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Will I like this game?
Howdy. I'll be totally honest and say that I've never considered Everquest II before, but I thought maybe I'd give it a shot. I don't know if it's the kind of game a player like me would like. I'll get right out and say I'm a more casual gamer and outright don't have the free time to spend many hours a day playing a game.
The biggest things I hated about the original were grinding and camping. I didn't always have time to get in a group so I had to solo most of the time, and I found it frustrating to sit around waiting for something to spawn just so I could kill it and not have it drop what I needed, then repeat. Another thing that turned me off was the devestating death penalty. There was nothing more demoralising than getting killed and watch my level drop backwards, and realize that five minutes of gameplay had rolled me back hours of leveling.
My favorite classes were Shadowknights and Paladins, there was something about the hybrids I enjoyed immensly. How do they play out in this game, are they the same type of experience or have they drastically changed? Also, what advantages do humans have in this game? I've heard races don't really matter this time around.
One last odd query...how fun is being evil in this game? The best thing about EQ to me was being able to be completely, mercilessly evil. I loved the quests my shadowknight went on that required him to kill someone good, or sneak into good towns dodging guards. The evil places were all fun to hang around, too. Neriak was fun to hang out in with all the evil types, Paineel was my favorite city ever, and the shrine of Bertoxxolus under Qeynos was the most thrilling place to stand around in (oh hi mr. spectre, how nice you aren't killing me). I frequently made a dark pilgrimage just to see a new evil place. And that haunted mansion was the most fun area ever.
I'm not bashing the original by any means, there are just things about it that don't appeal to me, and I wanted to see if I might like the sequel.
The biggest things I hated about the original were grinding and camping. I didn't always have time to get in a group so I had to solo most of the time, and I found it frustrating to sit around waiting for something to spawn just so I could kill it and not have it drop what I needed, then repeat. Another thing that turned me off was the devestating death penalty. There was nothing more demoralising than getting killed and watch my level drop backwards, and realize that five minutes of gameplay had rolled me back hours of leveling.
My favorite classes were Shadowknights and Paladins, there was something about the hybrids I enjoyed immensly. How do they play out in this game, are they the same type of experience or have they drastically changed? Also, what advantages do humans have in this game? I've heard races don't really matter this time around.
One last odd query...how fun is being evil in this game? The best thing about EQ to me was being able to be completely, mercilessly evil. I loved the quests my shadowknight went on that required him to kill someone good, or sneak into good towns dodging guards. The evil places were all fun to hang around, too. Neriak was fun to hang out in with all the evil types, Paineel was my favorite city ever, and the shrine of Bertoxxolus under Qeynos was the most thrilling place to stand around in (oh hi mr. spectre, how nice you aren't killing me). I frequently made a dark pilgrimage just to see a new evil place. And that haunted mansion was the most fun area ever.
I'm not bashing the original by any means, there are just things about it that don't appeal to me, and I wanted to see if I might like the sequel.
Comments
all in all, take a look at the trial, or if you have the $$ to spare just buy kingdom of sky (comes with the original EQ2) and give the 30 days free an attempt.
I haven't played a lot of EQ2 yet, but my husband and I decided to move to EQ2 instead of going to the EQ1 Progression server, so we've recently started playing our teen level characters that we made back when they had the 30 day trial. I am just level 20ish, so I can't tell you much past the newbie part of the game. I am also a casual player, and so far, I am finding EQ2 a pretty good match for me.
I played a SK in EQ1, but I didn't even get off the newbie island with that one before I switched classes. Since I came *directly* from EQ, it just didn't feel quite right to me. YMMV. I tried out a few different race/class combinations that I played and liked (troll warlock, halfling monk, dark elf brigand) before settling in as a wood elf warden to compliment my husband's conjurer. Any race can play any class, which I think is a pretty nifty feature. I've found I can solo pretty well as a warden (a type of druid) and my husband can solo even better as a conjurer, but I hear that everyone is able to solo to some degree. That's what they say around here, anyway. So far, from what I've done, it seems true.
As far as camping, it's been pretty minimal-- you may not get a quest update/item from *every* mob of the right type that you kill, but the drop rates for quests I have done so far don't seem really obnoxious or anything. Also, you don't have to loot and carry around quest items for most quests, it seems. You just get an update that you've gotten, for example, "wolf meat (2 of 9)", if you've gotten 2 and need 9, when you kill the wolf. Everyone in your group who needed that item also gets the same update, which is cool, since it means you don't have to /random or argue over who gets that wolf meat.
They have an experience debt system instead of experience loss. You just have to work off the debt if you die, and so far, it hasn't been too painful or annoying. It doesn't take hours to work off the debt, at least as far as I have gotten in the game, which is, admittedly, not too far. It is certainly not as disheartening when you die and you know you aren't going to lose your level.
I can't really speak to what it is like to be evil too much. I thought the quests in the troll neighborhood area were great-- many concerned with who gets to eat whom and/or what, which is very trollish. That was fun. The city isn't very pleasant though, at least where the trolls and ogres live. It's grey, grey, and more grey. I should go check out Freeport a little more and see what there is to see. Since I started playing the wood elf, I've mostly been out in the Qeynos direction.
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This is where I draw the line: __________________.
There are still camps, however the respawn rate is pretty good. If you are sent to kill a specific named mob for a quest it will normally spawn on a timer of no more then 30 min provided you keep killing the placeholder. Killing it once will always advance the quest, the only time you get a random chance for quest item is generic non named mobs.
Camping for specific loot drops doesn’t happen as often, and most people don’t camp for loot drops at all unless the dungeon is really crowded because you are better off going from one spawn point to another. Most key quest mobs don’t have loot tables so if someone is camping them it’s because they are on the same quest you are and will usually let you join up.
The death penalty is pitifully low in EQ2, and I wish they would reinstate shards. At present you take a small amount of XP debt that can be wiped out by killing 2-3 solo mobs, some equipment damage that you will need to pay to have repaired, and a 2 min debuff that affects most of your attributes. You never lose XP, only accumulate XP debt that slows your XP gain until you finish working it off.
Shadowknights are fighters which means they are supposed to fill a main tank role specialized at handling mobs with poison/disease damage. However, they have some issued with their taunts that makes them just about the last choice for main tank. Their taunts do hate over time so it’s impossible for them to build hate quickly so have trouble regaining aggro and they tend to loose aggro if people go full out in the first 10 seconds of a fight, and most single group fights don’t last much longer then that. With good armor, self heals and decent DPS they make a strong solo class.
The early evil quests tend to be quite good, however after level 20 so good and evil tend to mix in the same zones without a lot of distinction in their quests and for the most part the quests seem more good then evil.
One of the developer goals for EQ2 was to make it attractive to people who didn’t like EQ, after all they still had EQ why not try to pull in a broader audience. Because of this EQ2 is really more of a middle of the road MMO. It isn’t as hardcore as Everquest, nor as casual as pre 60WoW . Grouping will still give you faster XP and better loot, but you can solo all the way to 70 without much trouble, and even raiding is quite doable by the casual player because an organized guild can complete most raids in 2-3 hours or less. As long as your guild is organized and competent and you can plan the raid in advance, show up for 3 hours and be finished.
Thanks for the input. I didn't realize there was a free trial for the game, I will download it and give it a try once my Internet connection is repaired.
While I'm asking questions, the class I had the most fun with (not necessarily the easiest time playing) was the enchanter. I got a kick out of the amount I could mess with the enemy, and the illusions were incredible fun. I especially enjoyed the ability to shapeshift and hang around in areas that would normally get me killed. What are the enchanter classes like in this game, has their arsenel of utility spells diminished? Can they solo easily?