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Why should one choose EQ2?
cybertrucker
Member UncommonPosts: 1,117
So Currently not playing anything. Cancelled my RIFT account yesterday as I had not logged on in about 2 months... I have been debating going back to Vanguard which is a game I used to love. Played for 2 years and Now that i am hearing that Devs are going to start supporting it again. I am thinking of giving it a go again.
That being said. As much as I love Vanguard. Norrath has always been my favorite IP setting for MMOs out of all of the ones I have visited/played. Everquest 1 holds a special nostalgic place for me in my memories. Vanguard in many ways captured some of that feeling which is one of the reasons I loved that game.
However. EQ2. When it launched there were many things about the gameplay I just didnt care for. I played it for 2 months, and then left for WOW. I came back about a year and a half later to try it out one more time, and was dragged away by a friend back to WOW. I actually liked alot of the changes I saw back then. However thhen Vanguard launched and I decided to go there. Since my time away from I have played countless games and always came away feeling mehh about the game after a few short months. Never really looked back to EQ2.. SO many titles promising so much and delivering a reshash of WOW with a different skin.
Right now as I have said I am not playing anything, and thinking maybe Telon. However.... I miss Norrath. I cant honestly see myself going back to EQ1.. I enjoy looking back at the game thru the rose colored glasses I put on when thinking about it. I dont want those rose colored glasses to go away.. LOL call me selfish with my memories.
So about EQ2... Why should one choose it over Vanguard? I realize it has WAYYY more content. It is placed in an IP I love. However gameplay wise? Community wise? Will I come away thinking I made the wrong decision?
I enjoy grouping over Soloism.. I enjoy running dungeons and meeting new people. Yes I enjoy a good PUG even.....Granted in SOLO oriented games they tend to blow. As everyone wants to grandstand. But in games like EQ1 and Vanguard grouping is the norm and people know how to group well because of that. I have a level 50 in Vanguard I could go back to. Will coming to a game as old as EQ2 even allow me to find a group? Everyone being higher level. I dont think I would play on the free servers.. As I think they bring the worst crowd many times.
So I come to all of you on the forums here. To help me maybe make my final decision...EQ2 or Vanguard? Why should one choose EQ2?
Comments
Well, EQ2 have more content including loads of expansions and more players.
Vanguards crafting is better and it looks slightly better as well though.
Gameplay wise are they not that different really. I can only advice you to do a trial of both games and select the one you prefer.
But EQ2X, the F2P version is far worse than VG (and regular P2P EQ2 as well). Good if you want to try out the game but SOE are far too greedy to make a good F2P model.
Umm, sounds like grouping would be important to you. I think of the 2 games you mentioned that Vanguard would be the best option if that is true. I very rarely ever grouped the last time i went back to EQ 2. That was levling, i never stayed long enough to get to max and see how it might change though.
I would suggest that you maybe take a look at Dungeons and dragons online https://signup.ddo.com/ddo.php
Think that is one of the few games out that really seems to be more for grouping if you like that more.
DDO is F2P so just a DL if you have not tried it out before.
Hope you find something you like:)
EQ2 is the most massive high fantasy MMO available, with much much more charcter depth (AA system) then most othe AAA games available, on a fast computer the game looks awesome in most zones...
There is allways so many things to do, its mindnumbling .... i have my XP/AA slider set so 80% of my XP is converted to AA leveling 5 times as slow as possible.. and still i can't do all content available for my level... Sometimes its a bit grindy but as an oldfashioned MMO player i can live with that...
Vanguard is a really nice game too, but i allways get irritated by the clumsy character annimations.. If they add better annimations and go F2P i will surely revisit the world, there where some lovely classes in the game... but for now i think EQ2 is the better overall experience.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
EQ2 does not have more content than Vanguard, unless your idea of content is a camp with 5 NPCs giving you literally hundreds of quests and sending you back and forth to the same area, until you finally outlevel it and are sent to another similar camp. In VG you can spend months without repeating anything, the world is maybe 10 times bigger, there are still more dungeons in VG than in EQ2 (even after all those adventure packs and expansions to EQ2) and there is diplomacy, which can't even be compared with EQ2, since EQ2 has none.
EQ2 zones are limited, instanced, linear, predictible.
Vanguard areas are vast, non-instanced, non-linear and very surprising at times if you like exploration.
Not only that, once you play VG classes, you will not want to go back to EQ2 classes. The combat and class system in VG is simply better in every aspect.
