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I'm Back and I'm Not Sure Why I Left - Read if you haven't played EQ2
jhall229
Member Posts: 239
Okay, EQ2 isn't quite as polished as WoW, the animations may seem a bit SWG, and it's still a pain to get the graphics settings where you want them sometimes...but this is still the best MMO out there IMO.
You have tons of stuff to do: There are endless quests, guild halls, player housing, mentoring (group with anybody no matter what level), in depth character development, a good/mature community, raiding, solo'ing, factions, fun crafting, voice chat, lore, collections, appearance tab, broker system, eq2players, eq2 ZAM (check the broker offline), and did I mention the best community....oh yeah and dont forget CONTENT!!!, endless amounts of it.
If you're looking for a game that won't let you down, go ahead and try this one. Also, send me a PM if you want to join a good guild.
Comments
It is a very good game. Personally I like the character animations.
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Only about 5,018 quests...not quite endless. :-p
Agree with most all of this content wise and depth of game Eq2 just buries WoW plain and simple.Amazes me that WoW been up long as Eq2 yet they cannot seem to get a expansion out but every 2 years with all the money they are bringing in but guess when your not losing subs to other games much you don't really care when you put anything out.Blizzard and WoW are still on top atm but all the WoW fan bois should remember Eq1 was on top for alot of years as well it will cycle through to someone else sooner or later.
Yes, for me it is also the one mmorpg i always come back to.
But on the other hand, whenever i come back after an extended break, EQ2 shows its age more and more and i'm afraid that soon there will be nothing left to come back to.
I know that the players always used to say that now or then was "the best time to start with the game" or that "it's still worth it, even for beginners". I wonder how long that will stay valid.
In comparison: After all the years, even the heavy population on my former WoW-server went down to an alltime-low. Eq2, at about the same age, hasn't had that many players on my server right from the start, so every missing player leaves a gap here.
Also from a technical point, i think the game can barely cope anymore these days. My pc went through several upgrades through all the years and still EQ2 runs...simply unpredictable oftentimes, even with precisely fumbled out settings which i spent days and nights on. Yes, i know about the misconception of the engine, hence heavy single-cpu utilisation etc. And how nasty things can get even on a beast of a pc in certain game evironments! As to the graphics, we also know by official source that we wont see any new shaders in EQ2 and it's mainly running shader 1.1 and old shader code of GF3 times (both Dx8.0) .Whenever i log in after a break, it shows to me...it's all so sad in a way because i love the game.
I know a ton of people who would like to play it but simply can't or refuse to play a 4yrs+ old game at ugly medium settings and 15m view-distance to get bareable and yet very unsteady 30fps when playing solo. Some of them are used to run quite current games with decent video-settings and acceptable performance on their rather average machines or even on their laptops. IF the price has to be <40fps, some are used to get at least let's say "AoC-video quality". EQ2's tech-standard misses all along the line.
Ii wish that one day SOE would show up with a major tec-overhaul to update the game and make it more accessible to the players, but that will remain a fan's dream. At least they could bring on the announcement some sort of Eq3.
I agree, some of the best spell effects in any MMO imo.
Id play this game more if they would do something with the inventory system. Its like a micro-management nightmare. There really needs to be a better way of seperating crafting items, collection items, crafting items (did I say that twice?), items that raise city standings etc. I know the whole idea of this game seems to be "give the gamers more challenge", but for most people it looks like an unorganized mess.
also the journal is quite a pain in the ass for a returning player. I dont think you're given enough information as to who/what/where in the journal. Like I said, coming from a returning players perspective. If you've been out of the game for a year or so, when you log back in you'll spend hours sifting through your inventory trying to make heads or tails out of what is what. Then you'll spend hours trying to figure out whats in your journal.
also, the amount of buffs in this game are insane! I log in and see like 6 self buffs. Then I go into my backpack and I have a ton of totems for additional buffs. I think they should have learned something from EQ1 and that is too many buffs suck to keep up with and manage.
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The reason I have trouble actually liking this game anymore is that once you reach level 70+ you have so many friggin skills all you do is look at your hotbar and spam -- at lest for the SK. On my SK I have 3 full hotbars of skills, all of which I use regularly. Combat just feels totally blah to me by having to micromanage SO much. I'd be happy with 1 totally active hotbar and a 2nd situational hotbar.
