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Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes..
Xhieron
Member UncommonPosts: 132
in Everquest II
Turn and face the...
Er, anyway, hi.
I've been musing over this forum for a few hours now, waiting for this lovely five hour patch to finish up after reinstalling EQ2, and in the process setting myself up for what will probably be yet another tragic affair with SOE. I just couldn't resist but to jump in here and try to get some comments from the people who still play while I wait for the last hour to do its worst to my hard drive.
That said, here's the deal. I played EQII maybe... a year? ago, or so. I honestly can't remember exactly, but I started playing a few months after release, before any expansions, and quit a few months later, still before any expansions had come out--somebody with a timeline can probably pin me down. Anyway, I quit right around the time they nerfed my poor horsey's speed. --not JUST because of that though. I resubscribed out of morbid curiosity--and still have not purchased any expansions, since my faith in this company is wanting--and would like to get some general feedback.
So what's happened? I know that's a tall order, and I've been reading as much as possible about the combat, PVP introduction, faelust, and what not, but it still doesn't give me an overall feel for what I should expect. After reading some of the posts here I'm afraid to even touch the official forums with anything other than a very long lead stick.
I played a SK and a Necro last time, and enjoyed them as much as I imagine I should have considering they only made it up into the mid-20's. Should I be expecting an entirely different experience now (that is, should I expect to be able to tank)? Has the death penalty changed any? Am I going to be let into Qeynos now? Is there fear or kiting? Has the spell/scroll system... thing... changed any? Anyone who's got a good birds-eye type view of this thing from release to now, what are the high points, if you don't mind just brushing them? I'll check for myself soon enough, but it may be a few weeks before I can actually sit down and go over the nuances like I normally would, so I'd appreciate a heads up if there's anything I might want to know or would only learn from experience at my own peril.
--also, I know tensions run high where SOE is concerned, and I have to admit I harbor an EXTENSIVE animosity for them. But I'm desperate for something to tide me over until Spellborne and Aion come around, and it's come to this.
Will it be worth my while?
--putting in a poll, but it's just for fun; I know better than to trust anything that lets people answer with anonymity. I'm really hoping for constructive comments.
EDIT: Oh! Also, nevermind the nonexistant post count. I've had a few different names here, and resubscribe every time I change emails or lose a login. In reality I've posted maybe ten or fifteen times in various forums, but I do tend to keep up with what's being said.
Peace and safety.
Comments
EQII has changed pretty drasticly since the last time you have played
it. And since you really didnt like it the 1st time what with new
changes might bore ya to death or you simply wont like them. So you
could find yourself back to where you started so to speak.
I'm sorry if I came across that I didn't like it the first time I played it--that was not the case. In fact I enjoyed it, although I'm willing to concede that I hoped--and still do--that much of the content was in areas of the game I never played through.
You said the game has changed drastically though, which could be good or bad, and that I simply might not like them. What do you think I might not like, just offhand? That's exactly the kind of detail I was hoping to get out of the responses.
Peace and safety.
To the OP:
There are only a few things that I can think of off the top of my head.
-PvP servers
-Pick your class during character creation, rather than the "chain system"
-Crafting uses all raw components for all recipes, no more sub-combines. (You need a fair amount of them, however).
-You can now harvest more than one raw during each "round" (three rounds per node like always)
-Nek Forest and Commonlands have been revamped. I have also noticed that a lot of the smaller starting zones have been changed as well.
-Cloaks have been added with the newest expansion I believe (If you buy the latest expansion by the way, you get all the previous ones with it, including the base game)
-You will notice a vast amount of differences between your current characters, and the ones you used to have. I cannot specify what those differences will be, however, but I am sure you will like them.
-Crafting machines have been added to outside zones (Qeynos and Freeport)
-New starting zone in the newest expansion, along with a new race.
-New mounts (I do not remember which, sorry)
-I think ridable boats have been added (You stand there and they take you places), or perhaps that is a coming update. Either way it will be in the game soon.
-Solo experience has been dramatically increased for green and blue mobs.
-Class hats
-New items here and there
-New starting quest chains (based of race) rather than 9999999 quests from random NPC's in your faction's city.
