It's between WoW and VG (never crafted in SWG). You have progress fighting durability. Each "round" decides how much you progress and how much durability you lose. As you craft problems can come up that you use hotkeys to solve. These hotkeys can be used at any time as well and have progress/durability modifiers. Put simply, it's not difficult to succeed though the RNG can have it out for you. You don't just hit a combine button though.
Oh, it's important tonmention the rounds work in real time. If you just start and let it go you will not be very successful unless you are way higher level than the combine. Also, although you specialize your craft at level 10 you can harvest anything and most recipes use mats from multiple node "types" (there are 6 I believe). Crafting IMO is a nice balance between being deep and being complex.
I thought the restriction is only for the final expansion and races for gold. They changed it if I recall the current pricing . No level restrictions before there was now none they changed it.
Yeah it says up to 90 for free farther down on the side by side package comparison. What's interesting is that above it says up to 80 "without a credit card". Could it be once you hit 80 SoE asks for CC info to continue to 90 or is it just a typo?
when EQ2X server launched, SF was the latest expansion and DOV did not exist
a year ago,
no one could get 90 on Live Servers or EQ2X without buying the SF expansion
when DOV launched, EQ2X server got the the SF expansion included for free
everyone can level to 90 now without buying anything
the updated EQ2X member matrix should have removed any mention of level 80
Hey gang sorry I havent been on in awhile. I had a few weeks of internet issues with Verizon wireless. Anyway I figured I would come and give my latest update. My group and I are still fairly low level. Due to the fact that one i had internet issues, and 2 we only level on the weekends when all 4 of us are on at the same time. That being said. We all have ALOT of AAs. I am currently level 27 with 42 AAs. Which helps tons in combat. This last weekend we ran a huge run into Crushbone. Finished all the quests there exception of the Emporer Instance inside the dungeon. Which is where we stopped. This coming weekend we will end up taking down the emporer.
One thing I have to say is the sheer amount of depth in EQ2 amazes me from the AA system, to the skill mastery system, to crafting as well as the collections. There is just endless amount of things to do that are all fun. Mini games abound in the world as well. Sky racing for example is pretty cool. One of the things I am finding i am really liking as well, which i think most games should do is the mixing of open world dungeons with instances. Take Crushbone. A huge keep which is open world complete with named mobs that are itemized. However in the dungeon you have the Emporer instance. Stormfall was the same a nice little mini isntance with a fun stamina event inside. I really with more games would follow this route.
Anyway I promised to keep new screenshots coming so here are 2 from tonight. As I said earlier I am very lucky that my LAPTOP can run this game on uber high settings. As old as the engine is if you can run it like I do, the game looks amazing.
Very nice thread! Glad to see that you found a game to give you the ol' spark back. EQ1 was my first as well so I know all to well the spark you're referring to, and how freaking hard it is to find it again. I actually just got my EQ2 account going again a little while ago and I'm also on the AB server. I'm playing a melee inquisitor (just got him to 28 with about 20 or so AAs), and so far I've been enjoying it. I still haven't got into a guild yet though, so it's been a bit lonely. I'm thinking of applying to the "Safe Haven" guild since they seem pretty active, but if you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
I'm also using a gaming laptop as well (an MSI GX740 - radeon 5870 1gb card, i7 quad, 8 gb ram), but I'm pretty much forced to run balanced settings with shadows turned off, in order to keep a fps close to yours (depending on which area I'm in, of course). I'm a bit jealous of your rig, tbh .
Anyway, hope you guys continue to enjoy the game and keep us posted if you can. I'm "Senvilan" on AB, so if I'm ever on feel free to drop me a tell.