REALITY CHECK
Crazy pricing, SOE has it, aside; there's a lot of game here.
It hasn't aged very well as far as animations go, but if you compare the zones and quest design from 5 years on to their older stuff you can see progress. They've borrowed from the other genre giants where they needed to and added their own little flare to it as well.
Biggest con; their graphics processing hasn't improved. Fix for that, it's really common these days for even economical priced machines to have the processer and ram to support the game just fine and it won't burn out an Intel sodered in vid chip.
It's a slow paced game. Quests at low levels are really fun. Then they're not. Get to Desert of Ro questing levels and it gets fun again.
The forced areas to make the game more soloable than it's launch build was are still glaring ugly bits. But I think they're still replacing and fixing zones over time so they'll probably get fixed.
If you play; bring two friends is my suggestion at the very least. It's more fun as a group like any MMORPG. But at least duoing is recommended.
I used to play MMOs like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
Some good thoughts here and thanks... I cant say that I would ever go back to DDO.. I didnt really care for the cramped playstyle of the game... As for Vanguard.. I realize its a huge world.. Like I said I have a level 50 from my 2 years there.. I really cant believe it is still larger than EQ2 after all that has been released for EQ2 over the years and nothing hardly for VG.
Hmm well this does give me some bits to think about. I am also talking to 3 of my friends to see what they think about coming over to one of the games with me possibly. Right now I am not really in a hurry as I am getting my new laptop this week. Should be arriving today or tomorrow from newegg. This one is not running well after it took a hard fall. Keeps locking up on me... Also have Space Marine sitting in an unopened box..Have a feeling I will be glued to that game for a few weeks, at least when I am not painting my Warmachine Models or working. (work 70+hrs a week). So this gives me some time to decide.
So..I was reading up on the EQ2 site... Has beastlord already went live to play or is that the expansion that launches in November?
I recently reinstalled EQ2 after 3 years and realized that this game looks a lot better than I remember. This is most likely due to the fact that 3 years ago I still had my really old and slow HP computer.n It makes me want to install some other games to see how they look on this new rig.
Content is number of quests, world size, number of dungeons and similar things.
And EQ2 have more content. Sure, a lot of EQ2s content is not great content, like the stupid collect books type of quests that for some reason makes you kill 50 of the animals in the forrest because they have eaten pages (not a book I want to read after that) but sincce it have so many some of them are very good.
Both are good games.
Here is a list of EQ2s dungeons and instances.
Here is a list of them in Vanguard.
No one said that Vanguard have too few fungeons, we said EQ2 have more and it does.
Which game is right for OP or anyone else is up to them, I shortly stated the ups and downs of the game like OP asked me.
Wow... EQ2s list is HUGE!
So um no guk?? Wow bummer that was my favorite dungeon of all time LOL....
Guks in that list
The Ruins of Guk: Halls of the Fallen (80)
The Ruins of Guk: The Lower Corridors (80)
The Ruins of Guk: Ykesha's Outer Stronghold (80)
EQ2 fan sites
EQ2 is huge and probably larger than Vanguard but it is more broken up so I can see how some would think it's a smaller world. The problem it has is there is really only one zone (the latest expansion) that is populated anymore and even then many people just hang out in their guild halls until they zone over to a dungeon. This really makes the world seem mostly empty and gives the impression that fewer are playing than really all. The upcoming dungeon finder will make it easier to get into PUG's but also isn't going to help the open world population issue.
My advice, join a large ACTIVE guild and you will probably enjoy the game. The good news is it shouldn't be hard to find guilds looking for new members these days. A lot of guilds are doing ok but it is getting harder and harder to replace members when they leave.
Ahh thanks I missed it..
So when I played last i had a level 18 paladin (i play a tank in almost all MMOS I play)
and a 34 conjuror (used to love magicians in EQ1)
Now I hear Beastlords are coming back which I used to love in EQ1 as well.
If I were to start back to EQ2. What are the general thoughs and opinions of those 3 classes? Obviously Beastlords are probably speculation right now. So really 2 of the classes?
Depends what you want to do. Tanks are always wanted for small group content but have a hard time finding spots on raids. So if you want to do mostly 6 man content either would work but if you want to do 24 man raids the conjuror would probably be easier to find a spot for. Everyone is going to make a Beastlord so there will be no shortage of them come expansion.
