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I can't decide between WoW and EQ2.
I played both in the past and had a good time playing them, but I just want to pick one. Final Fantasy XIV just completely crushed my soul with how bad it was, and I wanted to go back to something fun. My basic likes/dislikes about each game:
WoW:
Likes - Population, RANDOM DUNGEON FINDER (I swear, this is all I ever did)
Dislikes - Art style, never really got into the lore
EQ2:
Likes - Art style, lore, Norrath
Dislikes - Fairly low pop (played on Antonia Bayle, which had the highest pop)
Basically, I'm torn between a game that really interests me (EQ2) and one that always gives me something to do (WoW with that damned dungeon finder!). I usually tend to play solo (Necro in EQ2 and Lock in WoW) unless I'm in a dungeon, so population is only really a factor in finding groups for dungeons. The last time I played EQ2 was about a year ago and WoW was about 5 months ago, so I'm not really aware of any changes since then.
Any advice is appreciated. 
Comments
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
If you want to actually roleplay, play EQ2. The guilds there were some of the best I've ever played with. Only reason I'm not there anymore is because I live overseas now and the event times conflict with my lifestyle. I also played for the development of the character. There's lots you can do, and I especially loved taking a High Elf Paladin and turning him into a Shadowknight. One of my favorite characters of all time, but it was very arduous and I kept getting ganked in the process of shifting my alignment when I was an outcast. Overall, EQ2 had the better storyline, not sure how it will do with the new Extended version out which is free to play, but limits you considerably. I also enjoyed having my own house.
The PvP was probably better in WoW though, but I'm not keen on PvP especially amongst elitist jerks like you find in WoW. Hope you choose wisely
Edit: I also played on Antonia Bayle. I really miss it. So many skilled roleplayers on that server...
I only really want to focus on one. Playing two MMOs would just be suicide. @_@
By the way, I'm not interested in PvP at all, so that is a non-factor.
EQ2 it is then ;-) I'd say, start out a week on EQ2X, if you really like it, make a char on one of the more populated EQ2 normal servers. IMO EQ2 is better for regular play than EQ2X (unless you want to pay extra on your sub for more classes)
Th latest patch today from WoW brings about a kind of new changes to this game.
The new talent trees really lets you learn your class from the ground up, and with the up-coming x-pac, its like a new game.
Raid will be harder, iirc they are bringing attunement back.
All this for me, especially the new talent system, reco a coming back.
just my view, but whatever you play, pls have fun
RIP Orc Choppa
Does anyone know any of the changes that have been implemented in EQ2 since around last October? Anything major like this? New features or anything? I just mean the main game, and not the F2P junk.
Nothing huge that I can think of off the top of my head other than them implementing a time based skill trainer to let you research spell upgrades rather than having to purchase them off the broker which really helped stabilize the economy. They added 10 more levels and 50 more AA’s including some new abilities but nothing that I would say changes the whole feel of the game.
EQ2 has always seemed a little more complicated to play then WoW for some reason. Yea your button mashing in both games but EQ2 gives you a lot more buttons to choice from then WoW does. I can’t cast everything on my EQ2 hotbar’s before the cool downs expire so It’s more about choosing what I want to cast on the fly vs most games where you just work from left to right.
EQ2 still does amaze me at the amount of level 1-80 content there is. You could easily level from 1-80 and not see even half the zones in the game unless you turned off XP for big parts of it. Levels 80-90 is much more limiting as there is only content from one expansion covering that range. Even after all these years I still play EQ2 over any other game I have tried. Maybe it’s the friends I have or raiding but something about the game keeps bringing me back. I’m sure long time WoW players would say the same thing.
You could try LOTRO.
It has a more realistic artstyle, a free to play option and a solid population right now. It might have everything you are looking for.
Just as a suggestion.
You should really go for the game you like, in this case EQ2. You could try the EQ2X servers and see if it is more people there but my experience (on Lucan Dlere) is that most people are doing the latest expansion. The old low level areas are rarely populated anymore.
The really best thing is of course to get a few buddies to start with you but joining a large guild is almost as good, that usually makes it easy to find groups at all levels.
Unless EQ2X killed off the original servers, you shouldn't be complaining about a low population if you play on Antonia Bayle.
That said, I played EQ2 for about two years and had fun, but these days, World of Warcraft has it beat in almost every category outside of perhaps crafting and player housing. Both games are structured so similarly that the only real difference for a long period of time was the fact that EQ2 was more group friendly at the lower end of the leveling curve whereas putting together a full group of low level players to run level appropriate dungeons in WoW was either a matter of knowing the right people or being able to put up with an absolute chore. These days, the dungeon finder in WoW takes that advantage away, and that seemed to bring a lot more attention to EQ2's negatives.
