To buy or not?Follow

I have been looking at this game for a while and after reading the stickied faq well im sold for the most part.
The first real online game I played was EQOA and good times were had I then moved on to play FFXI good times were...waited for, then WoW good times were had but ended quickly.
Anyhow to get to the point my questions are

Is the PVP good and balanced?
Are groups well rounded and fun?
Is the population large small or medium?
Are EU and US servers mixed?
Will I be ok starting out or will there be other low level players?
Most importantly is this game fun or a time sink?
I have a buffalo wifi it runs on broadband tho will I lag like mad?


Edited, Dec 30th 2006 11:30pm by Tokujin

These were mixed at the start of the game, but unfortunately Sony went the Blizzard way and separated the two.

Unlike WoW, it is very possible for a European player to play on an US server, luckily for me as my main at that time suddenly found himself on an US server. Some panic at first till I figured out how to play on those servers. (first log in screen, you can chose the language, just pick either English UK for European or English US for the US servers)

It is a pity they separated the two. Granted, with the daily downtime it might have been more reasonable as the US servers go down at 7 am PST every day, that's 3pm GMT; but a global server always is more fun.


You can play this game solo all the way, but there are plenty of people who prefer to group. A lot of zones and quests will require groups if you want to do them at the "appropriate" lvl, most of those can be done later on too on your own, if you are a lot of lvls higher.

There is a lot of fun to be had, but Sony wouldn't be Sony if they still have created some time sink quests. Camping is a breeze compared to EQ I, but at times it is still annoying. Even then, the game is fun and definitely worth trying out!

Well, you have to consider a few things first I'ld say. If you are European yourself, playing time is going to be slightly different than most of the people on the US servers. It works, but you can experience some problems for finding groups at some times.

I believe that you might find more people on the US servers than on the UK servers, but I doubt it will make all that much of a difference.

Also, don't forget to get the Echoes of Faydwer expansion. It will take some time to install and patch (especially the latter, it can take an hour or two or more), but then you will have all the big expansions for a very good price. The original game alone costs almost as much, so it would be a waste to just get that one.

Best of luck with a smooth and swift installation! If you want a good server to join, Najena is a well filled server. It isn't a pvp server though.

There are some good tips in the sticky post at the top of this forum with lots of good information. Here are some general gameplay tips:
- Fill all your slots with something, anything. ALways look for upgrades either as loot drop, sold by other players at the Broker, or crafted by yourself.
- When you die your armor takes a 10% hit. So if you die 5 times, your armor will be down to 50% effectiveness. Remember to repair frequently at the Menders spread throughout various zones. Ask a local guard (Find NPC) for the Mender.
- Green Plus Sign. This icon pops up periodically when you gain a level and can pick an added Racial Trait or Mastery Trait. Racial Trait is an ability that is specific to your race. So choices for an Ogre will be different than choices for an Elf. Mastery Traits will give you an added attack icon against a specific creature to do extra damage against only that creature. It allows you to tailor your character even more.

For example, if you start a a Conjurer, and you get a Racial Trait choice of STR or INT, you would want to pick INT since you are a spell caster.

For the Mastery Trait, most are useful, some are not very. The first choice you should get will be a choice of Orc Mastery or Gnoll Mastery. Both creatures are plentiful at various different levels, and picking one will not gimp you down the road. If you are on the Qeynos side it might be good to pick Gnoll since you will see those up to level 25. If you are on the Freeport side you could pick Orc for the same reason. (More gnolls in Antonica, more orcs in Commonlands)

When you start a character and you find it's not to your liking, then you can jsut start a new one. The first 20 levels are very fast, then start to slow down at 30. There is no "best" class for gameplay, each has strengths and weaknesses.

Bottom line is to play something that you enjoy and have fun with. Good luck!