So... how ya like EQ2?

[kholan]

The folks playing WOW beta are too busy playing to reply (I am at work). As much as I loved my beastlord, I have had more fun playing a gnome rogue in the last few days than I have playing my beastlord for the last few months.

And then there is my troll hunter.....

who needs spells....I got a GUN!!!!

Strangely enough, I find the fact that tradeskilling is integral to developing your character really great -- in EQ I hated tradeskilling.

BUT -- the most fun is reading the boards on WOW and EQ2 and seeing all the same complaints that are on the EQ boards....and the FXII boards....and the DAoC boards......and all the fanbois and girlz defending them.  

I keep coming back to check if they are gonna fix my beastlord enough to get me playing him again.....

[Oneiromancer]

That is the biggest drawback to me for EQ2...no Beastlords or the equivalent.  In both WoW and Guild Wars they have a Beastlord/Ranger hybrid...especially in WoW I love it, a pet and Tracking and *good* ranged combat (especially once your pet gets Growl and can keep aggro off you)!

/sigh...I definitely see myself wanting to play WoW...but I am still going to try EQ2...

Game on,

[Dummkopf]

I played both betas (well, WoW only the open since yesterday, lvl 17 hunter and lvl 7 warlock) and i enjoy both games. Since most of my friends move on to EQ2 i will play there as well, just hope im able to create an char on the server theyre all on because they banned already creation of alts due to the high playernumbers on that server. I will most probably buy WoW too and play it, but since im based in Europe i will have a lot more time to wait on it since Blizzard doesnt let us play on US servers and releases the game later over here.

[Fionnah]

I believe that WoW is way over hyped

There is a huge difference between WoW and Episode 1.  The people shouting about WoW are people who have played it.  That's like people seeing Episode 1 and going "Wow, that's the best movie I've ever seen"  but they didn't.  The hype was done by people who hadn't seen the movie or by people who had a vested interest in the movie's success.

I have no vested interest in WoW and I have to say that it is the best, most polished MMOG ever put on the market.

You're not seeing hype.  You're seeing praise.  There is a WORLD of difference between the two.

BTW, 10 days of WoW > the last year of EQ.  Quests all work, content all works, very polished, con system just works.  The game just rocks.

[Dummkopf]

Finally i got my retail box of EQ2 and played it after wow beta shut down (yes, was there til the end and even dinged 20 on me and pet ).

Yes, i still like it, its a very playable game which is fun for me, i just love my attacks, my tradeskilling (which i hated in EQ) and the way quests work, yet there is still work to do for SoE. Things like fish swimming a few yards above the water or the crappy level cap on isle of refuge is something they should adress (btw, artisan levels are not capped). Since leveling seems to be way slower and you have to do so many different things, like your adventurer levels, artisan levels, status points, guild status points, society status and so on, there is a good chance this game has content for a very long time, count in the nice higher level raids and guild raids and it can be quite some fun. It is not as solo friendly as WoW by far although you can solo, so there is quite a bit of "multiplayer" playing involved and i think thats pretty good.

I dont think it is better or worse than WoW, it is a different game and different players will play it probably. It wont be as successfull as WoW will be since WoW draws a lot new players into the MMORPG world, but it will have its playerbase nonetheless.

[Evandar]

I'm haveing a really good time in EQ2. I started playing a Fighter/Brawler since I wanted to become a monk but I felt that melee was such a hassle to play because of targeting etc. So I switched to playing a druid and its really fun! I can be main healer with no problem at all. I have HoT's wich is really nice, hp buffs, stat buffs, ok nukes, debuffs and can even melee some! Just target MT, nuke, heal, complete HO's and just reap in the exp .

What I dont like is that since all fights are so short its impossible to relax for just one second if you are main healer. Almost as playing bard in EQ1.
Its a little to arcade like for my liking, but I guess it will take a while to get used to it.

And I think Ho's should be dumbed down even more since there are ALOT of people who have no idea how they are supposed to work. The ideal system would be that the person who triggers the HO is the only one who can break it until someone else advance it.

But I think I want to give EQ2 a 7 out of 10. Hehe, its fun to be considerd "high level" at 20

Hmm, I really think I should get back to work now

[Drakh]

I was in beta and still playing EQ 2 now - The people complaining above have a right to their own point of view but most seem to be aimed at the HARDWARE issue

Why AMD 64 users have so many issues is beyond me.

notice when you boot up it says played best on "intel 4". I personally beat the minimum specs by quite a bit but even so i am still having trouble running the game in more than high performance setting.
The game has been designed with the future in mind - some of EQ 1 selling points for expansions was "improved graphics" and "enhanced performance" because when EQ 1 came out it wasnt top of the range - it had to improve regularly to keep up with the technology.

EQ 2 however has set its self at the extreme end of the market - thus providing its longevity with people who cant upgrade each year. Ok you need to have a high end system now but in 3 years when you next upgrade, EQ 2 will not have to upgrade with you (or force you to keep up with the jones's) and you will still see an improvement in your play experience.

