f13.net

Took almost a month off (new baby boy) and have come back to EQ2 recently. The game is just a lot of fun to play lately. There is no sense of grind. My 45 (dinged last night) berserker gets invites within a few minutes of /lfg on. The groups have good players in them who want to try challenging things. No one whines and /disbands when they die. My machine seems ot handle the graphcs better for some reason. Particle effects are like a fireworks show and there is no video lag at all (P4 3.4G, 1G ram, 6800GT card) with settings moderately high, although water and Qeynos can still stutter my machine. The Desert expansion is eye-droppingly gorgeous, even if I am a bit too low for it yet.

On the downside, my guildmates report that the sub-30 zones are generally deserted when they play their alts and Freeport is a ghost town.

Anyway, if you have an EQ2 character over level 30, might be worth it to give it a whirl again.

I was in for the one week 'come back' thing a few weeks ago, and can confirm that the 1-30 game is like a desert... in that there is no one there.

Apparently it's not tooo bad up to the teenish areas, as people generally group thru those levels trying to level thru them as quick as they can.  Once they get to 20, they go into splitpaw, and come out at level 50, with maybe the occasional pause to do some quests and stuff in other zones.

A friend of mine who still play is actually annoyed... she has the problem that in the 40's, even with her combat exp turned off, she can't finish all her quests before she out-levels them...  but in the low levels, you better be able to solo.  I had the most fun with my low teens predator, he kicked butt.

The other aspect of the low population...  The market/bazaar system is terrible at low levels.  There's just very, very little for sale.

Alkiera

I couldn't stand the game when I went back in August or so. No quest xp HURTS. I would be killing stuff for an hour, and have no noticable change in my advancement.

I didn't really have that problem... both the chars I played definately had advancement.  Admittedly, there was more when I was grouped than when solo... but that is apprently intentional.  They've made it 'possible' to solo, if you wish... but it's far from the best/fastest way to advance.

Alkiera

Is the game itself very underpopulated or just the newb areas? EQ2 actually sounds like a lot of fun to me for some reason I haven't quite figured out. Maybe just because I thought WoW was really boring and EQ2 isn't WoW.

Might be worth trying out again.  The new idea for quest XP is to make sure that it actually paid out well, instead of trivial amounts like before.  I believe we changed it a little later than August.  The last time I played an under-50 char it seemed like we got there.  Late-50s seems possibly a little light still -- We may go back and touch that again at some point.

- Scott

And btw - If anyone does go back, please, please remember there are quest hubs in all of the overland zones.  I'd really recommend checking them out.  They're rewarding, a lot of fun, and many who come back assume they're expected to grind out levels until someone mentions them, at least on my server.

My most recent char, I took to 55+ on a server I knew no one, centering his career around those quest series', only killing things I didn't have a quest for when I had extended playtime (rarely), and had a lot of fun with it.  I'm generally the type to prefer groups of friends, in dungeons, and trying to push the limits of what we're able to do -- just about the opposite of how I played this one.

Disclaimer:  This is a 100% biased opinion, albeit an honest one. :)

- Scott

You are right, biased but honest.

I played EQ for the free month after release and to be honest, I hated it. I thought the game was solid up until you hit the mid-teens and then you just hit the brick wall. No solo content and slow, painful advancement. I re-sub'ed about 4 months ago just to check it out again and I have to say the difference from that first month is like night and day. A lot more "stuff" to do, much faster advancement, LOTS more solo/casual play.

The thing I'm most impressed with though is that its obvious you and the EQ2 team are really putting forth a big effort to make the game better and it shows.

Oh, and unlike that other SoE game  :evil:....a combat revamp that was well thought out and bug-free. And went over well with players.

Seriously though, its much much improved over that 1st month, and well worth another go if any of you are interested.

I enjoyed the game, but honestly, it just got depressing with no new players and a general feeling that everything was deserted. I always thought it was a better game that WOW, but without the enthusiasm and such, it doesn't end up as much fun.

I have to agree that since that big change, the game is tons better.  Adding solo content was a big deal for me, especially since I play odd times like mornings or mid-afternoons EST during the week.  I'm not currently playing but I play to go back.  Maybe Cheddar and Numtini will come with me!  I've mostly stopped playing CoH/V but I'm having a good time with a beta test at the moment.

