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EQ 2 Raiding?
tleytek
Member Posts: 107
in Everquest II
I have just quit WoW since i got sick and tired of the graphics. In WoW i was a heavy raider and i was wondering... how is raiding like in EQ2, is it like WoW? is it done on a weekly bases with guilds? Is it a 40 man raids? anything about raids i would like to be informed on
Comments
Things could of changed since I've played...
Raiding in EverQuest 2 is quite different from most other MMRPGs. Raid size is limited to 24 players, which put significantly more pressure on the players to perform their roles well. There is little room for snoozing at the keyboard during EQ2 raids. Your guild may also begin obtaining raids at a very early level. There is plenty of raid content beginning at level 20 or so, and continuing up to level 80. Most raid zones are instanced to help eliminate disagreements and squabbles between guilds competing over rare spawns.
There are x2 (12players), x3, and x4 (24players) raids from level 20 on up. Most raids are instanced and have lockout timers just like WoW. There are, however, contested raids that roam about the land laying waste to passerby's and waiting for the right guild to come and take them down. The contesteds are absolutely the most difficult raids of any game you'll ever play (the way things are going), and give the greatest treasures.
There are some contested raid dungeons as well, but those are starting to get phased out because the only people that go in them are top raid guilds. Casual raiders can't compete against the hardcore players and they pretty much sat empty most of the time.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
ah eq2 raiding is exactly like wow raiding except its simpler all that is needed most of the time is to keep the tank alive and kill boss it gets so boring ive fake dced so many times now because of falling asleep
Id have to agree, i do not enjoy raiding either, when I came back last month I decided not to take part in any raiding (last time was about 2 years ago) and am having more fun just soloing.
Spoken like a true NON-raider, troll, or just a liar... Several raids in RoK REQUIRE your full attention all the time or you'll wipe. Contesteds require you to battle for the mob to get it down before another raid does. Plus, any raid guild runs heal parses, dps parses, AND multiple tanks to handle the influx of adds or IF the tank does go down so that you DON'T wipe (so there's a contradiction in your statement right there).
Nice try but Venril Sathyr, the bane of many guilds trying to get through RoK raiding, requires you to keep your power at a certain % or you wipe the raid. And many of the raids are the same way. Too bad you never did any of them to make an informed and intelligent comment here.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
gotta say, EQ2 raids are a lot harder than some may like to admit. Granted the old world ones get simple once you gear your guild up but the newer tiered raid system do offer progressive challenges to even the most well geared guilds.
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Let's put it this way... 8 months into this expansion, and the big monkey in Fens has only been killed on half the servers. Some servers haven't even cleared the boss in Veeshan's, and very few guilds have been able to take out Byzola in the Shard of Hate which was released a few months ago. Guilds and posers have even quit because this expansion separated the men from the boys and a lot of raiders who thought they were the sh*t were shown their true colors. You don't perform, you go home.
We just had 2 full guilds that didn't quit, and kept at it, finally got their mythicals last weekend. Bravo to them and they get to enjoy the spoils of victory of sticking it out and making a name for themselves.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
Let's put it this way... 8 months into this expansion, and the big monkey in Fens has only been killed on half the servers. Some servers haven't even cleared the boss in Veeshan's, and very few guilds have been able to take out Byzola in the Shard of Hate which was released a few months ago. Guilds and posers have even quit because this expansion separated the men from the boys and a lot of raiders who thought they were the sh*t were shown their true colors. You don't perform, you go home.
We just had 2 full guilds that didn't quit, and kept at it, finally got their mythicals last weekend. Bravo to them and they get to enjoy the spoils of victory of sticking it out and making a name for themselves.
Well, you are absolutely correct that this game has seperated the men from the boys. And most of the men quit. The casual family guilds that used to raid a lot can't even raid any of the Kunark raids. So you have tons of people leaving the game because there is no progression left for them. What you have left are the trial folks, first time players enjoying all that wonderful solo content, and hard core raiders. The rest, the majority, of the population got pissed and left.
Let's put it this way... 8 months into this expansion, and the big monkey in Fens has only been killed on half the servers. Some servers haven't even cleared the boss in Veeshan's, and very few guilds have been able to take out Byzola in the Shard of Hate which was released a few months ago. Guilds and posers have even quit because this expansion separated the men from the boys and a lot of raiders who thought they were the sh*t were shown their true colors. You don't perform, you go home.
We just had 2 full guilds that didn't quit, and kept at it, finally got their mythicals last weekend. Bravo to them and they get to enjoy the spoils of victory of sticking it out and making a name for themselves.