-An arena has been added in one of the expansions (Desert of Flames I believe)
Thats all I have for now, I tried searching for a link to the "Content Added since release" on the official site, but for some reason I could not find it.
Hope that helps.. If I remember more I will be sure to add it in.
Peace and safety.
SLNTASN covered a lot of the changes, heres some more off the top of my head.
- More content now with 3 expansions and 3 adventure packs
- Latest expansion introduced content for all levels
- Level cap is now 70
- New mounts (some with armor), some even giving bonus when fighting (e.g. + slashing)
- PvP servers and PvP arenas in Maj Dul, Qeynos and Freeport along with arena pets
- Much better for soloers since release
- Some gods from EQ1 have returned who you can worship to enhance abilities and gain blessings
- Crafting is easier as mentioned already with no sub-combines needed
- Armor sets, collect all the bits to get bonus
- lots more collections, quests, heritage quests and lore and legend quests
- New broker system, you can set your prices and put up your items on the broker rather than going into your house all the time
- more house vault slots as well as item specific containers such as the weapon rack that display in your house so people can come buy from them
- offline selling
- Mentoring, high levels can now mentor down to group with lower levels
- Easier search functions on the broker
- Quest indicators above NPC's heads and on the map
Theres lots lots more but thats all i can think of off the top of my head. I have played since release and in my opinion i think EQ2 is way better now than it was in the first 6 months.
Firstoff, let me say that several of the features that have been previously described are available only if you purchase an expansion. From you post it appears you have the basic game version from around two years ago.
Some of the changes you will notice in the basic game right off the bat. The starting island quests have changed, and also differ entirely in Quenos from those in Freeport. Also, the tradeskill instance has been moved around to the back of the Tower.
When you leave the island, and arrive in the city, you no longer have to do a citizenship quest to access the main city zones. Also, alot of the city zone quests have been replaced with storyline quests. Still go to a housing area to get your housing, though you are not restricted to housing in any one zone. The bunny zones in both cities have also been changed.
There is no longer a class/subclass quest, you selected that at character creation. Also, you have your choice of two different views that your character can appear as, one is the traditional SOE model you are already familiar with, the other is called the "alternate" appearance, or Sega appearance, wich is an animae style. You can set this style at the select character screen by choosing "alternate appearance". You then need to select a control that allows you to see a character only in their Sega appearance, as you cannot see characters in both the sega and traditional view. It is either one or the other.
Combat has gone through several changes since inception, some people says it's better, some say it's worse, personally, the changes didn't make any difference to me, so I have no opinon on them. There are option controls for the con system, one thing you should do is experiment around looking at all the controls features by selecting the EQ 2 button on the bottom left corner of your screen and customizing the game to your preference. This customization can later be selected and associated with any newly created character. Overall, I don't think you will notice any difference in how the actual combat system plays out, most of the revamp was to balance out PvP, I believe.
Shard runs are eliminated, and experience debt has been toned down quite a bit. There is no longer group experience debt, you only receive a small portion when your character dies. There is no longer locked encounters unless you change your control preference, thus, someone not grouped with you can heal you, or take a few wacks at the beastie you are fighting, but you will still get credit/experience for the kill.
Tradsekill has changed, no longer are there multiple tradeskill instances in a city zone, only one now. You gather the various raw material components, and can make a finished product from them, no more need of subcomponents. Also, check out the guy in the tradeskill instance that gives out writs, it's a good way to level up. The market is still accessabile through either a market board in your house, or through the broker in the tradeskill instance. To sell you can place a container, like a box, in the tradeskill instance broker slot, fill it with goodies, price them, and they will remain up for sale regardless of whether you are online or offline. You can also purchase things like weapons and armor racks, which sell exclusively weapons or armor from your house.
Any items which become available as loot from an expansion pack are available for your use through the market, that is, you can still purchase them and equip them even if you don't own the that specific expansion. I have noticed, though, that to complete certain heroic quests you will have to enter an expansion area, which means open your wallet, or delete the quest.