EQ2 is a purdy game.  It's for everyone... human and furry alike... oh, eek.  :evil:

It seems also that when they removed the need to go and get your shard after you die they also removed the majority of the experience debt. The last few times I've died I had like 0.6% debt.

Just for reference, my Brigand is 28, and had constant 100% vitality while in the Enchanted Lands.

Maybe if I had the time and people to play with, but....

I went back a few months ago.

The game has changed a lot.  Some for the better (Mobs now break their chase rather than persisting until you zone; solo content; easier leveling; dumbed down heroic opportunities).

I need to see one of these things changed though, or it is just not enough as it stands:

1.  Class system.  It just blows right now.  Classes still lack true defining characteristics.  For those who like alts, the graded system where you eventually choose your class at level 20 is a killer.

2.  Art.  Putting aside our polygon whores, putting some art in the game would be appreciated.  Equipment might a be a good start - I see little variety.  EQ has racial armors  and I always found that added a lot to the game.  Maybe that's too tough for EQ2 devs.

3.  Character creation.  This might make a good MBA case study.  You add a million options to character customization that only someone using a sniper scope in the game would actually notice.  I will trade in the 3 moving bars to adjust eye shape for simple things like a scar, missing eye, eye patch etc.

4.  Talent trees.  Don't dance around the point - copy it and be done with it. WoW's talent tree system is thematically and mechanically vastly superior to this grocery bag approach of choosing speciall attributes/traits etc. currently in place.

Bah.

1. In EQ1, I got to level 4 before I realized I should start grouping because I was getting better trash loot from mobs than my quest. I quit at level 4 out of I don't know how many.
2. In AC2, I got to level 22 on solo quests, before I had to start grouping. I quit at level 49 out of 50.
3. In WoW, I could have and mostly did solo on quests to level 60. I'm still playing.
Extrapolating from that:
4. In my next MMORPG, I will be able to solo all of the content, including end-game content. Grouping will still be faster.

I don't think EQ2 fits that bill.

Advancement is definately much, much faster now. Both at the mid-levels and at the high levels.

In a good group I was able to get nearly an entire level with my 56 Swashbuckler in about 3 hours. I was using the veteran reward 26% exp bonus potions for half of that time but that is still a fairly decent rate for leveling the final couple levels. Vitality at level 55+ seems to last forever. The last 3 days in a row I've put in a good bit of time (3 hours of grouping, 5 hours of soloing, and 2 hours soloing on day 3). I started with 100% vit and at the end of day 3 still have around 30% exp. I also gained a little over 2 levels during that time. Soloing is about half again the speed of a very good group.  When saying good group I mean Tank, 2 Healers, 3 DPS, on teamspeak and all performing at max effectiveness. Pickup groups will obviously provide slower exp.

Solo, I can gain a level about every 2-3 hours with my 32 conjuror. It does somewhat depend on how many of the solo quests I have active at the time whether it is closer to 2 hours or more like 3 hours.

The biggest difference for me between EQ2 and EQ is that downtime has all but been eliminated. The only time a group has downtime is if a key player goes afk. Soloing I have at most 10 seconds of wait between mobs which really just provides anough time to pull or run to the next one.


I am still a bit ticked off about tradeskills though. They are already talking about announcing the next expansion/adventure pack and they still haven't even finished tradeskills from DoF. Not to mention they've made them way too easy now. To give you an idea I recently created a Sage and in 7 hour of /played time I'm already at level 32. Should be less than 20 hours of time to level a Sage to 60 at this point. I'm guessing any tradeskill can be maxed in 48 hours or less of play time if you just follow your vitality. It makes competing with the tradeskill bots absolutely useless any more.


Edit: Oh completely forgot the other key change they recently made. Drop rates of rares and master chests from named mobs has been cranked WAAAYYYYY up lately. This has had a couple effects in that it's easier to upgrade gear and skills making it easier to level in both groups and solo. It's also increased the number of groups willing to delve into dungeons searching for masters. There are a ton of 30-40 masters coming out of runnyeye lately and not more than 30 minutes goes by without someone forming a group in the 30-40 channel to head to RE.

