The Glade 4.0

I had a small craving for everquest, and was thinking of giving EQ2 a try. I was looking for newbie advice, how does it work? What is the state of the game? Should I even bother?

Browsing around I was looking to do a necromancer, Herasy I know in former Ranger town, maybe A DE or Sarnak. How are they for a class?

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"Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky."
— Alan Moore

I can't speak much of EQ2 as the only thing I ever did was beta, but you might also consider looking at EQ1 again. Things have changed a lot over the years and the game is no where near the "grind" it used to be. In fact the game has incorporated a number of things to specifically address returning players (defiant armor and faster AAs at lower levels) as well as overall changes like fast medding and mercs that make leveling up and earning AAs much easier than what you will remember for years ago.

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Gorse

Vanguard, Saga of Heroes? I saw a copy for $10 at Circuit City when they liquidating and it came with like 2 free months.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

My knowledge is about 6-8 months out of date, but necros were a perfectly viable class, especially for a newbie. Race doesn't really factor into your character's development too much. There aren't clear advantages like there were in EQ1. You get to choose racial abilities that you want, some of those being unique to your race.

Honestly, I had a lot of fun playing it. I will say it might be difficult consistently finding groups at lower levels. However, if you start in the newer cities (so not Qeynos or Freeport) you'll have no troubles keeping busy and leveling with quests. If you take the time to read the quests, many of them are quite fun and entertaining.

You can use eq2.wikia.com for solo quest timelines. These tell you who to talk to and where to go to complete a quest series. I've taken quite a few characters through the the various tiers of quest timelines and can probably advise you further once you get started. Some zones' quest lines were rather difficult or less streamlined.

I'd recommend using the ProfitUI interface because the stock interface is quite generic.

If you play on the Blackburrow server, my wife can set you up as a guild-friend so that you can use her guild hall to travel. If you choose an evil faction though it won't be too helpful though.

Should you make it to the high level arena, Rodahn will be an excellent resource.

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The Dude abides.

I'm on Crushbone, and I'm an officer in a guild there, on the evil side.

I can't speak to the raiding much since my guild raids only very casually and has no intention of doing more, but up to the point of doing the mythical quests, I can answer most specific questions.

For newbie areas, I recommend starting in Neriak or Timorous Deep if evil; Tim Deep especially has great newbie quests that will let you advance in regular XP and AA pretty quick. If good, I'd really stick to Qeynos; Kelethin is almost as godawful to get around now as in EQ1.

For classes, pick what you like. Necromancer is a good soloer; they are not that in demand for groups but it's not like EQ1; there are no "useless" classes and no "must have" classes most of the time, especially for grouping. The good counterpart is conjuror and is in basically the same state. There's always some class drama and rebalancing on the boards but a great deal of it is terribly overblown.

The community is not jam packed with people like WoW but I think it's pretty healthy overall. I rarely have a hard time getting groups except at weird times of day.

You get the entire game as part of the latest expansion if you buy from a store too, so the expense of buying each expansion seperately is not there either.

Send me a PM if you have any other questions.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I found that EQ2, particularly good side, was a good balm for my nostalgia. I had a lot of fun seeing how Antonica, Blackburrow, and Thundering Steppes (essentially Qeynos Hills, Blackburrow, and the Karanas) had changed in the cataclysms. It was *very* familiar (especially Blackburrow, which I could almost run through blindfolded the first time I visited, that's how familiar and true to its old self the twisting warrens were) while still being intriguingly different.

That said, I didn't really latch into the community there, but that's not a shot at the game or community -- I haven't really latched into an MMO community since EQ.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

It's definitely a viable game. The game is very user-friendly, yet complex and enjoyable as you advance. As for the state of the game, there are plenty of people, with another expansion coming in early 2010. Right now the cap is at 80, but it's rising to 90 with the expansion. So, you better get started! heh.

As for the community, it's certainly ages ahead of WoW. You don't really hear a lot of barrens chat in EQ2, not to the level you do in WoW. It's one of the better communities I've found besides Eve Online.

By the way, I too am on the Crushbone server, in case you need any assistance (on the good side). The name is still Roophus in game.

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I haven't played EQ2 for a while, have the system reqs eased up at all? I remember barely being able to play it on the lowest settings, with immense loading times. EQ1 and WoW were both way easier on my machine, I found.

