The Desert of Flames instances are still used, even with KoS and EoF. The hard core raiders are gone from those areas, but they are always the first to leave. There are still quite a few guilds working their way through the KoS stuff, and aren't anywhere close to doing the EoF stuff. It depends on who you play with.
What type of instances are those, WoW style where you only zone in with your party and have the environment to yourself or Black Burrow style where you zone in and have everyone else in there with you?
Both types, leans more towards the single party, single instance then the contested areas. Per zone there's usually one big contested area and multiple single party areas.
When you say EOF group, quest etc gear is equal to pre-eof raid gear, you mean gameworld wise or just EOF areas? The reason I'm asking is because in WoW when Burning Crusade was released they introduced far superior 58-60 loot which in turn "killed" the original 58-60 content. As it stands now, no one bothers with the 58-60 content and hop over to TBC as soon as they hit 58. Is this also happening in EQ2? Are the pre-EOF areas deserted? I ask because the pursuit of gear upgrade is a primary motivator in MMOs, and it would be a shame to see great original or pre-EOF content be left untouched for lack of payoff. I know some will say why not do it for the simple entertainment of going through it but I wish the design team would keep this in mind. Also, I see a lot of talk about instances, has EQ2 introduced more instanced dungeons since release? Instances dungeons are my favorite part of WoW and I was considering making a come back to EQ2 and hoped there would be more than the original Adventure Packs. I don't know that I can live through another 6 hour campfest for Bloodtalon - Dwyn
When the EQ2 dev team releases a new expansion they target Legendary gear as being about the same as the fabled gear that was already in the game. This means that the best gear you can get outside of the EoF raids is a mix of the older raid dropped gear and the gear dropped in the newer group dungeons.
When RoK is released this fall the legendary gear that drops there will probably be about as good as the fabled dropping in EoF raids. IOW I doubt you will see a situation where raiders will end up replacing their raid dropped gear with common dropped gear a few days after the expansion hits.
There are also other reasons to run raid instances in EQ2. Until very recently my guild ran the courts of al’afaz level 60 raid on a weekly basis for the guild status it provided. It was also a great way to gear up alts and my main even has a fabled hat I still use from time to time that dropped there. Simlarly there are questlines that take you through all the KoS instances that are well worth doing for the AA, the quest reward and for the lore, so they are not abandoned by any means. Nezera, from the fallen dynesty adventure pack probabaly still rankes as the toughest group dungeon in the game but again, the Master I spell drops are worth it.
LOL Ok, thanks for proving my point about EQ II players and their opinions of themselves, bahamut1, quaiky and Iomiller. You guys just did exactly what I was talking about . I do appreciate the kind words and advice though, martuk1111. Seriously though, if you don't raid you are made to feel like a second class citizen in EQ II. I'm not saying the raiders are any better or worse than the rest, they just have a higher opinion of themselves then everyone else does.
I recently quit playing eq2 because of the problems finding a group at the times that I play and because there are too few solo quests. I went back to ultima online so I can play with a group or not, no matter what I can still kill stuff and have fun
I recently quit playing eq2 because of the problems finding a group at the times that I play and because there are too few solo quests. I went back to ultima online so I can play with a group or not, no matter what I can still kill stuff and have fun
You kidding?? Ive done over 1500 quests and i solo 95% of the time.
The game is pretty empty. It is a good game. But not too many play it that much. I solo all the time but heard that everyone basically just raids when level capped.
What I meant to say is there are too few decent quests to solo. All of my characters are in the 50's and after doing all of the quests in the new lands, EQ2 became an expensive chat program. I have heard that a higher level person can solo more, but without the mid-level quest, I knew that I would never reach the cap. I don't like grinding at all, and getting a group was just too difficult.
Im searching for a fun mmo to play off and on. I would most likely roll on a RP server since I'm into that. Ive looked at LOTRO and Dark Age of Camelot. LOTRO just wasnt for me and DAOC was barren. I couldnt find a RP guild and like I mentioned before Im into that. Anyway, how casual friendly is EQ2 and if you have no interest in or time to raid are you better off finding another game to play?