Well, you are absolutely correct that this game has seperated the men from the boys. And most of the men quit. The casual family guilds that used to raid a lot can't even raid any of the Kunark raids. So you have tons of people leaving the game because there is no progression left for them. What you have left are the trial folks, first time players enjoying all that wonderful solo content, and hard core raiders. The rest, the majority, of the population got pissed and left.
its not true that only hardcore guilds can raid in kunark zones, my guild is very casual and we also can clear all first tier kunark zones now. it just took us longer than the hardcore guilds, also we sometimes have to select targets depending on what people show up to the raid (you cannot do a zone where you need your best possible setup if you don't get your best possible setup).
but also in the past it was never easy to get to the top zones with a casual guild. how many casual guilds got to Deathtoll before they released EoF? How many casual guilds really progressed into Emerald Halls before they released Rok.
As a casual guild you cannot really expect to see the top raiding content before the next expansion gets released (some might get there, but most will not).
Let's put it this way... 8 months into this expansion, and the big monkey in Fens has only been killed on half the servers. Some servers haven't even cleared the boss in Veeshan's, and very few guilds have been able to take out Byzola in the Shard of Hate which was released a few months ago. Guilds and posers have even quit because this expansion separated the men from the boys and a lot of raiders who thought they were the sh*t were shown their true colors. You don't perform, you go home.
We just had 2 full guilds that didn't quit, and kept at it, finally got their mythicals last weekend. Bravo to them and they get to enjoy the spoils of victory of sticking it out and making a name for themselves.
Well, you are absolutely correct that this game has seperated the men from the boys. And most of the men quit. The casual family guilds that used to raid a lot can't even raid any of the Kunark raids. So you have tons of people leaving the game because there is no progression left for them. What you have left are the trial folks, first time players enjoying all that wonderful solo content, and hard core raiders. The rest, the majority, of the population got pissed and left.
its not true that only hardcore guilds can raid in kunark zones, my guild is very casual and we also can clear all first tier kunark zones now. it just took us longer than the hardcore guilds, also we sometimes have to select targets depending on what people show up to the raid (you cannot do a zone where you need your best possible setup if you don't get your best possible setup).
but also in the past it was never easy to get to the top zones with a casual guild. how many casual guilds got to Deathtoll before they released EoF? How many casual guilds really progressed into Emerald Halls before they released Rok.
As a casual guild you cannot really expect to see the top raiding content before the next expansion gets released (some might get there, but most will not).
Ok, here is the real problem. There is no raid progression. There is no easy raids > medium raids for the beginner or family guilds, except the previous level 70 stuff. There is no gear worth recieving there because the solo quest rewards are way better than the fabled gear. To do any of the Kunark raid content you need to have a raid with perfect balance, the right classes, the right gear, just enough bards etc..
So you have people that become completely bored with the game, who either quit or leave their guild to join a hard core raiding guild, which then undermines the more casual family guilds. That was our main problem in that we would get just close enough to having a decent raid force and then lose key people because they wanted to move on to the next teir, it became a never ending cycle until just gave up on the raiding. It would be nice if there were easy enough raid content to use as a stepping stone to Protector's Realm and Veeshans. The whole RoK expansion was just done so horribly, making all old content obsolete and effectively shrinking the game.
I feel the game was at its best with Kindom of Sky. The whole game from solo content to grouping, crafting and raiding was spot on. The raid progression was well though out and catered for a variety of player styles. The feeling of achievement was immense with KOS, but with EOF and ROK it was lost.
But to answer your question, more thought has to be given to EQ2 raiding than WOW. Most Wow players think there are elite players, but its just playschool compared to EQ2.
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i enjoy everquest 2's raiding alot. i haven't reached the higher end content yet but my guild is a casual guild that's raider friendly and i don't know what all this talk about how hard it is and hardcore players only.
While i understand it takes a few more tries than the hardcore raiding guilds. my guild finished shard of hate raiding. it just took a few more tries to get it figured out.
i say join up op. you can hop on my server and play with a valo skater that way
Well, there is a progression, but it's sorta screwed up. It's supposed to be, Tier 1 (PB, Thuuga, and PR), then Tier 2 (VS and Overking), then Tier 3 (Leviathan), and Tier 4 (VP with Trakanon at the end). There are Dominus contesteds that are around Tier 1 difficulty, and the Avatars that range from Tier 4 to harder than Trakanon, and Tangrin (the monkey, who's hardest of all). Later, they threw in Hate that ranges from Tier 1 (3 bosses), Tier 2 (the sisters), Tier 4 (Maestro) and Byzola (who's a bit harder than Trakanon).
