other than the celestial shield, are not game changers. Those that spend thousands of dollars might be able to throw a CS at you once every other day in an Olympiad match to spike an extra win depending on the class. The most important modifier is the speed and anyone with a small amount of disposable income can get this bonus.