What really attracted me to DAOC was the guild emblems and the way you could deck out your self and your horse. If only there were more playing Id have my home, or at the very least a Knight themed RP guild on any server. I guess I could play it, but it feels like a single player game. Bah, Im going off track... I just wish it would have worked out.. So thats basically it, while I did the trail I seen quite a few RP guilds recruiting. I'm just wondering what the levels look like past 8. I play MMORPG's because of the MMO part.
Oh and the search function isnt working for me so I couldnt look up any threads that might of answered my questions.
Of all the SOE products, EQ2 is the most casual player friendly. You'll find the volume of solo quests, trade crafts, and the methods of player interaction all are very comfortable for a non-power gamer.
Im searching for a fun mmo to play off and on. I would most likely roll on a RP server since I'm into that. Ive looked at LOTRO and Dark Age of Camelot. LOTRO just wasnt for me and DAOC was barren. I couldnt find a RP guild and like I mentioned before Im into that. Anyway, how casual friendly is EQ2 and if you have no interest in or time to raid are you better off finding another game to play?
What really attracted me to DAOC was the guild emblems and the way you could deck out your self and your horse. If only there were more playing Id have my home, or at the very least a Knight themed RP guild on any server. I guess I could play it, but it feels like a single player game. Bah, Im going off track... I just wish it would have worked out.. So thats basically it, while I did the trail I seen quite a few RP guilds recruiting. I'm just wondering what the levels look like past 8. I play MMORPG's because of the MMO part.
Oh and the search function isnt working for me so I couldnt look up any threads that might of answered my questions.
I do not regularly raid in Eq2, and my wife and i both have 2 level 70 characters (maxxed atm). you wouldnt have to raid at all to get some of the best stuff, yes, but there are plenty of really nice items that are similar in single group areas (Crypt of Valdoon, Obelisk of Blight, Unrest just to name a few.) i have a full set of the brigand class set armor on my 70 brigand and never had to enter a raid zone to get it, and its some of the best armor for a brigand.
I recently quit playing eq2 because of the problems finding a group at the times that I play and because there are too few solo quests. I went back to ultima online so I can play with a group or not, no matter what I can still kill stuff and have fun
You kidding?? Ive done over 1500 quests and i solo 95% of the time.
I'm sorry, I think Zona needed to add the quailifiers,"Fun" and "Worth while to do" along with the words solo quest. Yes there are lots of solo quest, with crappy, worthless gear or tiny bits of cash. So its more likely, "There are too few solo quests worth doing". I have to agree with that statement. As far as soloing 95% of the time, now you have to, with the populations the way they are on the servers. So at higher levels, its a choice between solo quests that aren't worth doing or just the plain old solo grind. It might be different if they offered unlimited character slots or something, so you could amuse yourself by trying different class/race combos, but not the way the character slots are now (sorry, i'm an alt-aholic and this plays to my fun soloing if I can make as many different class and race combos to play).
I recently quit playing eq2 because of the problems finding a group at the times that I play and because there are too few solo quests. I went back to ultima online so I can play with a group or not, no matter what I can still kill stuff and have fun
You kidding?? Ive done over 1500 quests and i solo 95% of the time.
I'm sorry, I think Zona needed to add the quailifiers,"Fun" and "Worth while to do" along with the words solo quest. Yes there are lots of solo quest, with crappy, worthless gear or tiny bits of cash. So its more likely, "There are too few solo quests worth doing". I have to agree with that statement. As far as soloing 95% of the time, now you have to, with the populations the way they are on the servers. So at higher levels, its a choice between solo quests that aren't worth doing or just the plain old solo grind. It might be different if they offered unlimited character slots or something, so you could amuse yourself by trying different class/race combos, but not the way the character slots are now (sorry, i'm an alt-aholic and this plays to my fun soloing if I can make as many different class and race combos to play).