Maybe I'll try again if someone can recommend a class that isn't a hotbar spam fest.
With the guild halls you just put all the items into your guild hall crafting item bank and you dont even have to keep them on your person.
Thats why I'm not playing. I like the game, I just can't do the micromanging. I also find myself having to clock in some serious time selling loot on the broker. Feels like such a waste of my gaming time.
If you're looking for good DPS and/or aggro gain, you have to sort of plan out what spells you will cast in order to reach your max. You can pretty much double your DPS with actual thought put into your spell casts.
If you're looking for good DPS and/or aggro gain, you have to sort of plan out what spells you will cast in order to reach your max. You can pretty much double your DPS with actual thought put into your spell casts.
Oh I know -- it's actually the problem. My DPS and agro was great, but that required me to make full use of roughly 10+ skills in any give fight. And with all the short cooldown abilities I was required to always look at my hotbar so I could make full use of everything in the right time. That is 10+ skills I'm micromanaging in any given fight to reach full potential agro or dps -- that's not fun to me. I like to be able to actually be able to watch the fights and still be able to maximize agro/dps.
If you're looking for good DPS and/or aggro gain, you have to sort of plan out what spells you will cast in order to reach your max. You can pretty much double your DPS with actual thought put into your spell casts.
Oh I know -- it's actually the problem. My DPS and agro was great, but that required me to make full use of roughly 10+ skills in any give fight. And with all the short cooldown abilities I was required to always look at my hotbar so I could make full use of everything in the right time. That is 10+ skills I'm micromanaging in any given fight to reach full potential agro or dps -- that's not fun to me. I like to be able to actually be able to watch the fights and still be able to maximize agro/dps.
As a Fury I had to use around 5 skills for healing and roughly 9 for DPS. I just kinda made a small routine. Basically I knew even before the battle started what I'd be using and it just became automatic from there. Basically group HoT, single-target HoT, DoT's, large nuke, etc. Basically you practice and sooner or later you'll be casting automatically.
I always liked EQ2,i would have probably never left if not for real life issues the first time.Then when i went back years later,there was no players on my server that was merged.There was only 800 players on average logging in everyday,so it seemed barren at times.Even with that i was willing to stick around but they botched up my accounts,i was so frustrated by something that should be simple that i did not bother to pursue it.
My perfect game would be FFXI combat with the added renkai /elemental part of it and the sub class system.If EQ2 had that it would be the near perfect game.Well plus i don't really care for the multi grouped mobs EQ uses i prefer the controlled single mob fights that FFXI uses.FFXI does not have ALL single fights ,they have some unique ideas that are kind of cool like the Chigoes that can allow for chaining MANY MANY kills.
I like EQ2 crafting also but since they have a dedicated team and a paid lead hand for crafting i was dissapointed it was not advanced even further.I never believe in stopping at a good thing when you can make it even better,i mean if they are paying that staff to look after crafting,make them do something lol.
It is funny i kind of considered FFXI my MAIN game,but no question FFXI pissed me off with several ideas and i can't remember ever getting pissed at EQ2,well other than the odd glitch where mobs go through walls
.It is no wonder Blizzard chose to copy EQ for WOW SOE does just about everything right when comes to their MMORPG.
I have no idea as to the animation comment, i found WOW animations to be blocky unreal,where IMO EQ2 is about as bang on as you can get,i guess this is after playing WOW so long you get used to one look.I will agree 100% on the graphic settings ,it seemed like i had to constantly change from day and night settings.
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I agree I find the character animations some of the best in the business. Some never see them in their full glory. Many do not realize there is an animation slider, this should be maxedn it is often set lower by default. When maxed EQ2's character animations are fantastic.
EQ2 seems to be an awsome game with alot to do in a rich world. The problem is the engine. Fix the graphic engine and I will be back. If I cant get a game to run smooth with my rig I wont play it. Simple as that.
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My problem as well. They took such a huge gamble on their graphics engine and it failed. It is heavily processor based, and they assumed processers would reach ungodly raw speed, but instead games are much heavily GPU based, and then CPU's went dual core instead of faster single cores.
