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hercules 2 month plus play review-EQ2
hercules
Member UncommonPosts: 4,925
EQ2 review
Hi I been in beta for 7 weeks but my brother got his with friends and family back about 12 weeks ago (something to do with some good work he did back as a guide in EQ in 2000 i assume).
Due to the fact sometimes post get wiped on submit i shall break it into many parts .
We have together gotten 3 characters past level 20.A assasin to 21 ,a wizard to 28 and a templar to 26.
Also we have combined tried every class to 10 at least.The classes can be found on the offical site so will not bother you with details.
Every race can be any class.
You start out picking either good or evil.While there is no pvp it can determine your future ie say you become a scout then at level 10 become a predator then at 20 if you are good and in queynos then you become a ranger if evil in freeport then you become an assasin.
There is a shared bank system but only evil can share with evil and good with good.
You start the game on a boat and are given the basic tuturial and feel of controls with some minor quests.You come out and pick the profession and are given quest.You can become an adventurer and at same time a crafter ie ranger and scribe with the SAME character.
You are directed to quests by npc using text or voice overs(some actors like chrisopher Lee have taped for this game as did Heather Graham).
Unlike what some dude said its a total lie that most quests are fed ex he clearly played the game very little.Most would involve combat .Some quests involve you playing your role like there is a quest in freeport in which you have to talk to a bartender to stop selling to some faction if you go saying "don't do it again" the quest does not update you have to punch them in the nose.
There is literally thousands of quests in this game.On the starter isle known as isle of refuge there is over 20 quests to do if you look around including a mastery quest which are quests that give you a special attack to that particular creature.
By the time you move to the main lands you will be able to buy special books that give you mastery and storyline quests for different areas,races and mobs.
END OF PART 1
Comments
Now you can stay on the isle of refuge till you are level 6 with 220% exp then you have to go to a city and do a quest for citizenship.
You get a basic one room apartment which you can place funiture in and such.
You can stay on the isle of refuge and craft till level 9.There is everything you need to craft to that level trust me many will say there is not but there is.Whether you want to stay and craft in the isle that long is a different matter.
I will address crafting now so that i get it over with and talk about other parts of the game.
There is a tower called malevinous tower on the starter isle.The chap there will give you a quest that will get you to level 3 artisan.After that you MUST go to the vendors and buy artisan essential volume 3 and scribe the book and go back into a trade instance and craft.There is harmful effects of crafting which involves you pressing counter actions .This is important because not only can you fail more often while crafting you can actually die.
So if you have plans of macroing or afk crafting in this game forget it .Even using a second computer takes a lot of attention off the crafting enough to die.We tried using the second account and it was very hard.
At level 9 you need to head to queynos harbour and pick a profession to further.The most popular in beta was sage/scribe because they make scrolls that enhances your ability/spell.There are 3 levels of scrolls apprentice-adept-master.Only master i ever seen are once that come with mastery of certain mobs.
Scrolls are level 1-3.IE app1,app2,app3.App 3 the most powerful of the apprentice scrolls.
When you level (there is going to be level1-50) combat class you get a new ability or spell.It is usually apprentice 1. adept2 are suppose to be quest scrolls but are NOT in the game.adept 1 are dropped off mobs.adept 3 requires rare harvested stuff to make .
There are also special crafting books which drop off mobs.Atm the crafting quests are not in but promised.
Apprentice 2 can be bought off npc vendors.
Selling your good.You can sell on trade channel or thru a broker however you need to buy a speical token to be able to sell and need to be online to sell.
Ok this is a short of crafting but there is so much to cover so i shall proceed.
Quests.This game is very strong on quests and there is a lot of quest to do if you look around.So many you will get your quest hournal so filled you will be amazed when you will have time to do it.The rewards tend to be good items,nice exp and sometimes you get access keys to zones that only your group/raid party can go in.
Most are good fun,some harder ones require grouping to do them.
End of part 2
COMBAT.Combat requires you to cast spells or do actions.You have a power bar and when its empty you can only swing the weapon .There is something called heroic oppurtunities.This grant extra dmg if you follow the correct sequel of spells or actions.
Combat is fast but you can not regenerate the power or health if in combat.If in trouble hit sprint and yell for help.When you yell for help combat is broken and others can help or heal you but exp and loot from that mob is lost.If you are in combat no one can help,heal or attack the mob unless you or your group members.
Resting after combat you heal and regenerate very fast so no 10 minute break between fights.
LEVELLING.There are 50 levels and they tend to go fast.A chap i met when i join(not my brother even) let the isle of refuge at same time as me and is curently level 39.But he is a very hardcore player since i always see him online.In average it slows down at about the level 20 mark in both combat and trade(recently trade gain was buffed used to be slow).
So for the average gamer its just a perfect way of levelling knowing in 3-6 months you will hit 50.A top hardcore will hit it maybe in 6-8 weeks but then again thats a issue with all mmorpg and hardcores isn't it.
GRAPHICS.I should have made mention of this earlier.It is stunning!However,you need to set your system according to the specs you have.The highest is called extreme which i have yet to meet anyone that can play it.Only chap i met who could even move with it had a dual FX6800ultra(thats right dual!) and he could barely move around.