Curious why do tanks have a hard time finding spots in raids? To many of them? This is the problem I had though in vanguard. I was in a tank heavy guild I played a Paladin. The guild leader and 2 of the officers were tanks. So when the guild raided you knew if you went and you were a tank you would be sitting for 99% of the raid in group 4 with your thumbs up your -ss..
If you never raided in APW with the whole 4 groups could go but only 3 can participate you know what I am talking about. This is one of the reasons I actually ended up leaving Vanguard. I didnt want to leave a guild that I had so many friends in.. But I wanted the chance to raid (and actually participate) which wasnt going to happen the way the guild and raiding was set up at the time. So instead of leaving the guild and causing issues. I left the game along with about 3 of my friends.
So ya curious about to why tanks arent needed on raids?
EQ2 is polished and still supported. Vanguard has been left to rot for the past year or so. They are doing a few bug fixes now, but theres nowhere near the new content that EQ2 has.
Regarding what you should play, do not play a tank or healer as your first character. These classes are gear dependant and it really shows when you are undergeared for a dungeon. Make a DPS or support class (bard, enchanter) first and feed your tank / healer alt gear from shards / faction merchants / heirloom drops.
Beastlords are not available yet but there is info known about them
Beastlords will be Scout class wearing monk gear - with a pet
and EVERYONE will be playing one in november hehe
I highly recommend trying conjuror -- paladins are also a popular grouping tank
tanks are needed on raids but usually 2 or 3 is all that is required
- rest of spots are filled with dps / healers / chanters and bards
EQ2 fan sites
Because EQ2 is still the best mmorpg on the market in my opinion. Best housing, best community, best crafting, best solo play, best end game raiding. With that said everyone is different and likes different things this is just me. However I would add one thing if your comparing it to vanguard ppl still play eq2, but vanguard has very few ppl playing. If you go with eq2 get on the Antonia Bayle it has almost twice the population of any other servers and is where all sony sponsored player ran events are. The only thing that is not great in eq2 is the pvp. If your hard core pvp player there are better choices, however if pvp is only a small part of what you like in mmo's then I really do not think you can go wrong with eq2. Last but not least no mmo I have played has the amount of content eq2 does you will never get to a point where your char can not get any better there is just too much content.
I play EQ2,but i won't lie and act like a fanbois,it is not the perfect game and actually has imo many design flaws.The reason i play it is because it is the game that makes the most sense from an overall standpoint.IMO the ONLY game that was different was FFXI,but they turned that into a total candy ass game,so now i choose EQ2 until something better comes along.
Eq2 offers most everything all the other games offer,with still some of the best looking graphics [if you can play on full].It has more classes than most games,however there is a ton of repetitiveness in both class designs and ability/spells.
Gaming in MMOIRPG's has really become very linear,npc questing all way to end level then loot grinding.Since this is all people do in every single game,nothing else really matters does it? Might as well enjoy soem nice graphics whilst doing the same old.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Forgot to mention the biggest factor to playing eq2,the freeport free to play server.There is no such thing as free to play we all know that,but there is some value to this design and i have yet to see anyone mention it or even recognize it.
The reason this works so good is because you can duo/tri/quad box if you want and really only need 1 pay account 2 for optimum.I played almost every game with 2 pay accounts,so nothing changes here.However i can add that third or fourth buffer that pretty much turns my duo into a full group.You can easily accomplish the same thing with only 1 pay account,but your healer will be using the next tier down for spells.
So this is where the reral benefit is to playing on eq2x,if you don't take advantage of duo/tri/quad boxing then it's only benefit is more players.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
That Vanguard list says it all, only one level 50 dungeon.... while teh leveling content is quite fun... the game obviously never got finished.... And unless they turn to a F2P model i can't see any expansions happening...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Well i decided to open up an Sation All Access Pass.. i will not be playing anything though untill i get home this weekend. Out on the road right now. My new computer should be arriving today or tomorrow.
I will toy around with both and give EQ2 another go for sure.
The station pass is really a good deal if you want to play more than one of the games on the list. I have activated it for a month or so a few times to try out Vangaurd, DCUO, SWG, etc while continuing to play EQ2.
What "forced areas"? If you don't care for their "golden path", you're free to bug out of whatever noob zone you started in and go play somewhere more to your liking.
VG and EQ2 are ok games. Vanguard is the more original game. EQ2 gameplay changes past KoS. Its as if you play a different game from 71-90. Vanguard has only 1.5 servers, but seems to turn into the home of oldschoolers. EQ2 has more content to solo due to (self)metoring.