I played online games ever since Starcraft came out and have been a huge fan since...I am currently playing World of Warcraft, but I was thinking about trying out L2 just to break the monotony...so few questions

1) In WoW my main character is Druid, because its a hybrid that can do seemingly everything (Tank, DPS, heal)...also, the fact that they're mobile healers make them fun for PvP....which brings me to a question
I really seem to have knack for hybrid classes that are very versatile...any suggestions? I also love the idea of stealthing and sneaking around...thoughts on such classes?
2) Where can I procure free trial code? Or possibly, can someone please recommend me (or whatever the process is)?
3) How balanced is PvP system (overall)? WoW's PvP system is....just not that great...

TY for your time :D

there arent a lot of hybrid classes in L2. nearly all are focused for one job and people also expect other party members to fullfill this role. but if you like stealth and sneaking around the dagger classes will be to your liking. they have the skills that you are looking for and as all have high damage burst skills at their availability they are very good classes in pve and pvp.

trail codes can be obtained by getting an invite from an existing player. if no one else is willing to invite you, send me a pm with your adress, then i can send you an invite tonight.

pvp system is somewhat logical but has also some problems. in general the systems looks like range > melee. which is somewhat of a given, because if i can hit you from a distance and you cant hit back, i should have an advantage. on the other hand, most melees have a good run speed and stand a reasonable chance to close in on the ranged classes. problem in this system is that ranged classes tend to have high dps, so they can get you into serious trouble closing in on them (in open spaces), confined spaces tends to turn the tables here. a second probelm is that the developers introduced several "healing" pots into the game. so players with strong clans at their backs tend to carry a lot of these pots around and can allow themselvs to spam them constantly, which makes them a lot harder to kill if your class cant put down a serious amount of damage in a short time (e.g. tanks cant do that realy well, so they do have problems in pvp). another problem for a new beginner is that you will have to lvl up quite a bit, before you get usefull in pvp. before your mid 60s you will be a one-shot kill for most of the other players, since most of them have 1 year+ headstart in lvling on you.

if you want to get an idea how high end pvp in this game is handled, get over to livepvp.com and take a look at the L2 videos from the live servers (Bart, Teon, Franz, Hindemith, Kain etc.). it can be a lot of mindless fun and storming an enemy caslte/fortress togther with 50 to 100 other players is something you should have done in this game.

hybrid classes = orc mages