Just out of complete, sadistic curiosity, does anyone still play this?

There used to be a good hunk of ex-Lanysites playing EQ2 on various servers, but all of the recent posts in here seem to be for EQ1.

Just wondering if anyone still plays. Half-tempted to finish levelling up my inkie assassin.

Yes and we have 4 or 5 ish Ex lanys in our guild (All from Discordium). Were in Arcane Masters on Antonius Bayle.

Several old Vita still play in a guild called Sinister. The guild is lead by Uthal, if you guys remember him, and is doing quite well. I believe Ballhaus, Brask, Crowde, and a few others are currently playing. Here is their website:

http://sinistereq2guild.blogspot.com/

It's a real shame eqII didn't have enough lowbies to level with. I got to 38 I think and was really really enjoying it.

The voices, the tradeskills, the AH, my neat little house full of crapola...etc.

I just could not find anyone to group with at all and it was getting to where soloing just wasn't efficient.

EQII really could have been something huge. You had an amazing tradeskill system, pretty good graphics, TONS of fluff, Housing, mounts, major character customization, emotes up the wazoo, all the different race specifc stuff like vision types...etc

A real shame it never took off.

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Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

For what it is, EQ2 is a great game. Only complaint I had was the speed mobs moved. It made me nauseous.

OMG Uthal! I'm on the way!

Uthal r0x.

I tried EQ II for a while when it launched, got to level 24 and stopped playing. At the time, WoW's seemless world with no loading and with much better landscape...I just could not get into the game. What I did like was the amazing voice acting for all the quests, and the char model graphics were very nice indeed, but bugs and the bland zones killed it for me.

Now, I hear the game is MUCH better than when it launched and I'm going to download the free trial and give it a try again. I really wish more next gen MMO's takes SOE's lead and use the voice acting for their quests and story telling. It makes it all that much more enjoyable in my eyes.

Oh, I forgot, back then, my PC did not handle EQ 2 all that well. Now, I have a monster and I should not have FPS and loading problems like I did at launch. That was part of the reason why I hated the broken world (zoning).

I think one of the things that hurt EQ2 back in the day was the power you needed to play the game. Others may disagree, but back when it first came out, computers were much more expensive and thus, not everyone could run the game at an acceptable level. I remember getting the $100 collector's edition for EQ2 when it first came out but after hearing people complain about how the game ran on their computers, and knowing my computer was FAR from top of the line (or even middle of the line) I ended up taking the game to Best Buy, unopened, and exchanged it for a better video card (stupid, in hindsight, but it made sense at the time). Now that you can get a much more powerful machine at a much cheaper price and even get 4 gig of memory for around 50 bucks, games that were once graphics hogs are not so bad for the masses/casual gamers to enjoy.

That's my take, anyway.

The last time I played you either started in the new Dark Elf area or moved over to where the Sarnaks were. The quest gear made it much more enjoyable leveling up.

It's stupid easy to level now, and probably easier since I quit last. There was a HUGE dry spell about midway through the 60s I think, you outleveled a lot of content, and were way too weak to hit Kunark unless you had mad gear.

Kunark was a big kick to the nuts. It was the Luclin expansion of EQ 2. Mobs had crazy amounts of hitpoints and armor, and hit like freight trains. That is where I ended up stopping on my Swashbuckler. Mob EXP was shit and not worth farming, and all the quests I had at the time were group ones, or so far over my level it was impossible to do solo. I never met anyone in game, and was in the Something Awful guild at the time who are the most worthless group of individuals I think playing.

It's by no means a bad game, I would easily be able to rank it in the top 5 in its current state. There is just so much shit to do. Being able to level down means that all the content is still open to you and you can benefit from it. Just very well designed in that aspect.

The game does run a lot smoother now on current tech for reasons you gave, because the hardware you need to keep your machine from going into meltdown is more available. I remember trying my hand at two boxing and didn't have much trouble on the PC I had before the one I run now.

I never got to really raid. I wanted to very badly. I just couldn't see how it really worked. I tanked in this game and sometimes it was pretty frustrating. Healing seemed like it had to happen so very fast or you lost control of a situation in a hurry. I'd like to hear someone comment on end game now and how that shit really works.

The default UI is one of the best I have seen out of box as well. If you do want to mod however, I would suggest one called Mirage UI. I think that's what it was called. I know most everyone here has played the game already but figured this was just as good as any to throw down my thoughts on it. I'm reading Heart of Darkness and could use anything to distract myself right about now. I liked this a lot more when they called it Apocalypse Now.

I guess Xolar, Zero, and myself stuck out EQII more than most. We finally left just because the game was empty. Keep in mind we were playing on Nagafen it became even more frustrating when the latest expansion added more instances for people to hide. EQII is more of a solid game now than anything. Out of the box, everything works, most things are polished, and it looks up to date. However, EQII can seem like a ghost town. Most people I hear about experience the exact same thing you did leveling up. You get baited in and finally get to a spot and there is no one there. Right now, you probably would be fine on AB. It's by far the most populated/active server and next probably being Nagafen(PvP). I think, like EQI, expansions killed this game. I felt Scott Hartsman and his team really made some great strides with the game and then they began shooting themselves in the foot over and over again.

