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The Return to Norrath!
cybertrucker
Member UncommonPosts: 1,117
Hey all, I posted on here a few weeks ago several times asking questions about EQ2 due to thinking about returning to give it another try.
For those that might not have read those earlier posts. I will give a brief rundown.
Like many other older gamers. Everquest 1 was my first MMO. I spent 6 years of my life there made many great friends, and created many great memories. No other game since has held me captivated for nearly as long.
When Everquest 2 first came out, I was extremely excited. I had highly anticipated a new journey thru Norrath. When the game came out however, I can honestly say I left dissipointed... I wanted to like the game but so many parts of the game just did not appeal to me. Like so many others, I left heading off to join millions of other gamers in WOW. I enjoyed WOW for nearly 2 years. However I always enjoyed more mature non disney stylised graphics. So I left, along with other friends.
Since that time I have travelled from game world to game world, trying to find that spark like I found in the original Norrath. I thought I might have found it in Vanguard, A game which I greatly enjoyed for 2+ years. However after seeing most of what the game had to offer and realizing that dev support was completely drying up, myself with my friends continued our journey yet again. Bouncing from gameworld to gameworld.
Over the last few years, several of my friends stopped playing all together just getting burnt out on MMOs in general. I myself have taken several breaks.
My last game played was RIFT, which graphically speaking was gorgeous. However with it being yet another WOW remake, and taking the SOLO oriented gameplay to extremes that I have never seen before, and with one of the most silent, non sociable communities I have ever witnessed I took a 2 month hyatus from MMOs.
Then one day back in the first week of September, I came across my old EQ2 collectors edition box. Memories of Norrath came flooding back. I remember so wanting EQ2 to succeed. Online I went asking questions here and elsewhere. Then came youtube. The music of EQ alone sold me. Listening to Everquest music is Nostalgic. Dont know why I just love the music of EQ (both versions) better than any MMO I have ever played in.
So after a week or 2 of debating. I re opened my account to give EQ2 a 2nd shot. I even got my best online friend who has not played an MMO now in 2 years. We met in EQ1 to come try the game out with me. So myself and 3 other friends all made characters on the Antonia Bayle server and are now off to new adventures.
Ok so maybe it was not as brief as I intended. Sorry about that. Anyway onto the real topic. A review of Everquest 2 from this old time gamer.
Over the last 2 weeks myself and 3 of my friends have been adventuring in Norrath. I have went the road of Paladin. I have played a tank as my main role in MMOs for about 98% of my time gaming. I have a friend who made a fury (druid healer/dpser hybrid), Another playing a Wizard, and another playing a ranger. We got ourselves a pretty solid group.
That being said we really are only going to be mainly grouping together on the weekends.. During the weekdays we might get to duo or trio, and build PUGs
After my first encounter with the game I was still skeptical about what to expect from EQ2 upon my return. However I have to admit that I have been pleasantly suprised. Not only am I enjoying the game. But currently I have even been having that spark that has been missing from my gaming for YEARS. Maybe its the way we are tackling EQ2.
While EQ2 offers TONS of quests we have decided that we will do our quests sparingly. While we are in an Area we might pick up a quest or 2 if we are all together, however we are not doing the whole running back and forth nonstop quest grinding that comes with pretty much every other game out. Instead we are doing dungeon runs. We spent this last weekend in Antonica Running Black Burrow, Old school like. Farming nameds and getting drops. Spending hours just enjoying the game and the company. We have also already made friends while doing it. Today we ended up outleveling Blackburrow. WE had a few quests we picked up when we started. Turned the ones few finished in, deleted the ones we didnt. Then we moved on from the Gnoll infested Blackburrow in antonica and set our sites to Crushbone which is an Orc Keep set in Greater Faydark. Tonight we ventured inside this stronghold for the first time and met our demise a few times before calling it a night. Like Blackburrow we picked some of the key quests for the place but are not going to get carried away with them.
I think one of the things I am realizing in playing the game the way we are is that we are all kinda of just tired of the whole quest system that is ingrained into all the games these days. To me they dont feel like quests. They feel like chores, minimal tasks. We have set our Altnernate Advancement (AA) slider to 50% to slow our leveling and to allow for lateral advancement. That way we can spend more time enjoying the areas we are at. Due to the fact XP and leveling has sped up to light speed since the game orignally launched.
