Not very similar at all, Jox. I loved my EQ1 Bard. But my EQ2 Troub annoys the shit out of me. Charm is a pulling tool in EQ2, and that's about it; Mez helps somewhat but is single-target only; Buffs are permanently up once you sing them, so combat is purely based on melee attacks and ranged sonic attacks (which are weak compared to other Scouts and make for a very challenging soloing ability); kiting is difficult in EQ2 without some form of snare as mobs move at the speed of light to engage you; etc.
In short, all of the EQ1 Bard tactics are out the window, and it's a completely different feel. Some like it, some don't. I love my Troub in groups, for example. He kicks ass there. Just so long as you don't parse yourself and realize that the main healer of the group is out-parsing you for damage.


Rugen - yeah, that's what I was afraid of. The forums there don't look overly busy. And the last I checked, alot of the old-schoolers such as Tirna, Daas, Aeralla, etc. that I knew had moved on to other guilds or other games, so I'm not sure who's still in there that I'd recognize (if anyone at all - there was a lot of new blood even when Daas left back in 2007).


*edit* - quick update, I just noticed the Bard TSO AAs. Absolutely sick.
They just went from giving the group 7.5% melee/spell crits to about 21-22% crit rate. And got a self-buff that adds a DD proc on melee attacks for upwards of 700dmg. Sick.
I take back what I said above, they're now quite good and can reach upwards of 10+k in parses which is very respectable.

So a handful of us from Conquest are playing EQ2 again. We're on the Unrest server at the moment if you're looking for a place to play!

Interesting.

The epic weapons are really cool, and complete shit at the same time.

They are awesome items. Often more than not class defining in such a way they completely change the way the class behaves or plays once you get the mythical version of them. They are light years beyond powerful.

Unfortunately this has the side effect of making people believe that if you don't posses said weapon, you are complete shit and should die of AIDS.

Much like Ragebringer in EQ1.

I am enjoying max level in EQ. In many ways, its just like WoW, only the payouts seem to be more rewarding. Run instances. Do daily dungeon quests for shards. Farm shards, get armor. Upgrade armor with more shards. It's just more fun. Working on AAs gives me a reason to log in. The only cockblock is not having enough people to play with in any reliable sense. And it is very hard to advertise yourself to even causal guilds as a Shadowknight thanks to the last expansion making them gods among men. Game is saturated to shit with them.



Skyfire owns.



So does the SK class helms.

Yea, EQ2 Skyfire definitely brought back memories of old school Skyfire. Mobs everywhere, those stupid dispelling dudes, etc. I liked questing in that area.

my myth made boxing with my Berzerker/warden combo awesome. Id run around and gather 8 or so mobs and let my myhtical hit EVERYTHING while my warden kept the zerker healed.

Made farming for my Order of Rime mount easy peasy.

Also having two accounts made shard farming easy also by being able to mentor an instance down to a grey lvl. Could do 4 instance shards in about 35 minutes.

Some of the original game's zones were very well done in EQ2. Quite a few areas in the game where you would seriously reminisce about EQ1. Fallen Gate was a big one back in the day as it was presumed to be the remains of Neriak (complete with the glowing blue graffiti on the walls) - and Commonlands being full of orcs and the like. Classic.

But definitely a game where you want a good player group/guild. Soloing gets boring/limited.

PS - Giv, you're spot on regarding the epic weapons. Shard gear is getting to be that way too it seems. "No T2 gear? GTFO, your dps will be teh suk."

But that is usually true!

Heh, I went to search for Skyfire mountains because I couldn't freaking remember where they were in EQ1. My search led me to Allahkahzam.com and the most recent post was in 2000. Crazy.

In EQ2, Skyfire is just part of a larger zone (who's name escapes me).

Jarsath Wastes, isn't it?

Skyfire + Overthere.

I do believe you are correct.

Realistically, how hard is it to get from 1-90 in EQ2?

I'm not wanting to grind like I did in EQ1, but I don't want the simplicity of WoW.

How much can be done solo vs with a group? My play times are pretty sporadic and with the low population it may be hard to find groups at lower levels.

If you compare it to EQ, it's The Overthere + Skyfire rolled into one. They did that with several Kunark zones. Worker Sledgemallet sends you here just like EQ1 as well.

Emerald Jungle and Trakanons Teeth are now Kunzar Jungle. This is where Sebilis is. Field of Bone and Lake of Ill Omen are called Fens of Nathsar.