This idea of a community feel intriques me.... I haven't felt something like that since I left EQ1. I play WoW, but I haven't really been able to hook into the community, at all.

It's a great looking game, and there is plenty to do without hooking into a community... But I miss actually having friends I played with.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

As I understand it, they moved shadows to the CPU instead of GPU so it runs a little better. There are a lot of worthless settings that get turned on when you try to use the presets, so that could have been responsible for your performance issues.

I'd found a display settings guide that jumped my framerate up like 20fps. Obviously I still have to turn things down for raiding, but thats expected.

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The Dude abides.

Some good advice given already here.

But yeah, EQ2 is much more approachable now than in its early days.

Necro is a great solo class, but as Diamondeye already mentioned, not very desirable on raids/pick up groups. If you choose this I would go DE or Erudite (Erudites have a passive racial ability that allows them to cast faster), but like Screeling said, race doesn't have nearly as much of an impact here as it did in EQ1.

Honestly, I would consider Ranger. Thanks to snare and root combat arts/poisons, you can keep things well within bow's reach and just kite-shoot them down. Rangers also get a fairly decent physical DoT. They are top tier DPS in raids, too (assuming you get the right group, of course).

As for the system reqs -- they have done some things to help improve performance, like the aforementioned shadow change. And they are currently working on more improvements to server stability and graphical processing (I cannot for the life of me remember what they are specifically though).

Supposedly SoE is working hard to fix as many problems as they can with the game, then go on an aggressive advertising campaign once the new expansion hits. So look for a lot of improvements within the next couple months (assuming everything comes together as they plan).

Grouping can be tough sometimes, yes, but honestly, there are TONS of solo quests out there. Also, to help you along, SoE has a Vitality system in place (as long as your VIT bar is above 0, you earn double EXP), as well as other things like +EXP potions. It's seriously not difficult to solo in EQ2 (save for tanks and pure healers, which do get slowed down a little, but that's true for just about every MMO).

Profit UI is another excellent idea, IMO. Makes the game soooo much easier to play (especially for the quick graphics settings change button, if you find yourself getting slow down). Fetish and Nightfall are other good custom mods.

The community will have it bad apples like any other MMO, but its already smaller community is kind of a blessing, in that you tend not to have statistics working against you.


Oh, and Screeling, are you playing again?

I haven't played EQ2 since about May or June I think. I'll probably reactivate once the new expansion comes out, but I imagine I'll be casual at best. School just doesn't allow me a whole lot of video game time these days.

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The Dude abides.

I really liked EQ2, just not enough to pay for it...

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Raell Kromwell

Ditto. If I could do a lifetime Station pass or something for several hundred bucks, Sony's got a bunch of games I'd poke around with periodically.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

If you want a class that is similar to the Necromancer in soloability and flavor, but much more accepted in groups, Shadowknight is a good choice. They don't have a pet anymore (it was worthless when they did), but they are good tanks (it's not like EQ1; any fighter class can tank to some degree and all four of the plate classes are viable regardless of what anyone says).

The lifetaps give you pretty good soloability and survivability and since they fixed taunts there's no problem holding aggro, especially if you just tak the STR tree for AA initially.

Another good choice for desireability is Dirge. They have a lot of much-desired group buffs, especially hate transfer, the ability to rez, and can do moderate DPS. Soloability is not as good as a Necromancer or SK, but really not bad. They have a little bit of Necro "feel" too with Disease damage and some minor lifetap.

Ranger is a much-aligned class, partly because some people have not figured out that the EQ1 Kunark expansion came out 10 years agp and was a different game. Some of it is humor, but some people just cannot get it through their head that Rangers are a perfectly good DPS class. They have some minor disadvantages such as the need to purchase ammo and poisons which drains funds, and can be hard to get started out in. I found the Ranger hard to solo from levels 10-20 but then it suddenly seemed to get easier; that was about 4 years ago now though. The biggest thing to learn is how to, in a group, find that spot where you're jsut far enoughfrom the mob to melee and ranged attack at the same time. Cappy Rangers are the ones running all over to get rear archery attacks (of which there's only one anyhow) while neglecting melee while ranged is on cooldown and aggroing more mobs in the process. If you get your mythical weapon its even better to get in that sweet spot since it boosts damage. Rangers have a couple pointless abilities such as the trap, coverage, and arrow stream or whatever it's called that serve little or no purpose, but each class in EQ2 has so many abilities that not using these is little issue. Every class I play has abilities that see little use.

