New Player looking into Everquest

WDSnav

How is this game better than wow?(I am playing wow right now.) Is this game better than guild wars?(Never played guild wars before? And lastly does it ever reset?Like you lose all your charaters and items and you start fresh again.

Flem

How is it better than WoW, well for starters the community is more mature, which is a plus for me.  Also WoW is too easy, levelling is too quick.  EQ2 has more content, more races, more classes basically more of everything.  Better crafting, better quests, better graphics.  Ok ill stop there you get the gist of it.

Guild Wars, yes EQ2 is better than Guild Wars, why, because Guild Wars aint a mmorpg.

Lastly the game does not reset, you could play now, quit, come back a year later and pick up where you left off with all your characters intact.

Krogg

Your community is who you surround yourself with, personally I didn't find anything more mature about eq2.   There were still people abusing game mechanics to dominate pvp and escape losing, there were people cursing in chat.

The only thing that will make one game better than another, beyond stability, is how close it comes to what you are looking for in a gaming experience. 

EQ2 is a great game.  WoW is a great game.  Both top notch in their fashion, and both have immature and mature individuals comprising their playerbase.  

EQ2 employs a more realistic graphic and gives you more of a life-style environment for your character (home, placeable items, pets, rent, etc), whereas WoW is more of an abstract setting with dynamic colors and an endgame more focused on raiding and pvp.  To be honest the pvp when I last played EQ2 lacked any direction or purpose in comparison. 

WoW pvp servers are open, EQ2 has level ranges depending on the zone, with some totally open higher up.

There are many differences, but the main thing is that both games do what they do very well, and you really need to decide for yourself.  There are people on either side of the fence that will swear on their souls that their game is better... it's like religion almost.

DrFod

I played WoW for about 6 months and had a good time, that is until I hit the lvl cap and found there was nothing to do but raid. Rolled a couple of alts and found I was just found it was an exact repeat of what I did with my first character, so I quit.



Then I picked up EQ2 about 8 months ago and haven't looked back. It's like WoW in many ways (don't forget that both games borrow heavily from EQ1) but with so much more depth and content that like me you end up a little bitter at the time you spent in WoW.

• Better graphics. This is subjective I know and while I found that WoW has excellent art direction the graphics are looking very dated. EQ2, even after 2 1/2 years is still one of the best looking MMOs out there, and it adds to the immersion.
• EQ2 has a much more engaging crafting process, it's not just a case of getting the materials and pressing a button.
• Not only do you level your toon, but you can level up your guild too. You do this by completing writs, heritage quests or guild raids. This allows you to buy better mounts, better houses and other status items.
• EQ2 has player housing, while WoW is one of the few MMOs that doesn't has housing it's nice to come home after adventuring and hang your latest trophy on the wall.
• Better communtity, I don't think I need to expand on this.
• Mentoring system, you can group with high level players who can temporarily drop down to your level to help do quests and clear instances.
• More content. With over 12,000 quests you will never be short of things to do. It has it's usual share of 'kill 10 rats' type quests but even those seem to have more purpose to them. The game world also makes WoW's seem small in comparison.
• Much longer endgame. Even when you hit 70 there is still a ton of stuff for you to do. Lots of raids if you want them, heritage and signature questlines. And if you do roll an alt in a different starting city, it's almost like starting a new game.

Not sure what you mean by 'does it reset'. They certainly don't delete anyone's toons, I've heard of ppl coming back after 2 years and their chars where they left them. No sort of permadeath or corpse runs either if that's what you mean.



The main thing against EQ2 is that the PvP isn't that good, certainly WoW has it beat here. PvP was not in the game from that start and was only added in an expansion, and it seems to me that the classes are too imbalanced. Not a concern for me as I only play PvE now.

All I can say is that if you really want to give it a try pick up the trial and give it a go.

Flipsyde10

I've been with WoW for 2 years now, and while its been fun, I feel its time to move on.  I don't think there is any game out there that can match the balance and intensity of the PVP there, especially on the PVP servers (which I played solely).  The thing I did not like about WoW is that is it EXTREMELY gear dependent, and that gear is really tough to come by.  You need 20 or 40 man raids to get the stuff, and even then, its not guaranteed you'll get anything that run.  I'm interested in EQ2, but I would like to find out more about it.  First off, when you raid, are you guaranteed the end prize when you kill the final boss with your group (i.e. does everyone get the item)?  I remember in Asheron's call that when a group went in for a quest, everyone got the drop at the end.  It was always the same drop by the same boss, so you knew what you were getting, which I kind of liked.  There is nothing crappier than questing with a group for 4 hours, and then having no guarantee that you would even get something at the end.

