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EverQuest2 Still good for new players?
savsnoop
Member Posts: 12
Dear MMO gamers,
I had played EverQuest2 about 6-7 years ago now? For maybe a year or two after the release date, got a 60-70 Illusionist defeated most raid content, all heritage quests/collectibles and was truly amazed at what this game had to offer to the players especially on the crafting side... Mine some rare ore and decide to make a rare piece of armor... or use carpentry to make an EXPENSIVE bed or house item. I found plenty to do but ended up having things to do in real life and slowly drifted away before new content was introduced again... My question
If anyone reading this is still an active player on the game, how enjoyable is the game these days.. do the devs still care about the players, what class's are good to level up with solo/wise. Are the battlegrounds interesting they have done? Do people still quest around the middle/higher levels.. ? Perhaps any useful information here could get myself and many more players to subscribe and enjoy this fantastic MMO again, or for the first time.
The big problem these days is a lot of MMO Gamers don't really enjoy any MMO's out at the moment and I think EQ2 might have what it takes to pull myself or more back into one.
Thanks!
Snoop
Comments
I haven't played in years myself, but some friends still do, and they still love it. With new expansions still rolling out, and content patches here and there, it still seems like the devs care about it. I was actually considering picking it back up and seeing if I could get into it again. I really loved the game, and I honestly don't recall exactly why it was that I ended up un-sub'n my account.
With the addition of RMTransactions, and it's availability on Steam, it's actually more appealing to me now then ever. I think I'll be re-upping my account some time soon.
True mages don't die. They strategically miscalculate.
I gave EQ2 a try.
Got real boring.
If you haven't tried World of Warcraft, I'd go with that first. EQ2 has copied many of WoW's features.
Both have free trials, give em a shot see what you like.
If you are going from WoW to EQ2, the simplified EQ2 combat system and simple mob AI will bore you to tears.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Your funny.
EQ2 was developed and released before WoW. They didn't "copy many of WoW's features." WoW obtained all if IT'S features by studying other games, and taking what was good from them. The WoW devs have said this many times.
And guess what? The WoW dev team is made up of a bunch of EQ players, some of whom actually played EQ2 as well.
WoW is just as terribly boring as the next theme park style MMO out there. EQ2 will eventually become boring for most players, until new content is added. But the statement that it's boring compared to WoW is pretty far off the mark, IMO.
Having played WoW since beta, I know a thing or two about it.
True mages don't die. They strategically miscalculate.
Ok this is strictly about EverQuest2, I played wow and hate what the game has become, I have 2 80's. That should be the last thing said about WoW. This thread is about EverQuest2 "The Original 3D MMO" besides Ultima. So more good stuff about the game please!
Snoop
If your about lore and exploration then EQ2 might be a game for you. There is a lot to do other than quest but if questing is your thing you will not find a shortage of them. Crafting is a type of "mini game" and while its not likely, you can fail at the process sometimes. I would suggest the free trial and see what you think.
EQ2 was developed and released before WoW. They didn't "copy many of WoW's features." WoW obtained all if IT'S features by studying other games, and taking what was good from them. The WoW devs have said this many times.
Emmm, no.
EQ2 has recently nerfed it's death penalty. They nerfed their death penalty so much that people now use death as a poor man's evac. There's even an EQ2 mod that will remove all your armor so you don't take a repair hit.
And there's a lot of other things that EQ2 has copied.
That new lowbee starting zone that everyone in EQ2 uses is basically a WoW type starting zone.
etc.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
EQ2 is a good game, I played it for many years and had made many friends and had a lot of fun doing it. However it has become a shadow of it's original self. None of the starting quests give out rewards worth keeping if you know anyone in the game that can craft you armor or weapons.
You can buy spell upgrades but they are not worth the effort it takes to find a trainer due in large to the research assistant that has been put into the game that gives you free master spells after a certain wait time.
The game from levels 1-79 has become a solo grind fest as hardly anyone in the lower levels bothers to group anymore, you simply don't need to it's become that easy.
The graphics engine is a major flaw and hampers performance, if you have played any newer MMO like AoC or Aion you will find the graphics dated and aweful looking.
When you do reach the endgame you will find yourself grinding the same zones over and over and over for Void shards and now Tokens, with the last expansion, to get the exact same gear every other player of that class has. One weapon / class yep that's it, you make your way to level 80 just to get the exact same weapon every other player of that class has. Used to have to raid for it, now it is just a quest to get it, and the remarkable abilities it gives you becomes a buff you use on yourself.
Death is a joke and most people that have a hard time on group or raid content use it to zerg bosses to death by respawning and rushing back to battle as self buffs aren't removed upon death anymore.