In all truth though I have no real problems community-wise as a Ranger. If you play regularly and act like an adult (people who don't are often ridiculed as "being there because WoW is on server update") the community is pretty good overall. It does take a bit longer to get into the community than EQ1 and there is less inerguild drama; I think because of the minimal number of contested raid mobs.

Just as a comparison, the Assassin is the counterpart to the Ranger and reverses the Ranger's methods; it's primarily melee with ranged attacks secondary but important. Liek the Ranger it makes use of poison and arrows but won't burn arrows as fast. It is more positional from what I've seen so far; relies more on having the back of the target. It's more directly group-oriented that the Ranger with a hate transfer and more easily getting the high DPS in groups, but is generally harde to solo because of the need to get stuns on the target to get behind it.

Often overlooked by newer players but also valued classes are the Swashbuckler and Brigand which are versions of the EQ1 rogue. They are somewhat tankable scouts and do high damage with some utility. I have only played a Swashbuckler and only to 20 so far, but I have always seen good results from having them in groups and they are considered fairly soloable, probably more so than the Ranger or Assassin.

There's also lot more opportunity to not raid since there's plenty of achievements and AA to get long after you hit max level, and there are half-size raids (12 man as opposed to 24), plus things like upgrades to your abilities to get. The class abilities you get upgrde as you level, but each version also upgrades within the level. For example, Rangers get a triple shot ability that updates to a new version every 13 levels or so. However, each version can also be improved in quality from apprentice (what you get by default) to Master or Grandmaster (Grandmaster you get automatically for one ability every 10 levels and can only be had by that method). There's several levels in between as well; they recently updated that system to make it more understandable.

Overall it's a good game. Different from both EQ1 and WoW, and each has its benefits and disadvantages. It levels a bit slower than WoW but not excessively slowly and there's plenty of solo opportunity. It's faster than EQ1 or Vanguard. Don't be afraid to doodle around with a few classes to find one you like; wih 24 to pick from it's easy to be spoiled for choice.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I found the trap an extremely effective tool for solo'ing. It can really help being able to do your initial dps dump on triple-ups.

Rangers don't really come into their own until about 30. They're just kinda gimped rogues until that point. Not really enough ranged CA's to make you a primarily ranged solo'er.

Using crafted bows is usually what you're doing all the way into the 60's. Crafted arrows tend to be costly in lower tiers because nobody's making arrows for them. So store-bought usually end up being the route to go unless you're in good with a fletcher (I was a level 80 fletcher).

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The Dude abides.

I go with the ferrite broadhead at 80, but I used the summoned arrows until then. For a while I used the field point for the range bonus but then I was like "when do I really need that extra range?" and the answer was "never" so I took the DPS boost.

I experimented with the trap but I just find it more of a pain in the *** than its worth.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Yeah - most of my solo'ing even at top tiers was done with summoned. I just couldn't justify the cost unless I was expected to really DPS. The epic kinda cut down on that cost. I quit before they nerfed Venril, so I never got my mythical. Got kinda depressing getting spanked in group dps by rogues because they were mythical equipped and I wasn't.

I hear ya on the trap. Its uses are few. Although, now that I think about it, there were a few group encounters of single-ups in Kunark that the trap made more than manageable since it was a group root. Coverage was flippin horrible. I only used it when doing writs and it was wasted half the time because the mob would knock me out of invis. Not as worthless as that continuous art, but not far from it.

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The Dude abides.

Trap can be good for soloing if its cast/reuse time is kept in mind, but Stream of Arrows is a friggin waste of 1's and 0's. Even the crappiest bows will still put out more auto attack damage than the end-line Stream of Arrows CA (unless they've done a stealth fix that I didn't see).

Coverage is actually useful, but only in one combo: Rear Shot --> Coverage --> Sniper Shot. I've gotten near 80k Snipers with Coverage. Only time it's useful when soloing is when you want to lead off with a huge sneak attack using my above combo. After that, you gotta solo normally.