Very nice thread! Glad to see that you found a game to give you the ol' spark back. EQ1 was my first as well so I know all to well the spark you're referring to, and how freaking hard it is to find it again. I actually just got my EQ2 account going again a little while ago and I'm also on the AB server. I'm playing a melee inquisitor (just got him to 28 with about 20 or so AAs), and so far I've been enjoying it. I still haven't got into a guild yet though, so it's been a bit lonely. I'm thinking of applying to the "Safe Haven" guild since they seem pretty active, but if you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
I'm also using a gaming laptop as well (an MSI GX740 - radeon 5870 1gb card, i7 quad, 8 gb ram), but I'm pretty much forced to run balanced settings with shadows turned off, in order to keep a fps close to yours (depending on which area I'm in, of course). I'm a bit jealous of your rig, tbh .
Anyway, hope you guys continue to enjoy the game and keep us posted if you can. I'm "Senvilan" on AB, so if I'm ever on feel free to drop me a tell.
Yeah, EQ2s engine is really it's biggest problem and you need a monster laptop to max it out.
In fact AoC runs a lot better on my water cooled hexa core desktop, it tells us something about optimizing the engine, even though it is better since they added multi core support. I get twice the FPS at least in AoC.
I spent 5 years in EQ2 but quit sometimes this spring, 5 years were enough to get tired of it but it is still a fun game.
I do hope that the engine for EQ3 will be better coded though, during 5 years of playing that was the main thing that annoyed me. At least EQ3 wont have zooning, maybe I see you there.
The simple fact that even if u have a pay account u will still be restricted on the x server is telling of how bad the SOE model of ftp/ptw is
Its the best value in the business for people wanting content for cheap. More content than WoW and Rift combined for the 10 buck silver membership? Unfortunately it doesnt work for most people because the fabled gear and master spells that arent remotely needed for 95% of the game can't be used. But if you dont mind not having the absolute best stuff then there is absolutely no better value out there.
However if you are going to sub, sub on the live servers. I doubt it was the intention, but that fairly trivial difference between gold eq2x and eq2live membership keeps people joining both services. If gold and live were the exact same almost everyone would go to eq2x for the larger low level population (although getting low level groups on AB is fairly easy if you set it up yourself and dont wait for it to come)
Also, EQ2x isnt pay to win. You will need a gold membership for the top 5% of content, but that content isnt adjusted so youll need the only 2 good performance items on the eq2x marketplace, health and mana potions with 5 minute cooldowns. Its sub to win if you want to look at it that way, but its not like games like RoM where you need to spend more than normal sub money to be effective. The gear on the eq2 marketplace is for lazy people really, you can get it in game without much effort, and tis not the top stuff in the game by a large margin.
Yeah, EQ2s engine is really it's biggest problem and you need a monster laptop to max it out.
In fact AoC runs a lot better on my water cooled hexa core desktop, it tells us something about optimizing the engine, even though it is better since they added multi core support. I get twice the FPS at least in AoC.
I spent 5 years in EQ2 but quit sometimes this spring, 5 years were enough to get tired of it but it is still a fun game.
I do hope that the engine for EQ3 will be better coded though, during 5 years of playing that was the main thing that annoyed me. At least EQ3 wont have zooning, maybe I see you there.
This is SoE's biggest definciency with their actual code. Their games tend to have very inefficient engines, even eq1 suffers from this.
The gear on the eq2 marketplace is for lazy people really, you can get it in game without much effort, and tis not the top stuff in the game by a large margin.
there is zero adventure gear on the marketplace
there used to be but it was removed in July, 4+ months ago
If gold and live were the exact same almost everyone would go to eq2x for the larger low level population (although getting low level groups on AB is fairly easy if you set it up yourself and dont wait for it to come)
In case you weren't aware of this, here is a listing of all the dungeons to help guide your travels. I would concur with others that have suggested you keep your XP slider at 100% AA ALL the time, even weekends. If you want to do all the dungeons and you don't plan to quest a lot, you definitely want to do that.