During the weekdays not all of us can be on at the sametime. To Ensure we stay around the same level. During the week we all go 100% Alternate advancement if we are out adventuring, or we might be crafting or harvesting to pass time. Last week Myself and my fury (our healer) grouped up several times, starting off duoing but ended up picking up others. This leads me to the community. EQ2 especially on the Antonia Bayle server has an OUTSTANDING community. People are friendly, helpful, Sociable and even more importantly love to group. However I will say the mentoring system is kinda crazy. We ended up getting AA powerleveled pratically one night running an instance with 3 level 90s that mentored down to our level..Still we had a blast met some cool people. One of which has now even made a Coercer (crowd control) to run with us on the weekend.
We actually even joined the Coercers guild, which seems full of some of the coolest people I have run across in gaming in the last 4 years.
I will now move to some of the basics.
The gameplay for me has been great... Some of the things that bothered me in EQ2 back in the day are still present however they have been tweaked, and dont seem to bother me as badly, if at all really. I truly must say I am having a blast.
Graphics.. YOu know I have read all these posts about how poorly the engine runs. I am playing on an ASUS gaming laptop. Have the game turned to Very High and even tweaked it up a bit higher than that. Almost to maximum setting across the board, and the game runs great for me. I will post some screenshots later. The gameworld still has a more modular look to it. However it still looks very good. Especially at the settings I am running it at. Some of the new areas (anything post launch is new for me) Are so bright and colorful. I remember back when I played it originally the gameworld seemed dull and lifeless. I have to say.. they have changed this dramatically, and for the better.
Sound. The music of EQ for me is classic, you cant get anybetter for a fantasy world.. Also the SFX for the game in general are incredibly well done. Some of the voice acting is pretty bad. but you cant have everything.
Final Verdict. Well I really have to say, I didnt really expect to find myself having as much fun as I am having. I mean, I find myself getting pumped to get done with my day to log in. I havent been excited to play a game in years. I feel like I am recapturing some of that feeling I had back in the days of EQ1.. I am really looking forward to Re exploring Norrath again after these long years away.
Comments
First day in game.
Advice: put 90 or at least 80% of your XP into AA the first 50 levels and then turn it up to 50%. You level so fast nowadays that you miss the best part of the game otherwise.
Well we are only doing the 50% on the weekends when we are all on together...Other than that we are doing 100% AA during the week.
Here is a screen that was captured last week. Was mid teens. This is the Fury we travel with as well as myself.
Great Thread, I love reading people's positive experiences!
Like you EQ1 was my first MMO and I was floored!!!!! I can still remember the music from Kelethin and the runs into Crushbone.....those are some of my happiest MMO memories.
Also like you, me and my wife put our XP slider to 100% AAs when we hit lvl 13 so we can do all the content from the other starter zones as well as the Commonlands and the two dungeons off of the Commonlands. We craft and harvest so we have MC gear. If things get too rough or we have done a lot of the content and quests (we do the quests for AA xp) we go up a few levels so we can complete the content.
The game is great! The community is even greater!! I have never seen a group of players more friendly or helpful than in EQ or EQ2. WoW would be the opposite end where the community is full of garbage...or at least they are the most vocal.
I am still in Afghanistan but I get out of here in one more month which is perfect because Beastlords will be introduced....just in time!
Good luck to you and your friends.
It is true the draw of Everquest 2 was its community just like Everquest itself. After years of wandering about from game to game I have found that it is very seldom you come across a good community and without it a game is just lifeless.
I would like to begin playing again, anyone care to join me? Hopefully starting again today. Message me please!
As of this last weekend our group achieved level 20. We finished our adventures in blackburrow and moved into crushbone. This orc infested keep is turning out to be a great challenge. I have to say learning to body pull is also fun and different.. Our guild has helped tremendously giving us 44 slot bags. And plat to upgrade gear with.
Speaking of guilds the guild hall we have is absolutely amazing. I amcurrently posting on my phone but later I will add new screens. One other thing I have to say. I love that they have added appearance slots which I am definitely using. Now if only they will add a dye system
EQ2 has always looked nice in screenshots.. another story in motion IMO.