For starters, the game is horribly unoptimized. Being built during the time period where it was all the rage to build MMORPGs around the idea that no PC could ever run it at max settings at launch, the game has amazing graphics that simply aren't optimized for modern hardware. The game is extremely CPU dependent and has very small multicore support. Secondly, I hated the combat. Being a ranger, I was required to stay at a predetermined distance from a mob, range auto attack, fire off ranged CAs in between auto attack, switch to melee abilities after I've gone through my ranged CAs which turned off ranged auto attack, and lastly, turn ranged auto attack back on before the next auto attack. In WoW, characters automatically auto attack even when charging up a special skill. Advantage WoW in my book.
Another issue I always had was the idea of spell upgrades. In EQ2, initial spells are given to players immediately upon leveling up. The problem is the fact that there are, forgive me if I'm wrong, four tiers of spells -- apprentice, adept, expert, and master. Spell buying can be an expensive venture, especially given the fact that spell purchasing simply doesn't seem to correlate well with leveling speed. In short, you level so fast early on that there's no point in upgrading spells, but most people will have them anyway because they're all playing their alts.
I would also complain about the laughably bad EQ2 battlegrounds, but seeing as you say you don't care about PvP, it's a non-issue.
Lastly, I was really driven to quit EQ2 after the realization that I simply did not want to devote all the required time and effort into obtaining my mythical weapon. Did that gimp my character? Of course it did, but I'm not a fan of overly grindy quests like that and upon looking at the quest requirements, all the factions I had to max out, and all the subquests I had to complete, I simply unsubscribed and began playing WoW, in which I find it is much easier to obtain necessary gear.
These days, about the only advantage EQ2 has over WoW would be the more mature community. Some, however, say EQ2 has an elitist community. In truth, I do find more elitism in EQ2 than in WoW, but the elitism is really only seen on forums like EQ2Flames amongst the top end players. I think the reason for this tends to be the fact that there are far less high end raiding guilds in EQ2 than in a game like WoW where everyone is a raider. Raiding in EQ2 usually comes down to joining one of maybe two or three guilds, and the politics between those guilds seems to be where the elitism stems from.
If I were you I would go with Vanguard if PVP is not a concern. It is more like the original EQ than EQ2 . .. but lacks love from SOE compared to EQ2 so is running on life support but I hear the only server is crowded at the moment and I am sure that it will last long enough to be able to experience getting to the end content at least once. I do think that it is a better game though overall but both EQ2 and WOW have more instant gratification so not sure if you would log in and get bored too fast and log out. Having a bard in your party is especially fun!
EQ2 > WoW if it was me and those two were my only options.
Reasons?
- EQs community is a bit older and more mature.
- EQs art is much better imo.
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Not sure why you would limit yourself to these two dated games. I just can't get back into WoW because the character models are just too cartoony. WAR cartoony I can stand, WoW just looks silly... today. EQ2 requirements are game breaking. I've upgraded my PC countless times and have yet to have reasonable performance out of EQ2.
If I had to chose one, it would be WoW if you can get by the toons. EQ2 is a really tiny game in comparison with a heavily gated end game. What you should be asking is AoC, VG or LotRO.
Looks like it's more the game you like ;-)
I wonder why EQ2 is not promoting the mentor-system that much outside their own community. It's great way if you're in a big guild for the higher members to help you along on hard (heroic) quests. My guild has taken me along a couple of times on some hard heroic quests already, and the system works well (though a bit OP at times I think). Good thing as well is that you don't feel so newbee then as well ;-)
From the perspective of a current and longtime player... I'd suggest EQ2.
Starting WoW now will put you far behind the pack with little chance to catch up other than by playing large amounts of time. Also Blizzard is dedicated to their high end playerbase. Because of this the inflation in the economy is severe. You'll be in a constant struggle for resources. For example what used to be a 20 silver pair of boots for a level 30 now costs around 25 gold. At level 20 you won't have that kind of money. At least not if you are ethical.
I can't guarantee that EQ2 will be better, but I seriously doubt it is any worse.
Quite the opposite. In WoW getting to top level and into tiered raid gear is easy. In EQ2... come geared or don't come. And getting geared is tied to time since "currency" is limited to X per day. If you have a guild that wants to gear you up you are still staring at months of dailies to be able to get into tier 1 raids.