Reading this I would love to sub to EQ2 again as I really liked the game when I tried it up to level 30. I loved the mentoring system, the AA system and how you can lock your levels, the housing and crafting systems
But I can't really decide if I want to play on the extended server or on the live servers (AB). I am definitely going to sub and I don't care for any other race but humans so that restriction of the gold sub is no problem. I know extended has a very good low level pop but how's endgame? How's AB on the low levels? I don't know anyone playing EQ2 and I really don't want to play alone
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Reading this I would love to sub to EQ2 again as I really liked the game when I tried it up to level 30. I loved the mentoring system, the AA system and how you can lock your levels, the housing and crafting systems
But I can't really decide if I want to play on the extended server or on the live servers (AB). I am definitely going to sub and I don't care for any other race but humans so that restriction of the gold sub is no problem. I know extended has a very good low level pop but how's endgame? How's AB on the low levels? I don't know anyone playing EQ2 and I really don't want to play alone
Guess its bad for me to butt in, but personally I feel extended is probably one of the WORST f2p conversions for a game. Simply put, you get quiet a large slash against you if your playing on extended. Even if there is end game, people will be pretty restricted so I can't see it being very good if your looking for the 'end game' content. I'd suggest going away from extended and going normal subscription if you want to play it, or if there is an option to transfer, going through low level on that and then switching to the p2p servers when possible.
I wish they'd give out a free weekend as I'd like to try out the new dungeon finder to see if I can actually get level appropriate dungeon groups. The server-only dungeon finder really didn't work out well for Rift, but the EQ2 population always seemed predisposed to grouping, so I thought it might work out better there.
I don't really have enough time to play to justify dropping the 15 dollars a month for a month's playtime.
Hey alacres if your on AB server check us out were 3 weeks old and have 45 members and 34 accounts already .
We just hit lvl 31 and got our guild hall but the main thing is 95 percent of our members our lvl 20-30 right now and were very active about 8-12 on in the evening .So plenty to group with right now.
Our website is EternalLegend.guilalaunch.com if you wanna checj us out or drop me a tell in game tonight .
Exovius or Krylance are my two toons wed love to have ya or you could try us out or ask some questions.
I just wanted to jump on the band wagon. I have had a great experience with EQ2 over the last couple of weeks...
I had been playing Age of Conan since July and wanted to take a break and try somethign with more indepth PvE, so I checked out the EQ2 forums and started looking at servers. I wanted to find a place with people to play with so I didn't have to solo to 90 before I could get in a group. On an early Sunday morning, I did some checking around and found that AB was highest pop Live server with about 700 players,60% being 90th level characters. I did the same checking on EQ2X - Freeport and it had more than double at 1600 ! the cool thing was that only 20% of the players were 90th level so there are TONs of people through all the level ranges.
If you have some free time waiting for the next big MMO to come out I would suggest you give EQ2X a try, it's free with the new streaming download tech you can start playing playing with just a 5 minute download.
It's between WoW and VG (never crafted in SWG). You have progress fighting durability. Each "round" decides how much you progress and how much durability you lose. As you craft problems can come up that you use hotkeys to solve. These hotkeys can be used at any time as well and have progress/durability modifiers. Put simply, it's not difficult to succeed though the RNG can have it out for you. You don't just hit a combine button though.
I always hated EQ2's minigame crafting. Crafting, by its very nature, never struck me as something that should require players to be totally attentive.
It's between WoW and VG (never crafted in SWG). You have progress fighting durability. Each "round" decides how much you progress and how much durability you lose. As you craft problems can come up that you use hotkeys to solve. These hotkeys can be used at any time as well and have progress/durability modifiers. Put simply, it's not difficult to succeed though the RNG can have it out for you. You don't just hit a combine button though.
I always hated EQ2's minigame crafting. Crafting, by its very nature, never struck me as something that should require players to be totally attentive.
I think it comes down to what you are getting in return. Mastercrafted gear is pretty good until late in the game so the time you spend building up crafting levels is worth it in my opinion. It rewards those willing to take part and I myself enjoy the mini game though it could be more intuitive like clicking on parts of the crafting station.
After reading this thread, I was inspired to give Norrath another try myself. Re-upped my sub tonight and started playing on AB server. Joined Safe Haven, which seems to have a lot of good people in it (from what I could tell at the onset).
Look me up any time. I'm currently playing a Troubador. Character name is Finkcur.