If they give you XP, then there all worth doing IMO.
I recently quit playing eq2 because of the problems finding a group at the times that I play and because there are too few solo quests. I went back to ultima online so I can play with a group or not, no matter what I can still kill stuff and have fun
You kidding?? Ive done over 1500 quests and i solo 95% of the time.
I'm sorry, I think Zona needed to add the quailifiers,"Fun" and "Worth while to do" along with the words solo quest. Yes there are lots of solo quest, with crappy, worthless gear or tiny bits of cash. So its more likely, "There are too few solo quests worth doing". I have to agree with that statement. As far as soloing 95% of the time, now you have to, with the populations the way they are on the servers. So at higher levels, its a choice between solo quests that aren't worth doing or just the plain old solo grind. It might be different if they offered unlimited character slots or something, so you could amuse yourself by trying different class/race combos, but not the way the character slots are now (sorry, i'm an alt-aholic and this plays to my fun soloing if I can make as many different class and race combos to play).
If they give you XP, then there all worth doing IMO.and if it takes you five hours to gather 20 items from areas that are wall to wall mobs and the xp reward is not all that great because they put in a crappy item as a reward that you aren't going to use anyway, or a very small amount of coin as a reward and depending on your class its just very hard to solo, thats just not worth it, in my opinion. Though you know what they say about opinions and everyone having one....
In response to the original post "can you be a casual player or do you have to raid?"…
The beautiful thing about EQ2 is that actually, you can be a casual player and still raid.
I hated raiding before EQ2, mostly because the ton of people required and the hours spent on largely boring encounters.
EQ2 changed all that. You can raid with as little as 2 groups. The raids can take as little as 20 minutes. (and yes, the 20 minute raid DOES give some of the best gear in the game and yes, the 20 minute raid CAN be done by someone without any raid gear but is a good player)
So casual vs. raider really doesn’t apply to this game. Sure, there are those that spend 7 nights a week raiding everything they can find. But that is a playstyle choice, not a requirement.
There are at least 10 raid zones that take under 2 hours to do and only a couple that take more.
If you think I am biased, double check. Go to EQ2 forums and post on the RP server (Lucan DLere or Antonia Bayle) the question: "Can a casual player raid in EQ2?".
The LDL server (which I play on) is full of casual players who raid on a regular basis… they might spend 2 or 3 hours a week at it, and they have lots of fun. It’s not a lifestyle choice.
That being said, more than 95% of EQ2’s content is non-raid. There is currently one group instance that takes inexperienced played 3-5 hours to do. But it’s only ONE. There are about 10-15 others that take 30-90 minutes. And this is just those available at level 70.
The people who get the most out of the game are those that solo, group and raid. If you just raid, you miss out on a ton, if you just solo you miss out on a ton. If you just group, you miss out on less but still miss out.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall Currently Playing: ESO
Oh and incase you haven't figured it out by now, the players in EQ II (I played from beta to about 4 months ago myself) have really high opinions of their opinions and will fully insult and degrade anyone that disagrees with them lol.
Opens with an insult, and degrades EQ2 players.
bahamut1:
My secondary character has 0 raid gear. It's all quested and legendary gear and he TANKS EoF content without any problem. The raiding crowd only blasts someone that says they deserve top end raiding gear doing solo content, so your comments are a bit suspect. BTW, my secondary character is a 70th level paladin.
No insults.
quaiky:
its absolutely no problem to do eof group content without ever raiding kos. I have seen enough secondary chars in our guild play in eof instances with only "mastercrafted" equip even tanks (n the classes on which equip groups rely most in eq2), you might need 2 healers sometimes where you only need 1 with a fabled tankt but you can do it. also kaladim, mistmore catacombs or new tunaria are no problem for groups in mastercrafted equip.
castle mistmoore is maybe an exception as its a very hard zone with raid parts in it, but once you gto good legendary equip form eof instances you can even play there. even for players equipped with kos raidgear castle is a hard zone and it is meant to be that.
