Duo and teaming - lower levels/ ah hell the kitchen sinkFollow

At first I wanted to ask questions about how classes have changed between EQ1 and EQ2 but after reading posts here on the main page and looking at the class forum threads - I know that it's pointless to try to make comparisons.

PvE server. I wont be raiding and will limit my gaming to encounters that require 6 or less people. Me and a gaming buddy will duo everything, most likely me on a Monk, him on a Paly. If we need a full team to complete a task, thats cool. No EQ1 epic crap for me, thanks. No PoP progression BS.

1) I looked at the minimum requirements for computers, will mine do ok at low settings etc. I don't care if the game looks crappy, I just want decent framerate. Possible on my cheapo rig ? Please tell me before I buy and patch the game.

Sempron 3100 1.8 GHZ with 1G RAM and Nvidia 6100GPU chipset on a dial up (yeah yeah ;D) <... if the game will run on that setup I will add a PCI-E card in a couple months. If I like EQ2.

2) I noticed that some quests are received via reading books or learning a mob language, can some/all of those basic quests be shared with my buddy or even a PuG ? I'm concerned about level 10 to level 30 quests for the most part. I understand that some of the quests may be linked to previous actions and cannot be shared

2a) Are those types of quests rare to find? How common is it to loot an item, and after close inspection, find that it may lead to a quest. Once a day, week, month or year. Rate it on your own personal experience please.

2b) Do I need to beg a XXX class to cast a spell on it to determine if the item in question might carry quest value of some sort.

3) Rude people, I quit WoW because I bloody hated the community, been playin MMOGs since 1999 and never encountered more jackasses than I did on Lightbringer(server).

3a)EQ1 pick up groups would communicate in an effective and for the most part polite manner, can I expect the same behavior in EQ2 PuG's?

4) How many people are on the servers peak/off peak. Informed guess work is fine.

5) What class costs the most to gear up and run - cheapest? including everything, hold the mayo.

5a) EQ1 Monks used to be very expensive to gear up, is that the case in EQ2? Not talkin uber gear here, just want to quest or buy decent/average armor and weapons.

6) Transportation, I understand that there are wizard spires, dock bells and griffon towers. As a Monk/Paly duo, will we be forced to beg ports, teleports, evac's and succors to get to the decent spots in the game world and/or zone.

6a) Are some zones or area's {once flagged/keyed(L10-L50)} only accessible via methods that involve us getting $#^65 over by some class <cough>druidwizard<cough>. In short, will we be bloody begging taxi rides to zones ala EQ1. This is a big one for me, please be specific. Hence asking the same question twice.

6b) Run speed buffs excluding the all purpose sprint function, what classes buff runspeed - be specific please. How much do those classes charge to buff runspeed. How much do runspeed (SoW ala EQ1) potions cost. I'm talkin low level 10-30 affordable methods and excluding mounts and guild bonuses or whatever they may be called.


7) Death and taxes - How much does it cost to repair 10% worth of damage on a plate set of L20 paladin armor or cloth gear on a L20 Monk. Is the charge based on level of the character or based on the quality of the gear worn by the character. PvE. I tend to die alot, thanks.

8) Are items in packs and inventory damaged upon death - PvE.


9) Any server suggestions? I know you Alla guys are on BB and Nagefen ( well I saw you guys post it- just cant recall). What servers are newest.

Thanks in advance,

Trappin

Here goes :

1-See poster above :)

2-No quest sharing in EQ2. There has been rumors it would be implemented at one point but it is not a part of the game as of now. There are indeed some quests that are part of a serie (usually to obtain a kick *** item in the end of the long serie)

2a-Somehow common. When you kill a mob, always loot its body even if its not a chest : some mobs carry 'valuables' on themselves. When you get an item and have no clue what it can be/do, examine it. It takes 2 seconds and you will be fixed. Some quests are triggered like that, or you might get a message like 'You have looted antique treasure'. These are vendor trash items.

2b-No

3-There are some rude people sadly, just like in every online game, however it is nowhere close to what it is in WoW and EQ2 is considered being much more mature than his blizzard counterpart. Community in general is good, and if you end up in a good guild, it gets even better.