EQ2, the game I want to like. Also the game that's most punitive to solo gameplay, no matter how much they say otherwise. Solo gameplay shouldn't mean killing generic an_orc_warrior mobs ad nauseum.  Grouping should add to the gameplay experience, not have solo detract from it.

I've tried to play EQ2 twice, once on release and once six months (or so) after, got stalled at 17th level in the mothergoddamned commonlands, bored out of my mind and never making 'necromancer', my goal in recreating my EQ character. Second time stalled at 18th level never making shadowknight in the exact same way. Yay linear gameplay.

That's several months of gameplay, purely working crafting, for me! Anything harsher would really kill any casual enjoyment...though really casual solo enjoyment isn't EQ2's thing anyway.

That's nice about named mobs dropping more chests, I don't think I killed one the entire time I played EQ2, since I mostly solo.

If this isn't a sign that we need to make the solo quests a hell of a lot more noticeable, I don't know what is. 

There's an entire series of quest lines from levels 1-60 that will get you levelled up and equipped well without killing a_generic_anything ad nauseum.  It's on us now to make sure it's impossible to miss.  Thanks for pointing this out as a sore spot for you. 

BTW, soon enough you'll be able to make "Necromancer" at level 1, which will hopefully help somewhat.  http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=testdev&message.id=6622#M6622

- Scott

By all means then, show us how. My ex and I both have about four characters in their mid 20s, since we barely tolerated playing with each other, I'd like to see these solo quests. I hit the forums looking, I googled a bit, nada. Make it big and bold somewhere everyone can see it, because to paraphrase Sartre, "Hell is other MMO players."

For your level, depending on your alignment, head over to Nek or Steppes.. (You can do both zones' quests regardless of alignment, though later on at least one zone has separate quests for good/evil.)

In Nek, start with the group of NPCs by the Commonlands zone, or start with Bruhn K'Viir on the beach. 

In Steppes, start with Blerton Blumble right near the docks.

If you want explicit info (quest names/NPCs spoiled), you can grab it from: http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/news_archive.vm?section=Development&month=052005&id=486&direction=back

Hope that helps,

- Scott

And now for the world's most cryptic reply. I'd elaborate further, but... I can't right now. ;) (Note: Apologies if I mess anything up in this post... I've been trolling this forum for quite a while, but I just decided to register and post).

I have to commend you guys, it does seem that EQ2 is doing a great job of patching/adding to the game and listening to feedback.


One of my problems in MMORPGSs is always that it's hard to know if the class you are playing at level 1 is going to be fun and useful at level 50. It seemed to me that the evolving classes by stages made that problem worse - now I don't even get into my real class until level 20, and then I might still not know if it is going to be useful and fun at level 50. I don't want to hit 25 and finally realize that the class I chose didn't really interest me.

Edit: That Producer's Letter was quite excellent. In fact, I think it may be the best thing of that sort I've ever read. (Game/design changes from devs) For example acknowledging that friend-farming will be a problem with PvP experience. (In large guilds it will be very hard to combat this) I love the tone of the letter - it's clear what you know and what you know you don't know, rather than bullshitting and pretending you know everything. And there are thoughtful reasons and analysis for the changes being made.

By comparison, this is what I typically expect from these sorts of things:

"You will be able to reach max level solely through PvP with our exciting PvPXP(tm) system!"

(Three months pass)

"Yeah...um...forget that!"

Would it be too much to ask for you all to go batshit insane with the next expansion? I mean colors out the wazoo, design enemies based on crazy alien mythologies or something. Just....less brown and more fantasy. I don't know how else to say this but one of the big things that made me not go back to EQII was just how much I didn't feel like I was stepping into a different world. It was like a dark ages real world. Only...on my computer. Which is the complete opposite of WoW, where I felt it was just too fantastical. There needs to be some middle ground. And since WoW can't change, maybe there's something more exotic you all could do.

That's the biggest thing that's missing from all MMOGs for me today, immersion. EQII's game itself was pleasant enough (even though I didn't like the leveling curve or class system), but the world was just so.....generic.

Hrm.