The exp curve has been nerfed so badly that you can level by killing mobs and doing next to no quests, with the refer a friend bonus of 200% exp, exp pots and playing on a bonus exp weekend I had a group mentor me and I made level 80 in 3 days. Granted you miss all the great quests doing that but seriously, why bother with them when the rewards are sub par, the starting lore gets sidetracked later in the game by Void beasts from the abyss O_o and nothing really meshes.
Good and evil have no bearing in the game except to hamper players from choosing certain race/class combo's.
BAttlegrounds is broken, beyond fixing as the PvP in EQ2 is terrible and was never meant to be in the game, pre planned groups spawn in, setup and destroy pugs in the battlegrounds, you can't concede either so if your getting you ass handed to you you have to stick it out and endure it till the end.
To the windy poster....paragraphs!
So EQ2 didn't come out before WoW? I could have sworn it did.
Edit:
EQ2 release date : November 8th, 2004
WoW release date : November 23rd, 2004
Dont forget patches, thats how mmo copy each other to be better.
That is the vocal minority, or do you actually have a poll from 5+ million mmo players on their level of satisfaction?
EQ2, try it and find out. The game hasn't changed much overall except lessening of the difficulty (especially solo for all classes and especially the latest changes to the way stats work) and increasing the amount of instancing. Though, there does seem to be less new content being developed and more reliance on repeatable content. However, that may just be my view of things and not the reality.
Much of this is a function of the tiny develop team supporting EQ2 and their primary goal seems to be to streamline content and its development, which does take away some of the flavor of the game.
Pvp. PvP in a game not built at all for pvp will always have serious problems. Even pvp games often have serious problems.
Forever looking for employment. Life is rather dull without it.
The game is better for new players compared to release in that players no longer need to rely on grouping (and getting a group is primarily a function of being within the level range or interests of the majority of the players). The game is rather empty feeling from a social perspective until approaching the level cap but at least all classes can now level up at a reasonable pace (same solo classes, the dps/utility classes, can still level up faster) without the need to group.
Forever looking for employment. Life is rather dull without it.
I'm an active EQ2 player, since February 2005. I've seen the best and the worst of the game in that amount of time, but I still feel the game is enjoyable and definitely worth playing. I've noticed of late a LOT of former EQ2 gamers returning to game, probably because of the Sentinel's Fate expansion and their curiosity. But I am also seeing "tons" of former WoW gamers in the Antonia Bayle server now. In talking with them, I'm finding that most are just tired of WoW, and looking for something refreshing. Having played WoW (for 5 months last year) I can understand their feelings.
Is it worth starting a new toon in EQ2, or returning to play on an older toon (if yours is still in the EQ2 database)? I'd say it definitely is, particularly if you take the option to join a decent size guild that supports it's low level players. There are 3 new "starter zones" in Everquest 2 now, aside from the Isle of Refuge for "good-aligned" Qeynosians and the Overlord's starter zone for "evil-aligned" Freeporters. Two of the new starter zones are: Timorous Deep in the Kunark zone, where the city of Gorowyn is located (an evil-aligned starter zone), and Nariak, which is off of the Commonlands and underground, also an evil-aligned city for the Arasai (evil fairies), and the 3rd is Kelethin in the continent of Faydwer, which is good-aligned and the home of the fae (good fairies). So in addition to the traditional starting zones you are familiar with, you have 3 other options for now.
Sometime in the next couple months, the new City of Halas, the former EQ1 home of the Barbarians, will rise in Norrath, and that will be a good-aligned starter zone, along with plenty of high end content, similar in style to Timorous Deep and Kunark (having low level content for starter characters and high end content for the rest of the players.
While it IS certainly possible to solo the content practically from start to finish, Everquest 2 was designed to be a group based game, and like all MMO's, a lot of the appeal of playing it is the potential for joining and participating in community based activities, including quest completions and instances. That's best done by joining a guild, sooner rather than later. If you get in a guild that is too small, or isn't social enough (people don't bother to participate in guild chat, or guild voice chat) or doing nothing, then move on to another guild. There's no law restricting the number of guilds you can join over time (altho you can only belong to one at a time per character). (Some guilds require you to have all your alts in their guild, others don't bother with that restriction, of course.) If you move on, you will find a guild that is large enough, active enough, and friendly enough to satisfy your need for community and groups.
Sony HAS simplified the game considerably over the last several years, and it's somewhat disappointing to those of us who have stayed with it all this time, but it is, nevertheless, STILL a challenging, and quite complex game to play. Even an experienced gamer will find it takes some time to learn all there is to know to "live" and function well in Norrath. Unlike WoW, which has no player housing, you may find the housing option a fun activity, particularly if you craft, because you can make some very sophisticated furnishings for your place. If you don't craft, you can do the Lore & Legend quests and bring home weapons as rewards to put on a "weapons wall" there. And of course you can buy crafted furniture, trees, grass and other garden elements etc., to put in it, or simply place furniture that you get from the shard instances you go to for the higher level shards (which you'll be getting to buy gear upgrades). Sony strongly supports the creativity of their gaming community by providing loot drops specifically intended for the housing. They have learned that many EQ2 gamers are "into" making acquariums and creative interior environments.