Besides that if you compare eof legendary and kos fabled equip the differences are often very small, and in some cases eof legendary is better than kos fabled.
None here either.
Iomiller:
A tank that has raid dropped gear going to be better then one who doesn’t, but this certainly don’t mean you need it for the EoF zones. You just need to be more careful on pulls. A tank in fully fabled can afford to get a couple adds, a tank in mastercrafted or KoS legendary will have more trouble but they can still do it.
Yep, you guessed it, not one single insult.
Ironman2000:
LOL Ok, thanks for proving my point about EQ II players and their opinions of themselves, bahamut1, quaiky and Iomiller. You guys just did exactly what I was talking about . I do appreciate the kind words and advice though, martuk1111. Seriously though, if you don't raid you are made to feel like a second class citizen in EQ II. I'm not saying the raiders are any better or worse than the rest, they just have a higher opinion of themselves then everyone else does.
Oh, look, more insults and degrades EQ2 raiders...
Please take your insults somewhere else, thanks.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
Comments
What type of instances are those, WoW style where you only zone in with your party and have the environment to yourself or Black Burrow style where you zone in and have everyone else in there with you?
- Dwyn
LOL Ok, thanks for proving my point about EQ II players and their opinions of themselves, bahamut1, quaiky and Iomiller. You guys just did exactly what I was talking about
. I do appreciate the kind words and advice though, martuk1111. Seriously though, if you don't raid you are made to feel like a second class citizen in EQ II. I'm not saying the raiders are any better or worse than the rest, they just have a higher opinion of themselves then everyone else does.
Everything Works if you let it
The game is pretty empty. It is a good game. But not too many play it that much. I solo all the time but heard that everyone basically just raids when level capped.
Boycott EA Games. RIP Sim City.
Everything Works if you let it
Of all the SOE products, EQ2 is the most casual player friendly. You'll find the volume of solo quests, trade crafts, and the methods of player interaction all are very comfortable for a non-power gamer.
I'm sorry, I think Zona needed to add the quailifiers,"Fun" and "Worth while to do" along with the words solo quest. Yes there are lots of solo quest, with crappy, worthless gear or tiny bits of cash. So its more likely, "There are too few solo quests worth doing". I have to agree with that statement. As far as soloing 95% of the time, now you have to, with the populations the way they are on the servers. So at higher levels, its a choice between solo quests that aren't worth doing or just the plain old solo grind. It might be different if they offered unlimited character slots or something, so you could amuse yourself by trying different class/race combos, but not the way the character slots are now (sorry, i'm an alt-aholic and this plays to my fun soloing if I can make as many different class and race combos to play).
I'm sorry, I think Zona needed to add the quailifiers,"Fun" and "Worth while to do" along with the words solo quest. Yes there are lots of solo quest, with crappy, worthless gear or tiny bits of cash. So its more likely, "There are too few solo quests worth doing". I have to agree with that statement. As far as soloing 95% of the time, now you have to, with the populations the way they are on the servers. So at higher levels, its a choice between solo quests that aren't worth doing or just the plain old solo grind. It might be different if they offered unlimited character slots or something, so you could amuse yourself by trying different class/race combos, but not the way the character slots are now (sorry, i'm an alt-aholic and this plays to my fun soloing if I can make as many different class and race combos to play).
If they give you XP, then there all worth doing IMO.
I'm sorry, I think Zona needed to add the quailifiers,"Fun" and "Worth while to do" along with the words solo quest. Yes there are lots of solo quest, with crappy, worthless gear or tiny bits of cash. So its more likely, "There are too few solo quests worth doing". I have to agree with that statement. As far as soloing 95% of the time, now you have to, with the populations the way they are on the servers. So at higher levels, its a choice between solo quests that aren't worth doing or just the plain old solo grind. It might be different if they offered unlimited character slots or something, so you could amuse yourself by trying different class/race combos, but not the way the character slots are now (sorry, i'm an alt-aholic and this plays to my fun soloing if I can make as many different class and race combos to play).