I have been jonesing for an MMO.  And at this point, I'll do anything to avoid WoW.

I thought you loved WoW :P

Anyway, I tried the trial of EQ 2 finally (Now that I can load it thanks to ports and a determined Haemcow.)

As a game, really isn't so bad. The only thing I cannot stand is the way you interact with an NPC. The whole click/select to interact disturbs my ability till now to simply hail them. I feel obligated to click away on said NPC until my fingers burn.

I do love WoW, but I've played it out.

Friends calling me back, but there's other games I want to play.

I'm not much for clicking, either.  Tried pressing 'F' to take "whatever action the cursor says I'm going to do on this object/door/npc?"

Standard NPC (Attack icon) = Attack
Quest NPCs (Talk icon) = Hail
Merchant (Coins icon) = Buy/sell
Guards = Ask for directions
Doors = open/close
Resources = Harvest

Thinking about doing that requires far too much thought for my simple, feeble, female little mind. I will try it now.

One of the reasons SPT is my favorite poster around here is because she knows her role (as it pertains to a woman). 

Now if she would fix her silly blog she would get 2 more cool points.

it was a joke Haemish please do not ban me I offer mansex plz plz plz she knows I was kidding (I think) and really it was just a slight jest and oh man I am sorry forgive me please I am so so so so sorry³

That used to be a bad idea unless you fixed it. There were NPCs standing around Antonica that looked like Quest NPCs that were in fact hostile but not aggro. I got into the habit of right clicking to initiate all conversations (if I remember the UI correctly, it's been awhile) after dying a painful death out there.

I agree... the EQ2 world just does not feel very immersive in comparison to WoW.  I find this difficult to explain and hugely ironic given Wow's cartoonish appearance and garish colors.  The drab colors, the meaningless Qeynos/Freeport 'war', the way the world is segmented into all these different islands, the zoning, etc - it all adds up to a world design that is lacking.

Funny... I found the exact opposite.  The garish colors, character similarity, and cartoonish look of WoW prevented me from ever feeling like I was doing more than controlling a toon.  EQ2 had a much more immersive feel to me.  Having already been familiar with the EQ world may have helped me with that as well. 

Just goes to show... opinions vary.

I honestly only just saw this post.

I do know my place and quite frankly most days I am way too tired to implant my foot in the ass of who I think deserves it, around here.

Trying for that good karma, and all.

teehee.   :hello_kitty:

I read the whole thread, but regardless this is still the best quote for me.  If there's still chained-combat-mobs and empty looking zones with few scattered quest givers, like the Thundering Steppes, then I just don't understand the appeal.  I've often felt playing and reading people's experiences about EQ2 that there was a concentration by SOE on levels 0-10 and then levels x-LevelCap, and that anything in between was justifiable lighter because the grinding scale wouldn't increase until levels x-LevelCap.  In other words, getting the first few and last levels right was what was important, since more players are believed to be rushing to get to the end and will spend more time getting there.  Honestly, Long Tail or not, I just don't get that.  The perpetual problem is getting to "levelx" whenever things supposedly pick up again (what Shiznitz said about 30), but of course, "x" is a moving target to levelCap.  The sky expansion just got me on this is all.   :dead_horse:

In response to having to double click on things to get them to talk to you etc.  There is an option in their 500 pages of them to make the left click auto-double click on everything, except to to start battle.

So you can single click things, including harvest nodes, to interact with them.

Sorry I can't be more specific, but I think it's in the "mouse" section of the options.

I've gotten used to pushing "F".

This is pure and utter bullshit.  At one time I had 20 quests in TS, and I still have oodles to do there.  All the zones I have been to seem to have people in them as well.  I see groups running around together everywhere I go, and constant chatter in /ooc.  Perhaps Steamfont is unique, or your guildies are looking for a reason to complain.

I am hit with a plethora of quests everytime I go to a "safe" area.  Hell I just got a few more due to me hitting level 25!

Maybe I didn't give this game a fair shake or what, but I'm thinking about giving it another try. Why? I actually looked at the Desert of Flames stuff and it looks kinda neat. Too bad I have to catass my way up to level 45 to get into the fun stuff of it.

