My thoughts after 2 days of EQ2

Hubabuba

I know most, if not all, of this has been said before, but after getting an unexpected beta account from www.mmorpg.com I thought the least I could do in return is offer my opinions....and thx again MMORPG.COM

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for in EQ2....I played EQ beta, early beta, I remember when they first opened Oggok, I got hooked and played for a good 3 years after release.  When they did the server splits around the time of Kunark I helped to found a guild that would be the premeir guild on our server for years to come, we were the first to do everything and we had no real competition for at least another year.  But after a while other guilds started catching up to us and uber spawns became hotly protested, eventually things got downright ugly, EQ lost its appeal and I quit.  With I read about instanced uber encounters my interest was sparked.

I was hoping that EQ2 would be a lot like EQ1, but after reading so much about it I began to have my doubts if I'd like it.  I havn't played enough to speak about the high end game of EQ2, or really even the mid-game of EQ2, but starting out its showing a LOT of potential.

1.  Graphics - awsome, but of course nobody has the hardware to really run it at its full potential.  The good news is there are sooo many graphic settings you can tweak it to the point where YOU like it...keeping in line with your hardware.  If character detail is more important than water detail, then turn down the water.  Thats a very basic example, but I think you get the point.  Turn down what you don't feel to be important to your visual satisfaction, turn the things you do feel to be important up a notch or two.  With so many settings you will be able to find a combination that works for you.

2.  Spell Effects - Mind blowing.  When a druid cast thorns on you, your character is covered in thorns (but they don't last for the duration of the spell unfortunatlly), mages swinging chains then throwing them at their opponent then the chains plant themselves in the ground, swirls of leaves at the druids feet, the list goes on I don't want to spoil everything

3.  Letterbox - I didn't like the letterbox at first, but it grew on me.  Transparent backgrounds are pretty standard on in-game windows these days, but the problem is depending on what you are looking at (ie ice/snow on the ground vs lush green vegitation) can make these transparent windows hard to read.  But with the constant black background of the letterbox, this isn't an issue.  And the letterbox view serves another important function too...fewer complex graphics to render and that means better performance.

Enough about visuals, on to the game play...

4.  Quests - the newbie quests are the best I've seen any any game.  By the time you leave the newbie island you'll have a full set of armor.  And they do a good job at showing you not only how the quest system works, but how the basics of the game work, as well as showing you around so you aren't completely lost in this new world.  The quest journal is nice, and once you select something from your quest journal (or get a new quest) it shows what steps you need to complete on the main game window so that you don't have to keep refering back to the quest journal window....very user friendly and intuative.

5.  Soloing - Not much solo content after you leave newbie lands (and some of the content on the newbie land that requires a group).  Even less solo content after you leave the confines of your starting city and head to the Commonlands, I imagine Antonica is the same.  But fret not....

6.  Grouping - Since most mobs come in groups you need a group to fight them.  The good news is that grouping is easy.  Most groups will take anybody, at least in my limited experience.  They may not answer you when you /ooc 15 warrior LFG, but if you walk up to a group and ask for an invite you'll usually get it.  More people are better than fewer, and due to the arch-type structure a group is benifited by any class.  As long as you've got a tank and a healer you are pretty much set.  I've seen numerous posts about needing 2 healers per group....thats just not true in all groups.  Sure get a group with 1 tank then let that 1 tank pull 4-5 yellow mobs, yup, you'll need a 2nd healer.  Get 2+ tanks and have them each taunting different mobs and you can get by on one healer.  The best group I've been in so far we had 5 tanks and 1 healer.  Of course I'm only level 15, things may be different at higher levels.

7.  Race Selection - it matters at low level.  I made a Dark Elf Warrior....he sucks.  I was grouped with a troll warrior who was the same level, he had 100+ hp more than me (very significant at level 10).  Ogres I've grouped with do much better damage.  Stats matter at first.  Maybe things will change in the mid to high end game, but if you want to go with some odd race/class combination to start with expect a difficult youth.

There is still a lot for me to learn about this game before I can say it'll fill EQ1's shoes, but so far its definitally got my attention and I can see myself spending the time to make it to the high end game.

jimothypetro

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3. Letterbox - I didn't like the letterbox at first, but it grew on me. Transparent backgrounds are pretty standard on in-game windows these days, but the problem is depending on what you are looking at (ie ice/snow on the ground vs lush green vegitation) can make these transparent windows hard to read. But with the constant black background of the letterbox, this isn't an issue. And the letterbox view serves another important function too...fewer complex graphics to render and that means better performance.

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You know you can turn that comploetely off, or just make it smaller, right?

It was the first thing I did when I got in the game.

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"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, chairman of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977