You can, and always have, been able to enter the opposing city...just watch out for the guards, if they catch you, they will bounce you. You can also consent to PvP anywhere, anyplace if you want to see who'se bezerker is the baddest.
Overall, there are alot of changes since inception, these are just some of the highlights.
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
Lots has already been mentioned but the only real way to find out is to try the game and see. I will tell you this a significant number of people who have come back to EQII after initially being blah about it *love* this expansion. This is especially prevalent in old time EQ players who like the Nostalgic feel of the new zones, but its generally a hit with anyone but the hardcore SOE haters who would complain about anything no matter how good it was. (emphasis on generally Nothing is completely to everyones taste.)
Shadowknights primary role is still that of a tank. In fact thats even more true now then when you played because the DPS classes actually manage to fill a DPS role while back when you played Shadowknights easily out damaged most of the DPS classes. Things are not really happy in the tank world, however as Guardians have managed to whine themselves back into being the only truly desirable main tank, leaving the other 5 fighter classes trying to fight with the 12 DPS classes for the 3 DPS spots on a typical team.
Necromancers are a lot better off then when you played. Basically supposed to be Hybrid/DPS class doing a little less damage then the pure DPS classes because they have a pet that can full in as a tank, some healing ability and essentially unlimited mana. In practice they also have some of the best overall DPS in the game, with other classes topping them only in specific situations or group setups.
In both cases, since you are now playing your sub-class from level 1 you should get a much better feel for how it plays. Back when you played you didnt start getting Shadowknight/Necromancer abilities until level 20 and then had to wait until level 34 to get a full set. (with a few more in the 40s/50s)
Most of the current action is in the new EoF zones, and the Fae look a lot better then the older models so this is where you likely want to be, but you need to be a good race to start there. My advice, however is to start anew with the EOF expansion because it gets you the base game + all 3 current expansions and a month of play time. You could just add the key to your current account and still get all the expansions. You dont get the free month that way but you may have 10 free days on your old account.
Evil races are still not welcome in the good cities (Qeynos and Kelethin), but now instead of simply ejecting you guards will attempt to kill you. In the burbs they are not that tough and probably grey but in the main cities they can be 60-70 Epic X4 that will kill you in one hit. If you are careful you can avoid them, however and in fact several heritage quests require you to sneak through the opposing city at some point.
On the PvE servers the good cities tend to be more populated, but on the PvP servers Freeport has a significant edge. Im not sure if this will change much due to the new good city and the popularity of the Fae, but given that Freeporters start with a huge level and gear advantage I suspect it could be rough going as a Fae for a while.
in order to answer your questions they need to be more detailed. If i gave you a full time line of what has transpired since you left i would have to write a novel. Most things that were changed were changed back or gave up on or taken to the next viable option. THis is game design and as i said before this team for eq2 has not made the best decisions in my opinion.
if you would like a current review of the game i can give you that as well, i would warn though i will not sugar coat it or hype .......... i have picked this expansion to death in starting city and level 70 and 60 zones, have not made it to the mid level zones as of yet though.
And as for you, lillin... I think I mentioned that I have actually been keeping up with these forums, and while I'm flattered to have such an accomplished troll grace me with his/her presence, your efforts are unappreciated. Everyone else actually read what I said and knew what I was getting at, and was able to respond with lots of helpful information. You, however, took the time and imagination to try and disect my post in order to criticize me instead of actually dealing with the issues I had, and then tried to cover it up with a few remarks on point. Thanks so much; it's kind of like shaking hands with a celebrity. I do hope you took the time to express your obvious opinion of the game by voting in the poll. >)
The only thing I care to respond to is your little remark at the end, since I must not have been clear. I have had multiple accounts because I've changed emails and do not remember enough information to even access the old accounts, much less revive them to the extent that I could even reset passwords--if you REALLY think that that's the situation mmorpg.com was trying to address with the multiple accounts rule, then by all means, feel free to report me. If they decide to ban me, that'll be just fine. As for the other offers, thanks but no thanks. I don't need anything else from you.
Peace and safety.
haha.......owned
at least im not the only one that notices.
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Great post. I am also looking for answers to the question, Which game to return to?