Kalmenicus

EQ2 certainly doesn't reset.  I went back to playing it after 2 years gone, and my old characters were still there, right where I left them.  The game had changed a lot, so my higher level characters were strangers to me, and I started new characters and felt like I had opened the box on a whole new game. And it's a great, fun, engaging, immersive, intellectually stimulating game.

EQ2 does seem to have a more mature community than WoW.  I've visited 3 different Live servers, plus Test Server, since I returned, to visit old EQ/EQ2 friends, and in each case, I've met new people who've been a lot of fun.

I played WoW for a few months, on one of the most crowded, oldest servers, and found exactly 3 people who played the game in a mature, respectable way.  The other 1400 people I met were neither mature nor respectable, they were playing for themselves.  Most of them were playing solo, didn't want to do anything except play solo, and if they couldn't play solo, they didn't want to play.  Except when they wanted to run a dungeon/instance, then they'd find a group, and Greed roll on loot they had no use for, when everyone else was rolling Need.  Hundreds of times, I watched players like this win the best items available in that instance, and immediately head for home and log off.

I haven't seen that as much in EQ2, either back 2 years ago, or recently when I started again.  EQ2 just doesn't have that many kids, griefers.  It's a tougher game, but more rewarding and fun in the long run.

Maybe your experiences in WoW were different, but you ARE looking for something different to play, so I'm assuming WoW hasn't been the greatest for you.

You can visit http://everquest2.station.sony.com/#home to see all about EQ2.  Or visit the EQ2 forums here, the game page here.  Same with Guild Wars.  Visit their game page here, follow the links to their official pages, learn more there.

Good luck with whichever game you play.  Have fun.

Kalmenicus the EQ2 Recommender

Kalmenicus

Originally posted by Flipsyde10

I've been with WoW for 2 years now, and while its been fun, I feel its time to move on.  I don't think there is any game out there that can match the balance and intensity of the PVP there, especially on the PVP servers (which I played solely).  The thing I did not like about WoW is that is it EXTREMELY gear dependent, and that gear is really tough to come by.  You need 20 or 40 man raids to get the stuff, and even then, its not guaranteed you'll get anything that run.  I'm interested in EQ2, but I would like to find out more about it.  First off, when you raid, are you guaranteed the end prize when you kill the final boss with your group (i.e. does everyone get the item)?  I remember in Asheron's call that when a group went in for a quest, everyone got the drop at the end.  It was always the same drop by the same boss, so you knew what you were getting, which I kind of liked.  There is nothing crappier than questing with a group for 4 hours, and then having no guarantee that you would even get something at the end.

Ah... another post that I would've responded to in my previous post, had I seen it in time.

Let's see.  No, everyone who kills the final boss in a big raid does not get the great item.  Generally,  guilds perform these raids, and the guild has a process for determining who gets the item.

That's one of the reasons people put a lot of time and effort into their guild membership.  They want to be considered when that super item drops.  There's a hundred other reasons for putting a lot of time and effort into the guild membership, too.

When you join a "pickup" group, to go after a group-level dungeon/instance, the group will generally have to discuss the loot options and decide how to handle it.  Usually this works best with people who have played together, but even in a pickup group with strangers, it's not hard to work out the details.  I've seen very little "loot whoring" in EQ2.  If you're on a quest, anyone in the group that has that quest will be able to get the quest item, in most cases.  Those are usually handled completely different than random loot drops.  And rightly so.

I don't deal with PvP issues. I'm a PvE player, although in WoW I did the PvP battlegrounds to gain points to use to purchase some of the great items available only from playing the PvP battlegrounds.  I wasn't in it for titles, or anything else.  I didn't really care for it.  I've never tried ANY kind of PvP in EQ2, and probably never will.

Kalmenicus the EQ2er

Flipsyde10

Out of curiosity, how long do raids take in EQ2?  And how many people are usually involved?

The reason I ask is that if the raid groups are only like 5-10 people, the chances of you getting something good in a raid are pretty high.  If they are 40 man raids (like in WoW as you know) then the chances are butt.  I really don't like running a dungeon 15 times to get just one piece of armor in an 8-piece set. 