No godless person can comprehend those minute distinctions in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem. -Glen Cook
If anyone is looking for a different type of guild that runs off of fun and grouping with 80 percent lvl 20-30s check out my post here and send me a tell in game ,
We are new lvl 31 just got our hall and have 45 members already 3 weeks old we give out rank for joining events and doing guild related things not grinding status like most other guilds.Enjoy the game not the grind.
Anyway theres a post on here looking for a different kind of guild i put up yesterday it explains more about the guild and how it works if your interested.
Just thought I would drop by and say hello. Due to RL events.. Holidays, Warmachine Tournaments (had to paint minitures for), and Excessive Work (not really a bad thing).. I havent had alot of time to play I think in January I only logged in twice. December I might have managed one night. So far this month I have played twice.
Anyway to update this thread. Last night We enjoyed Nektropos Castle. Interesting and twisted place. We are after the fishbone earring there. One of my friends has been leveling alts while I think she has 2 characters in the 50s or 60s now.. She is really happy I am getting a bit more time to play. My other 2 friends just busied themselves doing other things, while RL was intervening for me.
Currently looking forward to finishing Nek Castle though. My guild was extremely happy to hear we were going to start getting on again more regularely and apparently have been doing alot of raiding lately... Granted My character is only level 38, so i am no where close to being able to go along with them. Today after posting this I am going to buy the new expansion, and try out a beast lord.
Comments
when EQ2X server launched, SF was the latest expansion and DOV did not exist
a year ago,
no one could get 90 on Live Servers or EQ2X without buying the SF expansion
when DOV launched, EQ2X server got the the SF expansion included for free
everyone can level to 90 now without buying anything
the updated EQ2X member matrix should have removed any mention of level 80
- it no longer has any relevance
EQ2 fan sites
Hey gang sorry I havent been on in awhile. I had a few weeks of internet issues with Verizon wireless. Anyway I figured I would come and give my latest update. My group and I are still fairly low level. Due to the fact that one i had internet issues, and 2 we only level on the weekends when all 4 of us are on at the same time. That being said. We all have ALOT of AAs. I am currently level 27 with 42 AAs. Which helps tons in combat. This last weekend we ran a huge run into Crushbone. Finished all the quests there exception of the Emporer Instance inside the dungeon. Which is where we stopped. This coming weekend we will end up taking down the emporer.
One thing I have to say is the sheer amount of depth in EQ2 amazes me from the AA system, to the skill mastery system, to crafting as well as the collections. There is just endless amount of things to do that are all fun. Mini games abound in the world as well. Sky racing for example is pretty cool. One of the things I am finding i am really liking as well, which i think most games should do is the mixing of open world dungeons with instances. Take Crushbone. A huge keep which is open world complete with named mobs that are itemized. However in the dungeon you have the Emporer instance. Stormfall was the same a nice little mini isntance with a fun stamina event inside. I really with more games would follow this route.
Anyway I promised to keep new screenshots coming so here are 2 from tonight. As I said earlier I am very lucky that my LAPTOP can run this game on uber high settings. As old as the engine is if you can run it like I do, the game looks amazing.
Very nice thread! Glad to see that you found a game to give you the ol' spark back. EQ1 was my first as well so I know all to well the spark you're referring to, and how freaking hard it is to find it again. I actually just got my EQ2 account going again a little while ago and I'm also on the AB server. I'm playing a melee inquisitor (just got him to 28 with about 20 or so AAs), and so far I've been enjoying it. I still haven't got into a guild yet though, so it's been a bit lonely. I'm thinking of applying to the "Safe Haven" guild since they seem pretty active, but if you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
I'm also using a gaming laptop as well (an MSI GX740 - radeon 5870 1gb card, i7 quad, 8 gb ram), but I'm pretty much forced to run balanced settings with shadows turned off, in order to keep a fps close to yours (depending on which area I'm in, of course). I'm a bit jealous of your rig, tbh .
Anyway, hope you guys continue to enjoy the game and keep us posted if you can. I'm "Senvilan" on AB, so if I'm ever on feel free to drop me a tell.