Kunark, while not their newest expansion, sure was pretty awesome. Honestly the game amazing untill 20, slightly shitty till 30, then pure shit until 60, a large quantity of shit until 70, and fucking amazing from then on out. Having a dedicated dungeon group to run with alleviates a good 90% of the shit however. I am really wondering when they are going to play the Velious card. This whole void/shadow shit really kind of sucks in comparison. And Odus doesn't give me the slightest boner. Nobody went then in EQ1 other than The Hole, fuck most Erudites I know didn't even stay there to level. Somehow they are going to pull 12 more dungeons out of their ass from overthere.

EDIT:

Any class can go from 1 to 80, soon to be 90. Some just do it better. Common answer really. Leveling is actually pretty fast, even more so if you follow the Solo Timeline on the EQ2Wiki page. You also gain AA experience as you quest. Content from 1 to 50ish was designed pre AA's so it's very weak in comparison to later expansions. Also, the loot is pretty piss poor pre 50 as well. The gear you get in the newer 1 to 20 starting zones will last you a long long time.

The only slow as fuck classes that are worth mentioning would be Mystics and Defilers. They are PAINFUL to solo, not because it's hard, because it is mind numbingly slow. I tired it and got to about 30 before I wanted to burn my eyes out. It was so bad, I would forget often to pre cast my ward spells which are the way you heal as that class. Mind numbing. Flavor of the month is still Shadowknight. Jesus Christ they are a monster. People call the last expansion The Shadowknight Odyssey because the class got buffed to near godlike status.

If you were to start fresh, you could play and enjoy yourself 1 to 80. If you play on Antonyous Bayle, the population there is pretty bumping and people say it's pretty easy to find groups. The upper levels are filled with people, but you really want to have a group at this point if you plan on maxing out a character at cap. You can grind it out solo, but it will be slow in comparison to running instances and whatnot.

The social view is also skewed here. Like WoW, you run dungeons to collect shards. You trade these shards for armor. You can then further upgrade that tier of armor into new and better stuff by trading it in with more shards. Nowadays, since the expansion has aged people almost REQUIRE you to have the 2nd Tier of armor. This is the problem that my group and I are having. Nobody will touch us since we don't have that 2nd tier of armor for groups. And since all the Conquest guys flaked pretty much we are left with an incomplete group.

All this of course is workable with time and a good guild. There are tons of pro casual guilds that welcome new players and help them with epics and offer people to group with. This is the plan we're going with.

So great from 1-20, then horrible from 21-70. Not that I would sign up for EQ2, but that doesn't sound like a great thing. Especially if 21-70 takes a very long time... I just don't know how many people at 44 would be excited about the continued quest for another 26 levels after the first 23 were crap.

It sucks in comparison to 70 onward. That doesn't imply that it isn't enjoyable but it is far far inferior to the later steps of progression. The first 20 levels are better because they were redesigned in similar fashion as the later Kunark zones and mirror them in progression.

As I mentioned in another thread, levelling from 1-80 is fugging simple with mentoring. If you started tonight and played with Givin and a buddy, and they mentored you through a few dungeons, you would literally be level 40 tomorrow without even knowing what half of your spells/skills did (and there are a shitload). If you mentored for a few days (DAYS, not weeks), you'd be level 80 with 80 AA without even breaking a sweat. You could be in your starting armor and make it to lvl 70 before even worrying about changing it (as long as you had your few mentor buddies). That is how hard it is to level.

I think I'll be giving this a try once i finish building my puter. This game would be so amazing with a computer than can actually run it full settings. The music and graphics were beautiful...but I had to crank so many settings into the basement on the gaming rig I'm currently using.

I've got *I think* a lvl 40ish furry Fury. Are they any good? I distantly recall being brought in as a healer for a small group and was unable to keep up with heals. I'd been going for another "Larreth" druid but apparently the fury wasn't it.

I started an account in November. I am already in nearly up to date raid gear at 80 now. As previously stated, you just need someone to mentor with you and stuff goes like 10x as fast. As a dirge I am always in need and rarely ever have trouble getting groups even on a low pop server.

Helps that the majority of the people in the guild I am in are from Lanys. The group I was in last night was like 3 Vita people, 2 TSO and myself. Really the only downside is just like the original EQ playerbase, we have some couples where one of the two is terrible (I'll let you guess what I mean). Our recruiting is technically closed but if anyone wants to come play let me know.

Btw - Givin, that first picture of you looks really dodgy with that camera angle.

Hello everyone, nice to see familiar names still here after so many years. Well the Evercracked videos made me miss Norrath so I jumped on the EQ2 train. Now comes the hard part... deciding which class to play