Sony has instituted five new and, I think interesting "starter instances" that provide house items, and temporary mounts for a month, along with clothing and special illusion spells to change your character into something different and interesting. These instances, called the Moonlight Enchantment instances, only appear once a month for 2 days, but are easy to solo, and the loot rewards are fun. Sony is also sponsoring more GM assisted live events that people can participate in for special rewards. The loot may not be as "sexy" or "uber" as you might wish, but generally it's interesting, often "fun" stuff.
The new expansion zone (Odus) up in the sky has some very challenging instances, and plenty of quests to complete, when you get your character to lvl 80 or above.
If you're jaded on Everquest 2, as one gamer who responded here certainly sounds, then perhaps the game isn't for you. I have to admit he made some very good points about shortcomings in the game. However, there's plenty to do, see, and experience, and it's still a great game. If it were not, I would have moved on long ago.
When it comes to PVE, their is no game like EQ2. So yeah OP its worth all the time you invest in it and its great for new players since levelling is smooth and without any useless time sinks.
So EQ2 didn't come out before WoW? I could have sworn it did.
Edit:
EQ2 release date : November 8th, 2004
WoW release date : November 23rd, 2004
The release date is irrelevant!
What matters is that EQ2 has changed $O(E) much since release that it nowadays is nothing more than a poor WoW copy.
The ironic thing is that I would probably still play EQ2 today if they just stuck with the original game idea. The constant nerfs, dumbing down and the strive to be like WoW did nothing but ruin this game.
Well. . .
I have been playing EQ2 since early 2007, has the game got easier, sure, has the game been changed so it is easier for casual players, sure. Have they introduced lots of things from WoW? Oh absolutely.
But. . .
EQ2 was waaaay to hardcore on release and you may like it or not but most MMO players does not want that kind of hardcore games anymore, YOU may want it but the majority of players do not. I am not even going to discuss if there even is a possibility for a major AAA hardcore MMO to be successful in the future. EQ2 is still the most hardcore major AAA title out there, the raids are harder (TSO raids anyone?) and the game is still quite complex compared to WoW. It might not be perfect (and nothing is) but it still delivers.
EQ2 is a quality game that is not without problems and you may dislike it as much as you want but there is not anything better out there, and it seems unlikely that anything better will be released in the foreseeable future.
Chi puo dir com'egli arde é in picciol fuoco.
He who can describe the flame does not burn.
Petrarch
Everquest 2 a copy of WoW ? *ROFL* Hardly.... player housing, monthly 2-day solo instances, appearance clothing and more clothing options than Macy's on Black Friday, mounts you can "stable" in your house... over 5,000 quests, many of them with full storyline content.... Oceans you can swim in -- DEEP DOWN swimmnig, shipwrecks with quest updates hidden in their hulls, mermaids you can have as a pet. ... foods and drinks with varying buffs and durations (to say nothing of just plain interesting to think about consuming)... player crafted, and authored books that you can place on display in your house or sell on the broker.
I'm sorry, but EQ2 is no clone of WoW .... YES, they borrow ideas from WoW, but at least their character options allow for plenty of choice, and their dark elves don't have ears long enough to substitute for wheelbarrow handles like those goofy looking blood elves. ony annoys their players by nerfing characters when they become too powerful, and maybe sometimes just for some way to make the game different. Yeah, it's meddlesome, but then, life is "change", isn't it? Nothing remains the same forever, cuz if it does, it's dead, and somebody's gonna sweep it out of the way. So players who have trouble adjusting to the constantly changing environment of Norrath are overlooking the obvious -- that's what keeps the game interesting, and it's also how life is in the real world. Sony's trying to make Norrath stay "alive" and challenging, even if their definition of "challenge" doesn't match your notion of a challenge.
People are always looking for ways to beat the system by getting a new toon from lvl 1 to 80 in 3 days or less, or by beating the toughest end raid zone with only your own characters "two-boxing" the content, or some other thing that actually defeats the purpose of the game (which, IMHO, is to provide enduring opportunities for exploration and experience over time). If you want a "fast food life experience" in Norrath, you can have it, but obviously burning your way through the content in as short a time as possible isn't going to provide you with a real satisfaction.
The rest of the gaming population in EQ2 take their time and work on their in-game relationships as well as the game content. But the one thing that I've seen in 5 years of gaming in Norrath is that people keep coming back to Norrath! People quit the game, and a year later show up in a guild chat and admit they got tired of it, but they're back. I know the same phenom happens in WoW and some other on-line games, but I think EQ2 is the best MMO out there. Sony works at making it that way.