EQ2 Collector's Edition for $30 for a new account or $15 to restart my dead account.

Art books are nifty...

Actually, the game is more fun now than it was 5 months ago when I played. The rate of advancement, if I stuck to my shit instead of dilly dallying around is easily on par with WoW. Crafting is much faster.

Actually, the rate of advancement is frighteningly similar.

And /laugh@schild for the crafting comment.

My crafting vitality is at 99%. Sure, that makes a difference. But it's like click DING click DING click DING click DING. And while that isn't my thing for adventuring, for crafting it's total love. But that's probably because I was a crafter in SW:G. /shudder.

I enjoyed the crafting experience previously, not the harvesting experience.

At least I didn't have to debuff a tree, though.

Have they made the Korean models available yet, or is that in the KoS expansion?  I haven't really been paying attention.

Not that that'll be enough to make me reinstall, but, I dunno, it might.  I'm getting MMOG fever and it's either this or WoW, and since I'm going to be twisting VL's arm to play with me, I have to make the right choice or she'll hates it forever.

VL will like WoW better. She seems to like cutesy things.

Korean models are in. And I don't know.

Voodoolily could be a chef in EQ2 and there are like hojillion recipes.

The cutesy thing and pet-taming-and-raising-class is points for WoW, the crafting mini-game and house decorating is points for EQ2.

Her response would probably sound like...

"Well, yeah, that might be fun for like 10 minutes, then I'd realize I could just go and make a yummy minestrone or turkey pot pie and actually get to eat it!"

Or should could be a scholar!  :evil:

I will play again because at the Hizzle de los Sauced y Voodoolily we have entered the Year 2000. That's right: we finallly got DSL. And Sauced bought a new laptop so WE CAN BOTH BE ONLINE AT THE SAME FUCKING TIME. It was just extra boring not seeing anyone I knew on when I was playing, that's all. And btw, I want to pictochat on my DS with you guys, if you're game.

I'll prolly just play a ranger or something. I liked Guild Wars a lot, since I got to be a ranger with necro capabilities AND I had a cat. I do want to craft, though, since Lost in Blue has turned me into a complete crack whore for it.



...and now I know I can get more than 100 gold for silver dye. I got ripped off by some scheming bitch cuz I was ig'nunt about what I had.

Ranger, huh? Someone's up to speed on which classes are overpowered. ;)

But seriously, glad to hear you and Sauced are going to give it a go. It's been quite fun.

@Shockeye - You should come try it out. Perhaps you did give it a fair shake, but if you do decide to come back, don't impose an artificial crazy goal on yourself like catassing to 45 just to see DoF because you'll just burn yourself out (listen to me sounding all psychiatrist and shit). Heh. No pun intended. Desert of Flames. Burn out. Heh. Woo it's early... Anyhow, I picked up the DoF expansion and was checking out Maj'Dul at level 10. Mind you, it's not the safest city as I was surprised and killed by a level 54 street urchin at some point, but it was a dark alley and I probably should not have been in it alone. Very cool looking areas and the city is very neat. I wasn't going to buy it for a while, but when I saw the carpets in Qeynos Harbor, I just couldn't resist. I think it was worth it if only for the eye candy, but I know I'll be playing long enough to actually play through some of the content of it as well. Also, I noticed another floating island in the distance near Maj'Dul when riding a carpet up to the city. It had chains hanging down so I'm guessing that is one of the islands for the upcoming KoS expansion. I'm not sure if it was there prior to the announcement of KoS or not. So yeah... come play with us.

How much is that carpet?

Does it match the drapes?

Found the love of AoE spells with my Sorcerer last night. I was working through some "kill the wimps for my book" type quest and got tired of killing the singles. Used my newbie encounter-group-only nuke, which is pretty wimpy (at AppIII), then cut loose with my (AppII) PBAoE I just got. BLAM all mobs dead. It was a CoH moment, actually.

There are actually quite a few CoH moments in this game so far, at least for me. I'm often amazed at how many mobs I can take on and still come out standing. At 12, I was taking down groups of 5 of level 10 mobs.


@Hat - the carpet will cost you your soul! But seriously, I don't know how much they cost to purchase your own, but the rides to and from Sinking Sands and Maj'Dul appear to be free of charge... for now.