The game is a good game overall, like Givin said, its probably Top 5 easily but, it is a dead game. If you are not in an established guild that is doing something weekly, you'll get bored quick. Raiding can be fun and questing is somewhat rewarding but, again, EQ is more of an instanced dungeon crawlling game now. It might as well be Diablo with instead of a chat lobby a giant 3D world.

Muli - the same could be said for most games outside of EQ2, to be honest. The community aspect just isn't there in games any more. Outside of a small group of friends and/or guild, how many other gamers do you tend to interact with socially? Probably not many.

The only games I've come across where I could say people across the server actually knew eachother, and one's name and reputation actually meant something, were EQ and DAoC. Most games since then, I haven't had that experience. I'm not saying other games don't have the sense of community that EQ had - I just haven't seen it, that's all.

But pretty much any game out there now, be it EQ1 or 2, FFXI, WoW, WAR, AoC, etc. are 100 X more enjoyable with a small group of friends than if you are solo. Simple as that. Problem is, everyone's scattered now, so finding a small group of friends can actually be a pain in the arse. That's been my #1 issue with games these days - few people in my time zone, playing similar hours, which means I solo 90% of the time. Meh.

EQII last time I logged in was pretty good, but dead and very... erm, repetitive.

Like I've said, I made a macro and botted up till 72 I think? Just auto smashing 3 or 4 spells over and over and over.

There are a lot of quests and good story lines and stuff, it would be a great game if you had people to play with. Truth is though, without groups leveling up, you miss out on all the cool story lines and fun quests and you are banished to grinding.

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I've yet to try EQ2, and after the last trash patch Mythic puked on Warhammer Online I'm looking for a change. I guess now is as good a time as ever!

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~Fyrendul, Warlock of Elune (WoW, retired)
Maestro Havrad Spellsinger, Bladedancer and Spoony Bard (EQ, retired)

Well.. I was talked into coming back to EQII PvP and I have to say I definitely see a lot of improvements. Population seems much better due to other pvp changes and merges.

I had unfortunately sold my eq2 account... 80 assassin decked out. I guess it isn't too difficult to level though. Xolar is playing his Fury, Zero his Monk Tombomb, and I am rolling Dirge named Stacatto. Zer was a raid leader for the top raiding guilds and will actually be starting a guild. If anyone is on Naggy or whatever, let me know.

Btw... The new maps are just unbelievable.

I miss Scott though ((. Galenite rip

I quit back in June but will probably go back when winter gets here

Lots of folks on Antonius Bayle, never had much trouble getting groups there.

So, I hear so many people talking about how easy they can powerlevel toons on EQII. I've yet to really see their secret. Some people are rolling on the PvP servers due to the merge and they are saying they can be completely maxxed in less than 7 days. I'm just curious to what they know.

Bots

Mentoring.

I've been playing this game on AB.

Anyone still around?

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yep still going strong on my 80 myth Bruiser 200AA

but on Blackburrow server, still have to kill munzok, miragul and ykesha

downed Juistice, Storms, Mischief and Valor Avatars as well

back on Nagafen with Xolar and Zero... have a 80 Dirge and 150 AA named Stacatto.

I have been very impressed with TSO dungeons and just EQ2 as a whole. I think I finally found everything i'm looking for at this time. I tried everything from EQI to WAR and everything in between. I know this may not be saying much but for now, EQ2 has been very fun and a lot of people in my particular server.

Yea, it's definitely a cool game. Really the only part I don't like about the game is the Shard farming. If they could somehow do away with that (and fix Smartloot), then the game would almost be perfect.

Neesha what server are you on? I'm bored and thinking about doing EQ2 again and Guk is so dead.

I was on Nektulous with folks from the guild Sinister (Ballhaus, Uthal, and others from EQ) but I have stopped playing. I just can't seem to find the time to dedicate to an MMORPG right now. Give Ballhaus a shout, they're always looking for quality players.

Ah, cool. I don't really have the time to dedicate to raiding or anything either. Just maybe somewhere I knew some people for group shit.

Give Ballz a shout. His alt is Smallhaus (or Thees).

When you make a character post the name Intin. I rolled a dirge named Hedi. Hit me up in game.

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also, we should do recruit a friend for xp bonus.

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He says he feels like playing again so he probably already has an account or two.

Excellent point. I should read more carefully.

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Yeah. I've of course got an 80 ranger. Currently on Guk. But I'll prob xfer over to Nek and then use it to power up either a dirge or illy.

Sounds good. I'm playing a dirge though so play something else!