The only thing Sony doesn't do that I think they should do more of is hype the h*** out of it the way Blizzard hypes WoW.
mm!look wise!eq2 is nothing like wow,when the mood is supposed to be dark trust me its dark .it oose darkness,when your in a desert you will be in a desert ,yes at sometime so starting area like freeport or timorous deep might feel a bit
dark espacially if it rains ,but it will be the same in desert it will be too nice a weather,as for play ,mm i think eq2 is an awsome game .im playing it but its not for everybody
i often said in the past this is an adult game,and i will repeat again !THIS IS AN ADULT GAME!yes some younger crowd
try it but on average the pace isnt to their liking and they move along to a wowesques game.
i could be wrong here since i havent played it long but from 1 to lvl 22 starting in timorous deep
i saw lot of player ,lot of guild .way more pvp in mok rend then i ever enticipated
the thing i love the most so far is the fact that you can have quest right in front of your face pass 10 time and never actually see it lol
ton of feature !i love the pace some might not like it.but the guild system is well done so you can chose your style of guild i chose a live and let live guild and so far im very happy!
ps:previous poster is absolutelly right !the issue right now with this game is this:
THAT TEAM DOESNT SHOW OFF ENOUGH!they have ton of feature that soe take for granted!
but then they dont want to steal the spot light from free realm true that might happen but hell it still stay in soe stable wich is the most important thing lol?
Interesting class choices, solo vs. group options, and The Battlegrounds...
Don't think anybody's addressed these questions of yours yet. But as to class options (particularly soloable class choices), the only quick and dirty assessment I can give on that is that Tanks solo better than healers do, and among the healer choices, the Fury has the greatest DPS so that class probably solo's better than some of the other healer classes. Among the scouting classes, I'd say the Assassin would solo best. However, I believe there's 16 class choices (I may be wrong... could be more). You didn't say what you'd prefer, so hard to answer your question specifically. Are you a tank "type", or a "scout" type or a healer "type"? Or are you a Mage "type"? Almost all of my toons are healers, and I have a troubador and an illusionist. The troubador is an awesome scout class, IMHO, and the illusionist is one "mezzer" type mage that is in serious demand for high end raid zones. The Dirge is another type of scout/bard that is also in demand as they can do raid-wide resurrections of entire groups of 24, as well as individual rezz'es, along with their buffing capabilities.
There's a lot of information on the various classes and their specific capabilities on the EQ2 Forums. Check it out before you decide on a class. Or wing it.... roll one, try it out to lvl 20, and delete, re-roll - "rinse and repeat" to learn, if you prefer.
The Battlegrounds? Aah, now here we get into the newest content in EQ2 with the newest expansion. Okay, now you talking WoW clone. However, I don't know what WoW's battlegrounds are like, so I'm not certain how much The Battlegrounds in EQ2 emulate WoW. If I know Sony devs, they are better than WoW's. But I'm prejudiced. The Battlegrounds offer 3 scenarios - Capture the Flag, Hold the Relic and Hold a Location (or something like that). Sony has it set up so players across all server domains can zone into the Battlegrounds, which is a drawback for the largely non-PvP player base, as the PvP server population gets in there with all the non-PvP players, and they have better gear, and a more predatory mindset. Ganking is the norm, particularly as The Battlegrounds IS a PvP environment. Rewards of playing the Battlegrounds are special tokens that can be used at special merchants in the harbors of the major cities to buy high in PvP gear.
Playing in The Battlegrounds can be by 6x6 group or by raid, your choice. If you're into PvP, I guess it's a great way to get some heart racing action. I'm not into PvP, so I don't go there, yet anway.
I just started to play EQ2 and I enjoy it alot. Im mostly playing solo or in smaller groups but that's enough for me at the moment and there's enough to do for sure.
The game has really evolved in a direction I like. I know there's a lot of people that won't agree with me but that's the way I feel. I like that there's loads of content and the fact that you can go back and self mentor (or mentor a lower level friend) and do content that you've missed or just to help a friend or so.
Tried: Most MMO's, Playing: EQ2
I recently started playing EQ2 again after 4 1/2 years, and I'm still trying to figure out why I stopped playing. Best PvE fantasy MMO around. So much to do, it can be overwhelming.
This post alone has sold me on downloading the trial again. Thank You sir, I was on the fence about trying this game again.
So, I guess what I have to ask is do I need Sentinel's Fate right now? I have all of the expacs up until that one and I'm not sure if I should buy it right now, or just hold off until I reach that content.
My current character is in her 30's or so at the moment and so I think it will be a little while until I reach that content.
@Splinki
You should wait till you get to that level of content. You have plenty of things to do so buying Sentinels Fate now will be waste of money.