Niber

Originally posted by Flipsyde10


Out of curiosity, how long do raids take in EQ2?  And how many people are usually involved?
The reason I ask is that if the raid groups are only like 5-10 people, the chances of you getting something good in a raid are pretty high.  If they are 40 man raids (like in WoW as you know) then the chances are butt.  I really don't like running a dungeon 15 times to get just one piece of armor in an 8-piece set. 

Let me first say raiding in EQ2 leaves a lot to be desired.  If you're mostly interested in raiding you're going to be disappointed.



But to answer your question, raids are 24 people.  In a year you would be lucky if you had a full set of armor. Armor sets take a VERY long time to farm because of how random the drops are.

lomiller

A really good raid force can complete most raids in under 3 hours, but a less experienced one will end up taking a lot longer. There are some 2X raids (2 groups of 6) but the 4X raids have much better drops.  There are also a couple quest lines that run through raid instances so simply completing the raids can yield you some very nice items like the Wurmslayer.  

 

http://eq2.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?eq2item=19048

Also, in many of the raid zones trash mobs have a chance at dropping something called relic molds.  If you win one of these you can turn it in for a fabled armor piece designed for your class.  These are a notch below the fabled items that drop from the named mobs but still quite good so you don’t have to raid the same zone over and over waiting for a specific drop for your class. For example if a cloth legging mold dropped any cloth wearing class could win it and turn in for class specific leggings.  This makes it a lot easier to gear up in fabled items, but if you want the very best items available for your class you will still need to complete a lot of raids.

 

Something else to remember is that for most classes (anyone but the main tank) the quality of your spells and combat arts is more important then your equipment, and master I spells drop primarily in group instances and dungeons and trade freely on the broker.  It would still take a lot of money the get fully master I on the broker.  For most people the best way to raise cash for the spells that they don’t get through drops is to group and get master I of their own to sell on the broker.

 

For the main tank the mitigation of fables gear makes a huge difference.  For other classes the top end fabled gear has better stats, procs, crit changes etc that increase you effectiveness modestly but you can get almost as good through other means. The really noticeable difference between raid dropped items is that you can get awesome stats, effects, resists, and power/health bonuses all in one item. 

 

Resists and power reserve are most useful for raiding. Anyone but a main tank can get by without them at other times, so you can focus on stats and beneficial effects like procs, crits, and other beneficial effects and do almost as well as raid dropped gears.  

 

Basically, unless you are a main tank you can be nearly as good in a normal group situations as someone in raid dropped gear without ever attending a raid. You would get hammered trying to raid in this gear because AE would kill you and you would always be out of power but you could group just fine. Conversely, someone who raids can never be very good at it without spending a lot of time in groups to get all their spells up to master I and max out their AA points.   Skilled solo players can kill green named for Master I drops as well.

alyndale

Originally posted by Krogg


Your community is who you surround yourself with, personally I didn't find anything more mature about eq2.   There were still people abusing game mechanics to dominate pvp and escape losing, there were people cursing in chat.
The only thing that will make one game better than another, beyond stability, is how close it comes to what you are looking for in a gaming experience. 
EQ2 is a great game.  WoW is a great game.  Both top notch in their fashion, and both have immature and mature individuals comprising their playerbase.  
EQ2 employs a more realistic graphic and gives you more of a life-style environment for your character (home, placeable items, pets, rent, etc), whereas WoW is more of an abstract setting with dynamic colors and an endgame more focused on raiding and pvp.  To be honest the pvp when I last played EQ2 lacked any direction or purpose in comparison. 
WoW pvp servers are open, EQ2 has level ranges depending on the zone, with some totally open higher up.
There are many differences, but the main thing is that both games do what they do very well, and you really need to decide for yourself.  There are people on either side of the fence that will swear on their souls that their game is better... it's like religion almost.

Krog has great wisdom as you can easily tell.  Actually, one shouldn't really attempt to compare two very different MMO's.  It's apples and oranges.  We tend to get emotional and start to flame each other. WoW has many positive qualities.  It wouldn't be over 8 million strong if it weren't a good solid game.  EQ 2 also has a very, very strong fan base. Ironically they both were released within months of each other.  2004 was a good year for games .  So, it all depends on what you seek.  Each can bring you joy, but if I may, go EQ 2.  I think you'll find it very enlightening and enjoyable.