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Looks like some of you still play EQ2. Some quick questions:

- do Rangers still suck, in terms of dps? They were far behind Assassins when last I played, and the whole kiting-in-circles thing when solo annoyed the snot out of me, but I otherwise love Rangers. Always have. Would love to give them a shot again.

- can anyone recap the TSO content for me? I read something about "void shard farming" with smallish groups (soloable at all?) for improved armour over previous stuff. Granted the new expansion gear will probably once again set a new bar for gear, but was curious how easy T1 or T2 armour is to obtain. It looks disgusting.

- anyone still playing on BB?

- From my experience, Rangers and Wizards seem to be the highest DPS in raids (although Assassins were right there as well). No idea about soloing/levelling up with them, since I never played one.

- Shard farming is needed for pretty much all of the Tier armor. At Tier 1, each piece requires a different amount of shards (the shoulders usually are the best pieces and take the most shards). You can buy the T1 stuff from a vendor or you can have a person make the gear for a few fewer shards. The T2 stuff takes the T1 piece plus some shards, T3 takes the T2 piece plus some shards (and a pattern from an instance), etc, so you can't just skip straight to T2 or T3. There are several daily shard quests to do to get shards, so they are not hard to get, it is just very (VERY) repetative.

There's one solo daily shard quest in Lavastorm that takes like 15 mins to do by yourself. It is very simple (but you have to do several quests first to open up that quest). The other quests require you to do various dungeons (such as Miragul's in Everfrost). They aren't that hard, but there's a trick to make them even easier. You can "gimp" the instances by having a lvl 50 zone in and start the instance. Then you go in after the instance is created and all of the mobs will be lvl 50ish and will be gray to you (so they won't attack you). So if you have a quest to collect 10 things, you can just run in solo and collect the 10 things without having to kill anything. And if you have a quest to kill 15 dudes, it's alot easier to kill them when they are lvl 50ish (as a Wizard, I could solo most of the shard instances.. most other classes could as well). Now, this doesn't ALWAYS work, because sometimes your daily shard quest requires you to open up parts of the instance that can only be opened up by killing bosses, but it still saves a ton of time to gimp them this way. And, since your instance stays active for 3 days, often you can use the same instance the next day if it has a different quest to do (without having to create a new instance with another lvl 50 character).

After I beat Dragon Age, I was really thinking about loading this back up and playing.....

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Musnicki

Yeah, having a weak moment today and was thinking about EQ1 / EQ2 again.
Would be soloing a fair bit due to RL time constraints, but at least it sounds like I can solo my guy up to 80ish and shard farm solo/group if I wanted. Not a bad option, really.

Also just read that they've recently changed a lot of spell names, as well as some of the AA lines (i.e. predator INT line has changed from poison crit % to a baseline +dmg increase). That's going to bugger up my AA specs somewhat. Grrr...

Warlock with mythical is rapetrain.

I am quickly approaching 80 even playing pretty casually. Having a real good time with Sinister. Most of the people seem to be 30+ years old, which makes for a much more enjoyable guild environment. This game just has so much to offer. The mentor system should be in every single mmo.

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Well, reactivated lastnight for shits and giggles. Some of the changes in recent months look pretty good and the racial abilities improvements are very nice.
Spent about an hour lastnight reading EQ2 Wiki and getting caught up on TSO stuff (AAs, shards, new zones, gear, etc.), so I think I'm good to go. Bit behind in levels and AAs, but should hopefully catch up before the next expansion (I have what.. a month?).
If anyone's still on Blackburrow, look me up on this guy:
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/char ... =115732103

PS - does Mithril Web on BB still exist in any sort of recognizable form as the ex-EQ1 guild? Or is it all new people? I'm in a dead guild right now and could use a handful of semi-active people who don't mind me hopping on for an hour here and there and logging off at a moment's notice!

Glad to hear you're having fun, Bupas. There are some pretty quality folks in Sinister (and Uthal!).

I think I want to raid in this game. Too bad I'm a Shadowknight.

Too bad you're the best tank in the game?

It's a limited raid slot in a game with more hardcore raid stacking than WoW ever will see on top of outrageous gear reqs. Tier 1 shard gear barely takes the edge off.

It's also a class that everyone and their mother can pull 5 out of their ass at a moments notice.

If I wanted to raid, I should have went wizard/warlock or *bard. I like tanking for my pro bros tho.

Givin where are you playing?

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This is a very good summary of raiding in EQ2.

How similar is EQ2 bard to EQ1 bard?

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I'm playing a dirge but I didn't spend very much time playing a bard in eq1. I think it's very different though. I'd level something easier to begin with honestly. I got to Kunark and yellow mobs own my face even with solid gear and it wasn't exactly fast before that. The class shines in group play but I think you would find it easier to get into playing a class that solos well.

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Less CC, more group buffing/debuffing.

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.

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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.

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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.

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Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

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