Question about EQ2Follow

Hey all, this is my first time posting on the EQ boards. I play WoW currently, but my wife is looking for a new game. She seems to be getting bored with WoW, and it being her first MMO, she wants to branch out.

My question is, is EQ2 worth the switch? I know you guys play faithfully I'm sure, and this isn't meant to be demeaning in anyway. I have read some sites and some boards and I hear different things like, EQ2 slacks a bit, or EQ1 is better, yada yada. She is more the "explorer" type than the hack and slash and level to x level with nothing inbetween.

Should I check into EQ2 or EQ1? We probably won't have good enough systems for Vanguard when it comes out so I'm trying to find us something til then and maybe even after.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

EQ2 or EQ1

I played many years ago, was in a big guild and participated in many 10-20 person raids. 1999-2001ish. Played Rogue (L55) and ranger (L55) classes . Rogue was a tradeskiller in pottery (200) and poison making(187ish).

For new players entering into EQ1 near the year of our lord 2007. GOD NO. (note the upper case letters)

Why? The remaining playerbase has been around for years, they have their network of friends and aren't looking to make friends with new players. The long term EQ1 player base expects everyone to know their class and have no desire to *teach* a newbie the ropes.

Downtime is a major factor, EQ1's system of HP and Mana regeneration are a major timesink. What does that mean? If your wife wants to solo she should be prepared to sit on thy **** for long periods of time while mana and hp top up.

New players without guild support will find experience loss due to a death very harsh. Die during combat in EQ1 and all your gear, armor, weapons and packs are left at the place of death and your spirit is sent to the last location that you bound your soul at - GoD expansion pack solved some of this by spawning the spirit into a guild hall. Be prepared to run long distances, many times through hostile territory, to recover your corpse.

EQ1 combat and skills increase the same way as WoW skills - but take much longer to skill up - I spent hour upon hour getting 2HS skill up on my 60 ranger. Casting classes suffer the same time sink via thier own spell skill sets.

EQ1 tradeskilling is brutal to skill up, requires a lot of sub-combining and is very time consuming and expensive. New players should expect to make no money on crafting. Bottom line - it sucks hind teat, not the worn out runt teat but the teat that gives very bitter poisonous milk.

WoW vs. EQ2

My WoW career started the day the game launched and played for about 12 months. I had a L44 fury specced warrior/armor crafter and a L60 hunter/engineer. I was in a casual guild and never participated in large 10+ raids. Then started EQ2 in late June 2006 and have a L50 Monk and a bunch of alts - Berserker/plate class is a lot of fun and close to the fun of a fury specced WoW warrior.

While dieing in EQ2 does come with a penalty, the penalty is so trivial that it has never affected my gaming experience. WoW and EQ2 are nearly the same with some minor differences - no graveyard or spirit run in EQ2.

Tradeskilling in EQ2 is very different than WoW and to me more rewarding. The new EoF expansion will introduce Tinkering and Transmuting - very close to what Disenchanting and Engineering are in WoW. I made money crafting in WoW but have made far more in EQ2. If your wife likes to tradeskill then more likely than not she will enjoy this system. She can expect to make money crafting and can easily be making gear she wants to wear by the time she leaves newbie island.

Combat in EQ2 and WoW are simualar enough that she can transition easily. EQ2 spec tree adds less diversity on a class by class basis than WoW but works just fine.








Edited, Nov 13th 2006 at 6:27am PST by Trappin

If I look at the system requirements for Vanguard and after reading some comments, I doubt that there will be many people who'll be able to play that game. Decently anyway, it seems to be worse than when EQII was released.

But anyway.

EQ I is still better imo, but it is indeed impossible or near impossible to start new anymore. The gameplay and graphics for EQ II are much better, but the hugeness of EQI beats WoW and EQ II by far.

Downtime used to be enormous in EQ I, but they did make some changes I believe recently, speeding things up a bit and at higher lvls downtime is less anyway due to good buffs (although I've heard 500 pp for a kei, inflation went mad if that's true).

Nevertheless, I'ld definitely try out EQ II. It's the perfect time for it with the new expansion being released, one box has all the expansions and the game itself for 40 USD (I think).

I meant EQII in the post compared to WoW. I play WoW and like it. We went out today and bought EQII, dunno if it was Kingdom of Sky or not (I think that's the newest one), it didn't say it on the box and the dude in the store told me that that it was bundled together with the orginial game. Who knows.

I believe it said Kingdom of Sky on the start screen when she first started it. I've been watching her play it while doing my WoW stuff, and I don't see that many people on, maybe because it's a newbie area, I hope anyway. Oh, what's the newest expansion coming out, and how is the player base still?

Game looks cool and runs pretty good on her comp which is a 1.8g AMD with 1g ram I believe, haven't checked the specs in awhile.

If any of you can give me a decent server with a decent amount of people on it would be appreciated.

Thanks for the responses, and since I don't know the game at all, any info would be nice too!

The new EQ2 EoF expansion goes live at 4pm PST today ! Take KoS back to the store for a refund if possible. Pre-ordered boxed packaging arrives today at retail stores and will be stocked on shelves by Friday.

Not sure about server populations, but she is welcome to send me an in-game mail or /tell Tonopah on the Blackburrow server and i'll get her setup with gear and money.

Echos of Faydwer is the newest expansion and it is literally out today. Whole new continent, whole new race, tons of new zones and instances for all levels.

Gah I cant wait!

In defense of the lashing eq1 took in an above post, true before mana regen and health regen was a drawn out affair but if they had played recently they would know Soe has speeded this up decently . Still not as fast as eq2 but alot faster then it used to be. I still play eq1 on occasion but primarily eq2 atm, i took a hunter to 60 in Wow and that was all i could handle hee. Eq1 is still a fun game imo, and i realy dont think youd have to look hard to find a good family oriented guild to help you through the learning curve and eq1 like in eq2 people have alts. So it would proably pay to scout the forumns look for a smaller non raiding guild to start with if you wanted to try eq1. I personaly have the Soe all access account so i keep the acct and ill proably never quit paying fot it as long as the servers are up,i still drp in on occasion. I have much love for Eq1. That said you wont go wrong with eq2 imo. Im on permafrost great server imo in eq2 im sure there are others out there just as good check the forums for the severs get a geel for the people who post on it, pick one and enjoy the game. Thats key enjoy it. 8) It's great. P.S. im hopeing they auction the servers off im going for the Seventh Hammer when they finaly shut it down but i think thats years off yet. 8)