The agreed card that gives a accetpable performance is the R9600XT.It will run smoothly on high perfomance(it goes extreme quality to very high performance) in a large crowd smoothly.
I have tried a Ti4600 and it ran fine on same setting in a large crowd.I used a R9800pro on balanced setting(step up from high performance) and had smooth running my brother used a X800pro on high quality(step up from balanced) and ran smoothly.
So really if you have a Ti4600 or a R9600XT you do fine and upgrading at this point makes little sense unless you just want to since the game engine is so advanced that its build for the next generation card.So if you buy a FX6800 ultra and say you wanna run on extrmem then forget it ,the next gen card next year might but not this one.
If you want high quality now(there is even a very high quality before extreme) then sure buy the X800 or 6800 cards.But don't jump the bandwagon because all are doing it by next year the bandwagon will demand a better card to run this game on higher setting since its advanced for the future.
RAM seems to matter -512RAM is too small in my view you need more preferably 1GB.
Processor-Does not matter as long as its a pentium 4 or athlon xp or better.Get above the 1GHZ and it does fine.The only thing that matters a bit is zoning time since thew game is divided in zones but your connection matters more.
Performance.To be honest with them they have improved performance a lot in my time in beta but honestly as i write this they need to do a lot more before releasing the game.At its current performance the game is not ready for release.Good example is antontica it does great up to a certain number of people then it has real bad server lag(yes everyone in zone has it even on the best computer money can buy trust me).
They know about this and have improved the perforance a great deal and for this i say they done a good job but the road is still long ahead.Maybe in a month's time they will be ready by the time the game goes live(lets hope and pray).
end of part 3
CLASSES.They done it in such a way that no cleric or warrior will dictate a group.
Currently all that pick priest heal quite well up to the point i play.So if there is no cleric pick a druid or shaman they do just as good.
Same goes for fighters pick a warrior,crusader or brawler.
The scouts and mage do have bad balance issues.Atm the scout brances to bard,predator and rogue.
The bard is getting buffed by the week because they were severely underpowered.The rogue is however getting little attention and to be honest i see little reason to pick them over the predator as things stand.Mosre then half the scouts in beta seems to be predators and for good reason.They deal out more dmg then any of the other 2 scouts and with a good margin.The assasin that branches from the predator recently even got an additional buff despite the class dealing such insane dmg they out damage a wizard 2 levels higher then them.
The mages branch to summoner,sorceror and enchanter.Think DAoC AE group think EQ2 atm.For expereince grouping the wizard is king because of AE spells .The summoners seems underpowered(not played one past 10 but many complain) and the enchanter seems to sit back and watch till an encounter calls for mezzing otherwise it seems easier and less time consuming to slap in 2 wizards and AE nuke the mobs.
Classes need looking into more thats for sure.
SOLOING.Take no notice of those screaming about soloing there is a lot of solo options and all classes can solo in this game.I used the 3 classes i listed that got past 20s to solo yellow cons(slightly higher level then me) just fine.Mobs are conned either solo or group.If a soloer fights a group mob then he has only himself to blame.
There is no SWG style of one man army going around wiping the hardest mobs in the game.
TRANSPORT-boats,griffons are public transport .There is an option of buying horses too.
DEATH- you die you get a shard left behind and take dmg to your gear(you need to visit a mender).Go to the shard and gain exp back or let any priest class revive you if nearby.You spawn back with your gear.
Group debt is a system in which if you die ina group others share you debt 1/6th of if you died solo(assuming the group is filled to 6 ppl).Many love it many hate .It makes ppl pay attention and you will not have the common healer went afk without saying a word and the tank dies since they share in your death penalty.
Many hate it because many with poor grouping skills are in the game(many SWG guys and first timersetc).They run off and die make bad pulls and get killed.Trick is to identify this player early and boot them asap.
LOOTING- group leader decides if to make a lotto ,Free for all or he loots.
I will stop my review here and answer any questions people may have.I for one have pre ordered the game and have done so for WoW.Both are great games but if the issue of server stability and class balance is addressed i see myself not paying for WoW past the free month and going with EQ2.
But iof this issues go on past the free month i will go with WoW as it is more polished.But remember the more complex a thing is the easier it breaks so thats EQ as the complex thing here.
Moderators can u put this in the EQ2 forum please as i accidently posted in the general forum and will prefer it there.
Thanks.
Nice posts and I appreciate the information. That was a very good "general" look at the game.
Spooooon!!!!
Spooooon!!!!
Superb review hercules.
The review helped alot, thanks!
" - You can't say civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way."
" - You can't say civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way."
Now this is a good unbiased review, unlike some we have seen and will likely continue seeing. 2 thumbs up!
Thanks for the review, I've been combing the EQ boards after the NDA lift. Lots of good info here
Good to know that I'll beat EQ2 in about two-three months then, and the no pvp is a definite plus on that note
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Good job Hercules. Really nice post and usefull information.
Looking forward to getting my feet wet in the world
TY I tried to make the review more of how to get thru the inital levels and the general way the game plays rather then praise or bash the game.
Good review , i enjoyed reading it.
Thanks.
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EQ2 Qeynos Guild- http://www.imperium-arcanum.com