If they give you XP, then there all worth doing IMO.and if it takes you five hours to gather 20 items from areas that are wall to wall mobs and the xp reward is not all that great because they put in a crappy item as a reward that you aren't going to use anyway, or a very small amount of coin as a reward and depending on your class its just very hard to solo, thats just not worth it, in my opinion. Though you know what they say about opinions and everyone having one....
In response to the original post "can you be a casual player or do you have to raid?"…
The beautiful thing about EQ2 is that actually, you can be a casual player and still raid.
I hated raiding before EQ2, mostly because the ton of people required and the hours spent on largely boring encounters.
EQ2 changed all that. You can raid with as little as 2 groups. The raids can take as little as 20 minutes. (and yes, the 20 minute raid DOES give some of the best gear in the game and yes, the 20 minute raid CAN be done by someone without any raid gear but is a good player)
So casual vs. raider really doesn’t apply to this game. Sure, there are those that spend 7 nights a week raiding everything they can find. But that is a playstyle choice, not a requirement.
There are at least 10 raid zones that take under 2 hours to do and only a couple that take more.
If you think I am biased, double check. Go to EQ2 forums and post on the RP server (Lucan DLere or Antonia Bayle) the question: "Can a casual player raid in EQ2?".
The LDL server (which I play on) is full of casual players who raid on a regular basis… they might spend 2 or 3 hours a week at it, and they have lots of fun. It’s not a lifestyle choice.
That being said, more than 95% of EQ2’s content is non-raid. There is currently one group instance that takes inexperienced played 3-5 hours to do. But it’s only ONE. There are about 10-15 others that take 30-90 minutes. And this is just those available at level 70.
The people who get the most out of the game are those that solo, group and raid. If you just raid, you miss out on a ton, if you just solo you miss out on a ton. If you just group, you miss out on less but still miss out.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
Ironman2000:
Oh and incase you haven't figured it out by now, the players in EQ II (I played from beta to about 4 months ago myself) have really high opinions of their opinions and will fully insult and degrade anyone that disagrees with them lol.
Opens with an insult, and degrades EQ2 players.
bahamut1:
My secondary character has 0 raid gear. It's all quested and legendary gear and he TANKS EoF content without any problem. The raiding crowd only blasts someone that says they deserve top end raiding gear doing solo content, so your comments are a bit suspect. BTW, my secondary character is a 70th level paladin.
No insults.
quaiky:
its absolutely no problem to do eof group content without ever raiding kos. I have seen enough secondary chars in our guild play in eof instances with only "mastercrafted" equip even tanks (n the classes on which equip groups rely most in eq2), you might need 2 healers sometimes where you only need 1 with a fabled tankt but you can do it. also kaladim, mistmore catacombs or new tunaria are no problem for groups in mastercrafted equip.
castle mistmoore is maybe an exception as its a very hard zone with raid parts in it, but once you gto good legendary equip form eof instances you can even play there. even for players equipped with kos raidgear castle is a hard zone and it is meant to be that.
Besides that if you compare eof legendary and kos fabled equip the differences are often very small, and in some cases eof legendary is better than kos fabled.
None here either.
Iomiller:
A tank that has raid dropped gear going to be better then one who doesn’t, but this certainly don’t mean you need it for the EoF zones. You just need to be more careful on pulls. A tank in fully fabled can afford to get a couple adds, a tank in mastercrafted or KoS legendary will have more trouble but they can still do it.
Yep, you guessed it, not one single insult.
Ironman2000:
LOL Ok, thanks for proving my point about EQ II players and their opinions of themselves, bahamut1, quaiky and Iomiller. You guys just did exactly what I was talking about . I do appreciate the kind words and advice though, martuk1111. Seriously though, if you don't raid you are made to feel like a second class citizen in EQ II. I'm not saying the raiders are any better or worse than the rest, they just have a higher opinion of themselves then everyone else does.
Oh, look, more insults and degrades EQ2 raiders...
Please take your insults somewhere else, thanks.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."