I prefer Field Point arrows simply due to the +hit, which can add up on the parse (not to mention help stuff die faster), but really that's only useful in raids. Otherwise just about any type of arrow will do.

And no **** about the financial drain. I drop 5-10 plat per raid night. Even with the 300-400p per month guild splits I get, I eat up a chunk of that just on raid expendables alone. That said, non-raiding Rangers can just use summoned arrows, fore go poisons and other expendables, and spend no more than anyone else on food+drink/repair costs. With the spell scroll researcher NPC, even the cost of Master spells is pretty much a non-issue now.

Yeah, that's all true. Our guild raids pretty much when we damn well please and not seriously when we do (WoE/Thugga is about as tough as it gets) but when I'm there I'm the top DPS or at least int he top 3 depending on who is on and which fight it is.

I haven't ever been able to get that kind of result out of Sniper Shot with Coverage though, although I haven't used it in a long time now. I don't even try to solo with it. I pretty much just rely on the DPS boost from being at point-blank. When I wnt to use Sniper Shot I just pop my Focused Aim and/or the other short-term buff with the claw (can't remember the name) and use it point blank

The trap.. I may experiment with it some more but I just haven't seen a need for it. I did luck into the master of it the other day though so...

As for arrow stream.. yeah. That ability needs to be dragged out and killed with an ax. I'd really like them to just ditch it and give us something completely new, but in the meantime it's not as if having it is really depriving me of anything. I just ignore it.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

What is the spell scroll research thing you speak of? Are more people doing VS now that they nerfed him? How did they nerf him?

Have there been any other significant changes in the last few months?

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The Dude abides.

I'm not sure about the VS nerf; I've had my myth for quite a while now so I'm not even sure if I fought a nerfed or unnerfed version. The spell researcher is a guy in the newbie housing zones around Qeynos and Freeport such as Greystone Yard or Langshadow Alley who will create a Master (old Master I) version of any spell/CA you don't already have at Master or Grandmaster level. The higher level it is the longer it takes; my CAs I use at 80 take 27-28 days of real time to create and only one character on an account may have one ability under research at any time.

They've renamed all the ability qualities too, since they never made use of half the ability ranks under the apprentice/adept/master I-IV system. App 1 = Apprentice, App 4 = journeyman, Ad 1 = Adept, Ad 3 = Expert, Master 1 = Master and Master 2 = Grandmaster now. I don't know what they did about the vendor apprentice 2 or the crafted apprentice 3 ranks; I think they still exist but I don't know about names.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I'm not sure about VS, either. They have been steadily nerfing various raid bosses over the last few months, so it wouldn't surprise me if VS got the hammer, too. They've mostly been concentrating their efforts on TSO bosses, tho (which is good, because some of those encounters are freakin insane -- /shudder @ the Ykesha fight)

As far as significant changes . . . nothing really earth-shattering. They nerfed a lot of avatar gear, but only a small percentage of players will ever see avatar kills anyway.

Oh, one change that is (presumably) coming, is that using melee CAs will no longer switch off ranged auto attack, which means more sustained DPS for Rangers.

I can already tell I'm going to be firmly planted in front of my PC come next expansion. Gotta level up if I want to continue raiding with my guild.

Yeah, me too. Even though we're not raiding much I'm still one of the go-to people when you need DPS to make an instance happen. I'm on my last 4 AAs now; my toon is one of those that got rather boned by being made before AAs came out.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

AA's got rough after about 180. We had a guild policy instituted where we had to get 10 AA's a month or else we could not bid with the full members. I was scratching and clawing for anything that netted AA EXP.

The Rime quest line gave some very nice AA, especially with the AA EXP boost that hit around the same time. Love the new slider they put in that allows you to control the allocation of EXP gained.

I'm more worried about how they will do epics next expansion. There was loose talk of having to have the current mythicals along with the Claymore and Sword of Destiny lines done. If that's true, than that will suck

No kidding.. I've been avoiding taking my SK in groups even though he really needs the AA more than my Ranger needs her last 4 just because the last few are such a pain in the ***.

What happened when you hit 200?



I actually got bored with Rime pretty early in the quest line. Dunno why, they just came across as a bunch of obnoxious wanktards and I don't need the mount; runspeed is at 64%.



I'm hoping it's an upgrade to the existing mythical.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."