I've only just got off the Isle and noticed the horrible fps dip in Qeynos

Lag issues in Qeynos is expected on release - the Freeport and Qeynos Districts are NOT instanced and the zones are small - you can quite easily have 100 people cramed into each one. add to that Qeynos is more popular than Freeport on almost all servers. Antonica on Runnyeye was seeing as many as 8 instances (thats over 1000 people) while Freeport was capping at 4.
Once the populations have spread out more over the zones (artisans into their individual tradeskill instances and the higher level people have started exporing the higher level "access" zones the video lag will slowly fall.

I am sick of the quest. THey pretty much force feed them down your throat. I dunno. Just let me go and kill ish!

If you dont like quests why play a game called EverQUEST
seriously though quest wise you only need to do 4 of the 5 IoR quests, the Ambassador Quest, The citizenship quest, your "what class do you want to be" quest at level 9, and your "what subclass do you want to be" quest at level 19. once you done that you can kill your way to 50.

I HATE the shared exp debt

The only bad thing about shared xp debt is the fact you can get xp debt by being grouped by idiots.

I really cant understand why people get so stressed about xp debt - its not even close to the pain of actual xp loss (and possibly level loss) that exists in EQ 1.

XP debt disappears over time - you dont have to work it off
All xp debt does is half your xp gained. for example if you have 50% xp and 55% xp debt you will need to earn 10% xp to pay off your xp debt and bring your actual xp to 55%

XP debt looks huge when you are missing your shard - collecting your shard will reduce it by about 90%. on average at level 20 you gain about 2% xp debt from each party member death -a full party wipe will leave you with a little over 10%. At level 20 you can grind that xp debt in under an hour easy.

I tried it cause my eq guild was doing nothing . Got to lvl 8 . Eq2 sucks imo .

level 8 is nothing in EQ 2 - i have played 4 beta toons to 15 to test out each class archtype. my main now is level 20 and with each new level and new ability i see more and more diversity and uniqueness in my class to others. Up to Level 6 the game is still teaching you how to play (you dont learn about grouping until level 5! Then as you progress to level 7 you are being introduced to your choice of alignment.

Once you reach level 10 and have completed your class quest you get much more freedom to do what the hell you like.

Overall i love EQ 2 because to me its like playing Morrowind online - i stopped playing EQ 1 for a while to play morrowind because i really enjoyed the sense of achievement i got from completing the quests and advancing the storyline.

EQ 2 fills the window that alot of people miss in EQ 1 - just look at the Hype and requests EQ 1 has had with Epics, Progressive quests (coldain ring and shawl) and more recently tasks. These are the biggest personal memories i will ever have from EQ 1.

I will refrain from commenting on anythng to do with WoW - ive not played it but i have followed the website - It appears to be taking a different direction to EQ 2 so i believe BOTH will do well. As to wether EQ2 or WoW is for you, only you can decide.

[Lorathir]

A quick word of the shared xp death system.

About a week ago I was lfg in Antonica. I got an invite from a group that was on the other side of the zone. Alt+W to get a waypoint up and I headed off towards them.

In the time it took for me to get to them (about 7 or 8 mins) various members of the group had died around 6 or 7 times. Could be more, I actually lost count. By the time I got to them, the bastards had all disbanded, except for the cleric who had 2 shards being camped by 4 angry gnolls. So, I had accumulated a boat load of shared xp death from a group I didn't even meet. I shoud have just disbanded at the first sign of trouble, but I'm not the type to bail like that. Maybe I will be from now on?

The next day I logged on and soloed my xp death off. It took me two hours.

The shared xp death system is there to ensure players are careful and mindful of their actions. LOL, everyone knows that's simply a crock. Nobody is any more or any less careful with it. All the shared xp death system does is promote distrust and bad feeling. Why get a pickup group or group with people you don't know? What if they screw up and you're left with 2 hours of debt?

Get it gone, it has no place in a social setting like EQ2 and it simply doesn't do what it's intended to do.

Ok, rant over. That's the only thing I find fault with in EQ2. That, and the lack of Beastlords of course.   Other than a few niggling bugs, right now my 18 Crusader is having a ball and fast becoming one powerful hate holding champion of justice. I can't wait till I get to Halas..

[Jkal_Shihar]

So far I am enjoying myself. Can only play weekends which doesnt bother me too much.
Working on my Class quest and some others at the moment which is fun. It takes time on some but it doesnt bother me.
I still need to up the memory on my system but I am working pretty good on minimum specs at the moment.
My scout should ding 10 this weekend and become a predator then I need to work on my Kerran fighter(monk eventually).
So far I have done all my exploring in qeynos. Maybe eventually I'll make a greedy character and run around freeport for a bit later on  
But since I dont feel the pressure of level level level (one reason why I stopped playing EQL) I can take my sweet ole' time and enjoy a game for once.

[Evandar]

So, I had accumulated a boat load of shared xp death from a group I didn't even meet.

Yeah, they really need to make it so that you will get dept if your in a certain radius from the person who died. Just like exp is done, if I cant get rewarded I should not get penalized either imo.