Yeah, EQ2s engine is really it's biggest problem and you need a monster laptop to max it out.
In fact AoC runs a lot better on my water cooled hexa core desktop, it tells us something about optimizing the engine, even though it is better since they added multi core support. I get twice the FPS at least in AoC.
I spent 5 years in EQ2 but quit sometimes this spring, 5 years were enough to get tired of it but it is still a fun game.
I do hope that the engine for EQ3 will be better coded though, during 5 years of playing that was the main thing that annoyed me. At least EQ3 wont have zooning, maybe I see you there.
Its the best value in the business for people wanting content for cheap. More content than WoW and Rift combined for the 10 buck silver membership? Unfortunately it doesnt work for most people because the fabled gear and master spells that arent remotely needed for 95% of the game can't be used. But if you dont mind not having the absolute best stuff then there is absolutely no better value out there.
However if you are going to sub, sub on the live servers. I doubt it was the intention, but that fairly trivial difference between gold eq2x and eq2live membership keeps people joining both services. If gold and live were the exact same almost everyone would go to eq2x for the larger low level population (although getting low level groups on AB is fairly easy if you set it up yourself and dont wait for it to come)
Also, EQ2x isnt pay to win. You will need a gold membership for the top 5% of content, but that content isnt adjusted so youll need the only 2 good performance items on the eq2x marketplace, health and mana potions with 5 minute cooldowns. Its sub to win if you want to look at it that way, but its not like games like RoM where you need to spend more than normal sub money to be effective. The gear on the eq2 marketplace is for lazy people really, you can get it in game without much effort, and tis not the top stuff in the game by a large margin.
This is SoE's biggest definciency with their actual code. Their games tend to have very inefficient engines, even eq1 suffers from this.
there is zero adventure gear on the marketplace
there used to be but it was removed in July, 4+ months ago
EQ2 fan sites
agree - a few live servers have good populations
EQ2 fan sites
In case you weren't aware of this, here is a listing of all the dungeons to help guide your travels. I would concur with others that have suggested you keep your XP slider at 100% AA ALL the time, even weekends. If you want to do all the dungeons and you don't plan to quest a lot, you definitely want to do that.
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Dungeon_Timeline
Best dungeons after yours:
Ruins of Varsoon (contested)
Nek Castle (instance)
Runnyeye (Contested)
Deathfist Citadel (instance)
Obelisk of Lost Souls (contested)
Temple of Cazic Thule (Contested)
Solusek's Eye (contested)
Sanctum of the Scaleborn (contested)
Mistmoore Catacombs (contested)
Mistmoore Castle (contested)
Chardok (contested)
Not including the instances, but nearly all the 60+ instances are great fun to do in a group.
"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
Reading this I would love to sub to EQ2 again as I really liked the game when I tried it up to level 30. I loved the mentoring system, the AA system and how you can lock your levels, the housing and crafting systems
But I can't really decide if I want to play on the extended server or on the live servers (AB). I am definitely going to sub and I don't care for any other race but humans so that restriction of the gold sub is no problem. I know extended has a very good low level pop but how's endgame? How's AB on the low levels? I don't know anyone playing EQ2 and I really don't want to play alone
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Guess its bad for me to butt in, but personally I feel extended is probably one of the WORST f2p conversions for a game. Simply put, you get quiet a large slash against you if your playing on extended. Even if there is end game, people will be pretty restricted so I can't see it being very good if your looking for the 'end game' content. I'd suggest going away from extended and going normal subscription if you want to play it, or if there is an option to transfer, going through low level on that and then switching to the p2p servers when possible.
I wish they'd give out a free weekend as I'd like to try out the new dungeon finder to see if I can actually get level appropriate dungeon groups. The server-only dungeon finder really didn't work out well for Rift, but the EQ2 population always seemed predisposed to grouping, so I thought it might work out better there.
I don't really have enough time to play to justify dropping the 15 dollars a month for a month's playtime.