Vanguard by the way isn't it so your poll is fine. Vanguard was the most boring game I have ever played. Perhaps if they fire everyone and start over; oh wait Horizons did that and that didn't help either. Oh, well perhaps they will get lucky.
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I disagree that EQ2 is boring vanilla. It has lore streching over 8-9 years of development. It has involved mutli-level quests like the signature quests and heritage quests. You also have the guild levelling so that everyone in the guild can assist in its progress in its own way.
I have played most MMOs out there and IMO EQ2 is the best right now, and hearing of some of the hardcore elements in Vanguard I think EQ2 will be a more attractive option even when Vanguard comes out.
One of the things people have forgotten to mention is the Alternate Advancement system. From level 10 you gain achievement xp from killing named, completing blue or higher quests, and acquiring various treasure, and gain achievement levels (up to 100 since the latest expansion). Each level gives you one point to spend in various improvements that really sets your character apart from others in the same class.
Get the latest expansion in retail box form(for all the expansions) and try it out.
Just thought of a few more things:
Achievement Points XP
Griffon towers now in Nek Forest and Thundering Steppes
Harvest tools to speed up harvesting time
No group xp debt
Encounter locking is now optional
Froglok race
just 1 question..
so please answer honestly..
is it fun ? or do we still get that "empty/not living" feeling ?
ROTFLTHTSASTCMMMWIATIHEPMASCTPATTMTMHAAOTIYFYSFPOSWYLJTMMLTMYB
Rolling On The Floor Laughing Too Hard To Stop And Scaring The Cat, Meanwhile My Mom Walked In And Thought I Had Eaten Poisonous Mushrooms And She Called The Paramedics And They Took Me Too Mad House And All Of This Is Your Fault You Stupid Fathead Piece Of **** With Your Lame Jokes That Make Me Laugh This Much You Bastard
From my few days of experience since I've been back, I have to say that on the whole the game has improved. --and this is coming from someone with a deep-seated disgust with SOE and everything they stand for. I'm happy enough with it, though, that I've ordered the expansion, and that's saying a lot as well, since I think expansions are a dying mechanism.
Experience is faster, at least in the low-mid levels (I have no character above 25, so I can't speak to whether this improvement continues or tapers off at some point), but more importantly, the level of access for solo/duo/small grouped characters has been broadened. I specifically went back to mobs with my little 22 SK that he and a Defiler together could not kill when we quit the game, and now he can kill them solo with some, but marginal, risk, and for a reasonable exp gain. Also the change in the death penalty is almost ideal.
Also, at first I was hesitant about the absence of the branching system anymore, but after rolling new characters and seeing the nature of the spells/skills they're getting in the first ten levels, I have to conclude this was a good move as well. My new SK feels a lot more like an SK at level 10 than the old one did at 10, and I feel like he has a lot more valuable and defining tools available than he did last time around.
People addressed most of my concerns in all the helpful posts so far, though, so I won't get into more details, but I do want to address the grind thing, since I know that's a point of contention for almost everyone anymore. And here's the deal, folks:
It's always going to be a grind. How "grindy" it is isn't what's going to make a game good or bad. You can color something up with quests if you want, but it's still going to be a grind; the only difference is you get a little more reward if you grind a certain way at a certain time. Name a game you think is less of a grind than another, and I can show you how it's not. The point is, if you're looking for a game--even just one to tide you over, like I was--you can't approach it with a bias against the grind. When we look at the lists here or elsewhere, we're just comparing grinds, and the effort has to be to find a grind that's better than the others.
On that point, I'm going to have to agree with the majority on this one--this grind is pretty straightforward. It's all about kill x of this mob so you get to hear the little ding sound. --and I'm fine with that; I don't kid myself into thinking I'm going to make a difference to my server. When I signed up for EQ1 on day 1, that's what I was getting into, and that's been the ticket in every game ever since. Right now, EQ2 is a fresh experience for me, though, and that makes it fun. I've spent the last hour tonight camping a peninsula on the starter island killing skeletons just as quick as they'd respawn and I could pull them. I hit level 10 and then logged out to wait for the expansion to get here (don't want to waste any AA).
