Aden Laboratory
If there is a mechanism for advanced players - it’s the Aden Laboratory. Aden Laboratory is another game’s mechanics on how to push your toon to the serious stats. L2wiki wrote a very comprehensive article about this topic, so feel free to read this out.
Spirits
If you have played Lineage 2 - High Five or older, the attribute system works here exactly the same, but you no longer put attribute stones into your weapon and armor. For this, Lineage 2 Essence introduces much better general purpose mechanics.
In Lineage 2 Essence we have 4 attributes - Earth, Fire, Wind and Water. Nothing else. Each attribute has 5 evolution phases. The bigger the evolution, the bigger the damage you deal to people and monsters.
Almost every (I write “almost” just in case) location has a specific attribute advantage. For example - Aden/Hot Springs is weak to earth.
How to get attribute stones
Before I can explain how evolution works, we need to get the evolution stones itself. For Sienna, you navigate to Special Craft -> Upgrade/Growth tab -> Attributes sub tab. You will be introduced to the game of chance where u pay 10m adena per each try with 20% chance for success!
On Special servers (Eva, Samurai) you do not need to play the game of chance. Just port to any city, visit the nearest Grocer and select “Buy high quality supplies”.
How to evolve the attribute
Now we know how to get the evolution stones that are mandatory for attribute evolution. From level 1 to level 2 you simply need 1 evolution stone and very small adena payment. 2-3 requires 3 stones, 3-4 requires 5 stones and final lvl 5 requires 10 stones for the maximum evolution.
Anyway, you simply cannot buy all the required stones and hit immediately maximum evolution. You also need to level up the attribute itself by hunting in the respective location to max attribute experience. And when u hit the maximum XP per attribute, u can evolve it with stones.
What attribute level up first
My personal opinion is, that Earth attribute should be level up as the first choice. Most of the newbie locations are earth-friendly - Dragon Valley, Hot Springs and Tower Of Insolence. This is where u will spend the most time in the beginning of the game the most.
The second attribute you should focus on is Fire. Giants Cave, Fairy and Kelbim are also very visited and important locations where u will spend in the advanced game a lot of time.
The rest is up to you.
What ability level up first
As you evolve each attribute, you can also boost Fire Attack, Defense, Crit rate and Crit Damage. I personally recommend level up these abilities in this order if you place PVE - Attack, Rate, C.Damage and C.Defense. If you on the other hand play PVP, then you want to level up these abilities in this order - Defense, Attack, C.Rate and C.Damage.
Conclusion
Do not skip or underestimate attributes. It is actually the mechanics that helps the most for newbie level players! Each evolution raises attacks significantly.