3a-Somehow, yes. The more you progress in the game, the more ppl know how to play their character. Usually. There are still level 70 ppl that have no clue what they are doing, but its a vast minority. There has been some issues sometimes in picked up groups with stupid ppl, greedy ppl...then again sometimes you end up on extremely cool ppl...try to join these ppl's guild if you get a chance ;)

4-That's hard to tell. Let's just say that on my server (Butcherblock) there is enough population on on peak times to get a group fairly easy. I don't really play off peak times.

5-Once again, hard to tell. All depends if you want to boost all your abilities to adept 3 or master 1. In that case, all classes can become expensive. There is no 'cheap' class as in there is so much equipment and stuff you can buy, it's really up to you and to what you want to get.

5a-Don't play a monk, but I've never heard anyone playing one complaining about how it was so expensive to keep up.

6-Bells, gryphons etc make transportation quite easy. As long as you are in the level range of the zone you shouldnt have any problem travelling.

6a-No, not as long as you are in level range of the zone. You can get to Feerrot at level 15 if you want, but youll never be able to kill anything in there and you won't have any business there. Anyway, there is no 'port' spells as it used to be. There are evac spells but it only brings you to a safe spot in the zone you're already in. The rest is done via bells and such and is fairly quick.

6b-You can get spirit totems of the wolf on the broker for a cheap fee to help you run around. Or you can ask someone that has the spell (druids) cast it on you. Ive never heard of someone charging for the spell, as it only lasts 15 minutes i think. Or even better, get into tradeskills and craft the totems yourself for a miminum cost :)

7-Repairs are usually fairly low. They are based on the level of your equipment and the quality of your equipment. At level 70, with about half my gear being fabled and other half being legendary, it costs me about 4.2 gold per 10% tick of repairs. My troubie at level 11 is like...12 copper lol. I've never found money to be an issue in this game when it comes to repair your gear.

8-No.

9-I'm one of the very few here playing on Butcherblock. So i'll let the others advertise their all-uber servers ;).

Hope that helps.

You'll discover this more as you play, but EQ2 is NOT EQ1. I played EQ1 for about a year and this really is completely different (better, IMHO)



No, there is no need to identify any item . There is no lore skill in the game.



My experience has been very good, I would say as good as in EQ1. Much better than in WoW.



All classes are the same as far as I've seen. Cloth armor for a given tier is priced the same as plate armor, mage spells cost the same as fighter arts. Accounting for any market fluctuations, price wars, monopolies or other such business environments. (Not that they're all that significant. Just, you know, they exist.)



Monks in EQ1 had to keep all their gear under a certian weight limit or they would lose stats or something. Hence the lightest weight monk gear was in demand by monks and overpriced accordingly. There is no such limitation in EQ2.



Literally no one sits around selling buffs like they do in EQ1. The designers wanted to eliminate that, and to eliminate PL'ing, which effects that as well. Potions or totems are available that grant the same buffs. A Spirit Totem of the Wolf sells for about 1 gold on my server ATM, it gives 24% run speed increase and it's 5 charges last 2.5 hours. There are no buffs you're going to feel like you can't live without, like Temp and KEI in EQ1. Run speed buffs are nice but not required to have fun either.



People were setting up macros to unequip all their gear when they knew they were going to die (cheap exploit, IMHO) so they changed the rule such that anything you were wearing within 3 minutes of your death takes damage. You won't notice repair expenses unless you're raiding and wiping 15 times a night. Level 27 full repairs cost me a few silver last night. (It's always fun to die when you weren't keeping track of your gear condition and respawn nekkid :) )

BTW, I don't raid either, but AFAIK raids don't have any kind of progression flagging yet. You can raid whatever you want. Most raid zones are instanced too (with lockouts), so the contested MoB drama is minimal.

Edited, Jun 30th 2006 at 1:19pm EDT by Lydiaele

EQ2 is more matue community. People are generally better behaved and helpful. Some WoW communities sometimes resemble the unmoderated world of Merdian59.

People who have no sence of delayed gratification, patience, or manners generally don't play long in EQ2. They head back to their origional games when they aren't a 733t uber twink in first month.

Your guild will make a big difference. Choose wisely.