And I had a blast. Why? Because it's been so long since I could just sit down with a character I like and just camp. He looks like I want him to, he does most of what I want him to (he can't heal directly, but that's okay), and with the right HO he can kill a blue group of vv skeletons in about five seconds. Whenever he dings, his new stuff pops right onto the bar in front of me. New stuff--really new. As in, didn't have that skill before. When I hit 34 I KNOW that's going to change, for the most part, but I'm tired of discounting games because I anticipate things get sluggish and repetitive at the higher levels.
I acknowledge--yes, it's new to me again, and so the novelty is certainly going to wear off, but I will say this. Even from the very beginning, when I'd never seen it before and it was more new then than it is now--it's more fun now than it was on release day. If I get a char up to 45 or 70 and see that it's no longer fun, then I'll quit. That's my prerogative, and chances are, if I do find that to be the case, by the time I get there there'll be other new stuff out there to play.
Do I have an "empty/not living" feeling? No, I don't. Later tonight I'll log on my necro and camp that peninsula until he hits 10 as well--doesn't get any grindier than that. But I can see goals for these characters that I couldn't see in something like WOW. Lich is enough reason for me to want a necro at 50--certainly more motivating for me than to sit in MC for 6 hours hoping something I need drops, though I know the raiding in EQ probably has its own counterpart to that. I'm actually looking forward to going back to Crushbone; there were dungeons in WOW I never went into--and didn't even want to, if I could avoid them. So maybe the nostalgia's part of it. As well, I've run into about a dozen other little SKs on the newbie island--and not one of them looks anything like me. Regardless of what I say though, at the end of the day I couldn't give a rationale to play one game over another no matter what.
This is still an ongoing thing for me--since I first posted I've been able to play a grand running total of maybe 6 hours, if that. In those six hours though, I can conclude, if not much else, that this game is fun. I can't quite come down and say that this is definitely the way to go if you're looking, but as someone predisposed to give SOE the worst possible assumptions, my first six hours back lead me to believe that they might have fired some of the morons.
That's saying a lot just to say one thing, but to get to the point and answer the question--yes, it's fun.
Peace and safety.
I came back after a year. I was playing WoW and got really bored of the raids. I have a 47 necro and a 25 beserker. I am having a ball now. I havent tried crafting yet, but I want to.
One thing I did notice, is that there are soooooo many spells to consider when playing my Necro, I sometimes get confused. Maybe its because I have been away from the game for so long. I need to get organized.
Damage spells, Buffs, Pets, Pet buffs, healing, Dark hearts......I can go on and on. There are so many.
Come back...its fun and rewarding.
There are a lot of solo mobs (and even some groups solo players can take like 3 double downs) in BB. It might still be a bit high for you at 17 depending on your class and if so you can still hunt in Crushbone proper. There are group and solo mobs in there. Just pick a barrack and work on the mobs there... just remember to body pull.
http://www.greycouncil.org/
Basically linked encounters are just groups of weaker mobs you have to fight at the same time. The whole encounter will still be tailored to a general level of difficulty so there will still be solo, heroic or epic encounters. It just has different dynamics because you have more/weaker or fewer/stronger mobs.
For example a Warlock will usually find solo linked encounters easier because they have abilities which work well against multiple weaker mobs while a Wizard finds tougher lone solo mobs easier because they have abilities which work better against single targets.
Typically a solo encounter will consist of:
1 ^ mob
1 no arrow mob
1 single down arrow mob
2 single down arrow mobs
3 two down arrow mobs
5 3 down arrow mobs
The single down arrow mob used to be the most common solo type, but are less so now. When you do find them there is a good chance they are social, so be careful
Group encounters will he flagged heroic and come in even more permutations. Some typical mixtures are three single up arrow, 5 no arrow, a double up arrow with two no arrow, etc. Be careful of heroic encounters with named in it they will often have a ^^^ with 3 ^, I.E. they are the equivalent of 2 heroic encounters even before you consider the extra abilities the named may have.
At your level I'd be looking to start heritage quests. This is where I have the most fun in the 20's 30's., Many of the starters are soloable, but you will need to find a group for them at some point unless you are waiting a long time.