Hey alacres if your on AB server check us out were 3 weeks old and have 45 members and 34 accounts already .
We just hit lvl 31 and got our guild hall but the main thing is 95 percent of our members our lvl 20-30 right now and were very active about 8-12 on in the evening .So plenty to group with right now.
Our website is EternalLegend.guilalaunch.com if you wanna checj us out or drop me a tell in game tonight .
Exovius or Krylance are my two toons wed love to have ya or you could try us out or ask some questions.
Hope to hear from ya , safe travels.
you are speaking -only- from assumptions
I'm an active Gold player on Extended, have been since August 2010 when it launched
Ive been raiding level 90 content on EQ2X for almost a year now (since November)
EQ2X raiding is no different than doing guild raids on Live
to clarify - Gold has no restrictions beyond choosing a player race
EQ2 fan sites
I just wanted to jump on the band wagon. I have had a great experience with EQ2 over the last couple of weeks...
I had been playing Age of Conan since July and wanted to take a break and try somethign with more indepth PvE, so I checked out the EQ2 forums and started looking at servers. I wanted to find a place with people to play with so I didn't have to solo to 90 before I could get in a group. On an early Sunday morning, I did some checking around and found that AB was highest pop Live server with about 700 players,60% being 90th level characters. I did the same checking on EQ2X - Freeport and it had more than double at 1600 ! the cool thing was that only 20% of the players were 90th level so there are TONs of people through all the level ranges.
If you have some free time waiting for the next big MMO to come out I would suggest you give EQ2X a try, it's free with the new streaming download tech you can start playing playing with just a 5 minute download.
Cya in Norath.
I always hated EQ2's minigame crafting. Crafting, by its very nature, never struck me as something that should require players to be totally attentive.
Dungeon Finder and EQ2x are both complete garbage. If these are what has you thinking about resubbing, don't. You'll be disappointed.
The game is still excellent after all these years. But both DF and EQ2x really suck.
"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
I always hated EQ2's minigame crafting. Crafting, by its very nature, never struck me as something that should require players to be totally attentive.
After reading this thread, I was inspired to give Norrath another try myself. Re-upped my sub tonight and started playing on AB server. Joined Safe Haven, which seems to have a lot of good people in it (from what I could tell at the onset).
Look me up any time. I'm currently playing a Troubador. Character name is Finkcur.
No godless person can comprehend those minute distinctions
in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem.
-Glen Cook
If anyone is looking for a different type of guild that runs off of fun and grouping with 80 percent lvl 20-30s check out my post here and send me a tell in game ,
We are new lvl 31 just got our hall and have 45 members already 3 weeks old we give out rank for joining events and doing guild related things not grinding status like most other guilds.Enjoy the game not the grind.
Anyway theres a post on here looking for a different kind of guild i put up yesterday it explains more about the guild and how it works if your interested.
Exovius or Krylance AB server
Thanks!
Just thought I would drop by and say hello. Due to RL events.. Holidays, Warmachine Tournaments (had to paint minitures for), and Excessive Work (not really a bad thing).. I havent had alot of time to play I think in January I only logged in twice. December I might have managed one night. So far this month I have played twice.
Anyway to update this thread. Last night We enjoyed Nektropos Castle. Interesting and twisted place. We are after the fishbone earring there. One of my friends has been leveling alts while I think she has 2 characters in the 50s or 60s now.. She is really happy I am getting a bit more time to play. My other 2 friends just busied themselves doing other things, while RL was intervening for me.
Currently looking forward to finishing Nek Castle though. My guild was extremely happy to hear we were going to start getting on again more regularely and apparently have been doing alot of raiding lately... Granted My character is only level 38, so i am no where close to being able to go along with them. Today after posting this I am going to buy the new expansion, and try out a beast lord.
TTYAL
Freeport server is where everyone is at these days. I rolled a Beast lord and having loads of fun.
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
Hi, i think its best place to ask similar question instead of creat new thread.
My EQ2 account including DoV expansion but do i really need to buy AoD expansion to continue raiding in EQ2?
*Returning player btw.