I actually have a monster machine that can sort of run the game on max settings. But sort of being able to do something on a 5 year old game is never good. Sadly I doubt Sony will invest any money into a new engine for an old game.
I left when Age of Conan came out and 80% of my guild left to play AoC. So I went with them. Was a good time but they eventually left AoC and i got tired of them jumping around so I decided to take a break from hardcore MMOs and played CoX which i see as an incredibly causual MMO if you want it to be. Anyway I might come back. I never really left because there was somethin wrong with the game.
My problem as well. They took such a huge gamble on their graphics engine and it failed. It is heavily processor based, and they assumed processers would reach ungodly raw speed, but instead games are much heavily GPU based, and then CPU's went dual core instead of faster single cores.
I actually have a monster machine that can sort of run the game on max settings. But sort of being able to do something on a 5 year old game is never good. Sadly I doubt Sony will invest any money into a new engine for an old game.
If you have a monster machine then you should be able to run it on max settings. i don' thave a monster machine and I can "just" about run it on max settings.
2.4 ghz dual core
2 gigs of ram
Nvidia GeForece 7950 GT
Not a monster machine but I toggle back and forth from max settings to just below that. when I was playing I settled just below as it was starting to become a pain in the neck.
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I do not see it cycling thru ever.I think the reputation SOE has right now keeps alot of gamers from puting alot of time into this game.Most are to afraid SOE will come and ruin it for them so they simply stay away.I played the game for awhile and thought it was a decent game.It deserves to have a better population than what it has.I do not see any of the current SOE games ever recovering from their current states. It is still to early to see how Free Realms will do,The Agency and DC Universe are Sony's Best chance at having a Blockbuster game.If these fail Sooo Long! SOE.
I keep going back to EQ2. EQ2 has the best character development options in any mmorpg I have played (except maybe AO). On top of the standard level and loot you have
achievements; gained by doing quests, finding certain items, killing named mobs and finding world locations. Achievment points are spent to customise your character. Achievement XP isn't linked to your level - you can customise your character faster than you level.
Spells: your spells and attacks have multiple quality levels - apprentice 1 and 2, adept 1 and 3, master. This extra layer of character development gives you get another layer of things you can do to make your character better.
There is always something you can be doing to make your character stronger at every level range.
Well, I should have been more specific about the animations. Mainly its how some races run (especially with speed buffs) that just reminds me of SWG. Just something I personally don't like very much.
Coming back to EQ2 from another Lineage 2 stint, the broker system is just so much easier. The ability to sell so much and to quickly search for item prices....If that's too much for you in EQ2, dont ever play Lineage 2 where you have to maunally search a town full of afk shops for the prices
I do agree about the amount of spells. It is a little overkill.
I've been a returning player twice.
When I first started around the launch time, the game became really bland around level 15, plus there wasn't any PVP so I figured there was no point in going on.
After coming back, I rerolled a swashbuckler on a PVP server. Since I hadn't played for a long time and tried to get back into it, it was very difficult to do. It's hard to get everything done as a new player with all the twinks and gankers out there.
The time I quit again was when they nerfed swashbucklers reach in PVP. Plus, the group of people I was playing weren't really as active, and it was kind of hard to meet new people and friends there. Well, at least it was for me. It seemed as if this games community is mostly the older generation and such.
I tried to get back into it recently on a PVE server, but it didn't really give me the same satisfaction of a PVP server. However, trying to solo at 4x tier on a PVP is very, very stressful.
I started up my account again after two years. EQ2 has so much content and great stuff (Housing, crafting, etc) and its a shame that not more people still play it. I played it at launch and altho it had many problems then, the content was wonderful. Now after returning I doubt I can get into it again. Soling is painful, the zones are deserted (I know many are in instances) and the game is top heavy with very few lower level characters. Its kinda lifeless to me now, and I want a game that's alive.
/shrug I dont know, just wish it had more people.
Current Games: WOW, EVE Online
Bitch as much as you want to, but World Of Warcraft's graphics feel the same since launch. If you like their art style & graphics, you will feel the same even coming back after a few years. I go back to a game like Everquest 2 and the graphics do feel old and dated. That's is the next everlasting advantage of Blizzard's development. Your own Art Design > Medieval Fantasy BS