The problem, as you touched on it, is that the rewards from Tier 1, and mostly Tier 2 is no better than solo/group stuff you get in RoK instances, and Leviathan is easier than Overking or VS. VP has a noticable roadblock at Nexona and Druushk at the beginning of the zone, and everything after them is easier except for Trakanon.
So people get discouraged that they get crappy loot (worse than they already have) for the first Tier of raiding, and VS is probably one of the hardest mobs in the game for having to have EVERYONE on top of their game. He's easy for hardcores to kill, but even then just one mistake and it's all over, and he's just a Tier 2 mob.
It all starts at the solo game. I don't know what they were thinking, but giving such incredible rewards for the solo game was such a blunder. And the raid difficulties should have progressed as intended. It would have made a lot more people happier, and would have given more incentive to keep at it to get to whatever place they were confortable with. I have no problems, and most people feel this way, with the difficulties of any of the mobs. It's just the order and the rewards for them.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
Well, there is a progression, but it's sorta screwed up. It's supposed to be, Tier 1 (PB, Thuuga, and PR), then Tier 2 (VS and Overking), then Tier 3 (Leviathan), and Tier 4 (VP with Trakanon at the end). There are Dominus contesteds that are around Tier 1 difficulty, and the Avatars that range from Tier 4 to harder than Trakanon, and Tangrin (the monkey, who's hardest of all). Later, they threw in Hate that ranges from Tier 1 (3 bosses), Tier 2 (the sisters), Tier 4 (Maestro) and Byzola (who's a bit harder than Trakanon).
The problem, as you touched on it, is that the rewards from Tier 1, and mostly Tier 2 is no better than solo/group stuff you get in RoK instances, and Leviathan is easier than Overking or VS. VP has a noticable roadblock at Nexona and Druushk at the beginning of the zone, and everything after them is easier except for Trakanon.
So people get discouraged that they get crappy loot (worse than they already have) for the first Tier of raiding, and VS is probably one of the hardest mobs in the game for having to have EVERYONE on top of their game. He's easy for hardcores to kill, but even then just one mistake and it's all over, and he's just a Tier 2 mob.
It all starts at the solo game. I don't know what they were thinking, but giving such incredible rewards for the solo game was such a blunder. And the raid difficulties should have progressed as intended. It would have made a lot more people happier, and would have given more incentive to keep at it to get to whatever place they were confortable with. I have no problems, and most people feel this way, with the difficulties of any of the mobs. It's just the order and the rewards for them.
I think the best solution would have been to keep the previous level 70 raid gear viable for a smooth transition into tier1 of kunark raids. With the solo rewards being subpar to the level 70 fabled raid gear. In fact it would have been best to keep the levels at 70.
I just hate it that games keep raising level caps, instead of using those previous level 70 raids for a easy transition into the harder stuff, they make all the old content obsolete and useless. RoK has really made me hate EQ2, and I used to love the game. bah!
You have obviously never tried Venril Sathir or many other raids.
I agree that something went really wrong with RoK. The solo quest grind is horrid and the only reason I am getting back into the game from VGSoH is that I am hoping that the next expansion is LDoN in nature and really puts group or atleast non redundant leveling/progression in the game.
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The solo quest grind that came out with ROK is one of the most common complaints for that expansion.
There was a lot of good new content in ROK, but the 70-80 quest cycle is like a page taken from the WOW 50-60 pages.
My feeling is that they wanted to make the game more "solo friendly", and they went too far. However it looks like the next expansion will do what should have been done with ROK, and make it much more small group and "mini-raid" friendly.
It sounds like the design teams vision is still all over the map with no consistant goal in mind. The next expansion is under the wings of a new big cheese so odds are more design changes.
I think that happens in any game that stays around for a while. Part of it is that game engines get updated and new things become easier to program. Not to mention that design teams change quite often as people move on, start anew, etc.
The just released GU47 I think goes a long ways towards "consolidating" much of the previous expansions and original game, since now at least most player used items will be a lot more consistent with levels and difficulty throughout the game.
It is not so much that, but the fact that they do not incorporate the things that DID work from previous expansions. For example, the smart loot ideas from KoS were great and refreshing, but then they threw it all away in VP. I just don't get that. If something is liked and works and makes people happy, keep doing it, don't throw it all away and keep starting over...
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."