I am currently playing EQ2 on AB while waiting on the Beastlord class to return and lets face it... 90% of the games population will be Beastlords for a long time. But that means more people to play with at lower levels.
Looking forward to more screenshots.
Best communities in MMO.
EQ1.
EQ2.
LOTRO/ Laurelin Server.
Vanguard.
http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Jesus/Jesus.htm
lol agree - going to be ALOT of beastlords
EQ2 fan sites
Yeah i am a bit peeved by this as well. I remember Beastlords coming out with the Luclin expansion and not many people playing the class. Them days it took so long to level that you really didn't go for ALTs until you had reached top level but i already had a 65 Erudite wizard( wtf SOE did to that race is despicable,from black skinned to freaking aliens) so i started a Val Shar beastlord.
Man i freaking loved that clas,he was a solo powerhouse that had all manner of hany spells and deadly skills. My pet was a freaking killer at top level and certain other levels. I remember making my way to crystal caverns in the eastern wastes for the first time and using Levitation to float all the way down to the bottom.
Killing mobs in POF near entrance with uber bad ass Beasty lol.
Alas the EQ2 Beastlord will feel more like a WOW hunter or perhaps they will keep the almost shaman feel to him. My Tuurgin(bear/melee) Shaman in Vanguard was the closes i ever got to that old Beastlord feel but he was also one of the main healers.
Shaman in Vanguard are a healer class but also one of the only two true pet classes in the game,a necro holds the other title.
http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Jesus/Jesus.htm
Just logged off for the night.. figured I would post an updated screenshot! This is from Butcherblock, I was only on for a short time tonight because I got on so late and ran a few quests in the Butcherblock mountains. Ohh point about the game running badly in Video... I am playing on a new Asus Gaming laptop. I Average 48 to 68 FPS I run the game on Very High++ the ++ means I tweak it a bit higher than that. IE 8X anti aliasing, More detailed lighting and shadows. I will admit I havent been in a raid yet. But in a full group with mobs rushing in my computer hasnt skipped a beat yet. The only lag I have gotten has come from connection lag when I am parked in bad areas. My laptop is Quad Core, Geforce 560M (3gig dedicated vid ram) 12 gigs of ram. So far my cooling fan hasnt even kicked on hardly in EQ2. I will say when I turn it to extreme settings it staggers not sure why.
Anyway here is the screenshot from tonight.. EQ2 really is an amazing looking world! ohh and honestly the Screenshot doesnt look as it does in the game.. The reflective armor in game is amazing the way it captures and reflects the light. It doesnt show it well in the screenshot.
Agreed, it looks great and the reflection can be selective within each piece. There is a Scout chest piece you get early on that has reflection on the strapping but none elsewhere. It's the little things.
Have you guys tried the dungeon finder yet? I'm interested to hear how quickly you get groups at lower levels.
Keep on trekin'!
I've been thinking of giving EQ2 a try after not having played it for a few years, would you recommend the live or extended servers?
As for SOE X server it seems very restrictive unless you plan to spend money anyway. I would say regular account IF you actually want to play the game seriously. The X server would be ok if ur just wanting to poke around.
Depends on your play times and what level you are. If you play at prime times most live servers are healthy though a lot more 90s than lower levels. If you play at odd or late times I would go gold package on X. Other than giving you only four races to choose from gold gives you everything else that live does. Oh, vet rewards do not carry over as X is technically a separate service. I play late night PST and made the tough decision to play gold on the x server. At 2am PST there are 40+ people on just in my guild. My recommendation would be to use th guild search and people search to see how many people of what level are in a guild you would like to be in. Thier in game search feature is great.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.
http://everquest2.com/free_to_play/game_overview
I agree there should be no race restrictions if you have a gold membership on the X server. However, the population during my playtime (10pm PST) on the live servers is more of restriction than what race I can create on X. I've always played human toons though so there is 0 restrictions for me personally. If I had to pay for another race in order to have a healthy pop server, for my playtime, I think I would. I would grumble but I plan to play until EQN comes out.
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?Hey I was thinking about starting to play as well, whats your character name? I'm coming to this game with no one and need friends
What is the crafting like in EQ2? Is it more like WoW, Vanguard or SWG ???