ObservationsFollow

okay, so i'm a 1.5 year veteran of WoW and i'm honestly getting bored. I tried EQ2 last January'ish, and there were some things I liked and disliked. I eventually quit EQ2 and continued playing WoW. This was due to several reasons:

1: Powerhog. I was able to run the game okay, but everything looked kind of barren. My wife's computer could barley handle it, so she had to play a striped down version of EQ2.

2: Group required. My wife and I got to around level 30, but really couldn't progress. We played on the freeport side, did all the noob quests, and eventually got to some forest (forgot name). And it seemed like even the simplest quests were very hard to do solo or duo.

3: Armor/Weapons. At first I liked them. They seemed cool and realistic. However, as I began to level and switch to higher level gear, it all seemed the same to me. Maybe some different color, but the same graphic. Now is this the same throughout the game? That's a big turn-off for me, but it's totally possible that things change big time later on. That's one thing I like about WoW is cool looking weapons and armor. Does EQ2 offer anything similar at later levels?

4: Classes. I played several classes during my brief stay. I played a Necro/Wizard/Assassin/Berzerker/Shadowknight. Now, at first I thought the classes had unique and interesting powers. However, as I played different classes, I noticed alot of the abilities were the same. It seemed as though the classes overlapped a good amount. Now I know you used to start with a base class and then would expand to your eventual class. So the overlapping of skills may be attributed to this. But do the classes start to differentiate themselves in their spells/gear/combat?

So those were my main turn-offs to the game. There was some things in it that I liked, however I couldn't get over the above reasons. Now my main question is this: Have any of the above issues of mine changed? Are my issues due to my low level? Am I fool of crap? Any feedback on my issues would be really appreciated. Thanks.

Also, I know issue number has nothing to do with EQ2, but my PC. I'm gonna be upgrading my wife's and my PC's to the following:

AMD64 3200
GeForce 7600GS/Radeon 1600XT
1GiG Ram

Will that setup allow us to run the game with above average settings without lag? If not, what needs to be improved to acheive some sort of balance between performance and quality?

That's definitely not necessary anymore. You won't be able to do everything without greying out the quest, but a lot of quests are perfectly possible to do with just two or alone. A heap of content was added, mind you, Nektulos Forest is a tough zone, always has been and this isn't being altered all that much. Thundering Steppes is a bit easier, although it's most likely not really the case.

One of the most common complaints about EQ2 is the rather dull and lack of diversity in armor graphics. Even when you get everything from raid drops off Lord Puff the Magic Dragon you end up with mismatched sets of armor that make you look like Rainbow Brite.

EoF should address this somewhat with the new matched sets of armor that give extra stats and buffs when you have a complete set. There is also talk of changing the PC meshes and skeletons to make creating new armor graphics easier. Also, supposedly the game can go to level 200, and we're only about 1/3rd of the way there ATM. Perhaps they're pacing themselves for the future to avoid having to do the graphic nerfs such as the one you mentioned. Level 200 players should permanently blind the unworthy newb who dares to look upon them.