Only $170 for 5000 gold.

Two options on a carpet...

Get to level 45+ and you can quest for a free one. It's a 5 stage quest and I believe the last 2 stages will require grouping. Most of the rest of it is soloable. Lots of people doing this one all the time though for obvious reason so usually not hard to get a group together to run through the whole thing.

Option 2 is to buy one. I believe they cost around 10-12 plat and some personal status. I believe you also need a level 30 guild in order to buy them.

So, EQ2 is the winner.  Not sure what duo we're gonna roll with, since we probably won't be able to start until the weekend.  Also, not sure where the option to download the new models is located?  They didn't come down with the patch, apparently, and I couldn't find an "obvious" selection on the patcher.

I believe the button is labeled Preferences for the patcher options. If that doesn't do it, youo may need to go to Options | SOGA Models and turn them on and then restart the game and patcher. I can't remember how the hell I updated them and it was only last week.  :oops:

It's not utter bullshit, it's my experience 2 months from launch last year.  That's all I know.  The fact it may have changed is good, we'll see.  The fact I could've been wrong is, who cares?  The point was 20-30 sucked for me and it seemed to suck for a lot of people which is maybe why they're making more changes.  Why they're putting in your final class at character creation and not 20 levels away.  Maybe it's not.

I logged into my original character, a summoner. His stats and gear were atrocious. The easier-to-find quests was a very good move.

Soln, 20-30 is pretty much a cakewalk right now. Especially if you spend the $4 or $8 or whatever on Splitpaw (which is worth it despite the experience and loot - it's just good questing).

Is the splitpaw adventure pack for 20-30 only?  I've been thinking about getting it, but fear that my warden may be out of that level ranger in the next few days.

I still plan to play on steamfont.  I just don't know what class you guys need the most.  Right now, I'm deciding between a scout class, a templar, or a fury.

Splitpaw scales, but it starts at 20. It's just a bitch to get to at level 20 if you don't have invis.

Splitpaw scales from 20-50. If your past 50 already it might not be worthwhile. You'll still be able to do all the zones but they are all pretty much greened out on the hardest setting by 53-54.

Two hour downtime this morning.  Maybe they'll take away the Jingle Bells... or give us a new advertisement.  OR BOTH!

Hey, can someone tell me what the hell to do with guild status items? I've been holding on to a handful of things that I can't use for anything, because they say "treasured" or some other adjective.

You can turn them into certain npcs which have the money icon when you hover over them.  Just go to the sell tab and the correct item will get you status points when you sell, it will say how much.

Scrying stones -> Mages -> Mages' tower in South Qeynos
Steel relics -> Fighters -> In front of the palace in North Qeynos
Documents -> Scouts -> At the large tree in the Eldar Grove
Amulets -> Priests -> At the floating building in North Qeynos.

When you examine the item, the pop up box tells you whether scouts, fighters, mages or priests are interested.

Thanks for the info, people, I have turned in 5 items and look forward to finding more!

Hey, so I'm really stuck on something. I just hit level 15 scholar, but I can't craft any spells from the level 15 recipe book (they are Adept III). On top of that, I can only craft half the items in the level 14 recipe book (half Apprentice III, half Adet III). Here's why: the recipe for suzuri dye/ink is found in a drop from only ONE enemy in Qeynos, the highwayman. I have only seen them once in Antonica, and they were level 18 heroic (I'm only a level 16 summoner). There are 7 different enemies in Freeport that drop the Advanced Scholar Refining Volume 11:
A Fallen Orc Lieutenant
A Debris Scavenger
A Lurid Crawler
A Raider of Ree
A Sandstone Giant
A Small Dung Beetle
An Essence of Shin'Ree

PLEASE if anybody is killing these and finds the book, I'll make you something great. I promise. A small dung beetle shouldn't be that hard to kill, right?

Okay, but it gets worse. The primary component for the suzuri dye/ink is coral or silver, which are rare to mine. I'm starting to get really pissed off that I can't craft any of the spells for which I have recipes! To top that off, of the small handful of spells I can make, I can only scribe and use ONE, and it's a crappy group buff upgrade. So I can't craft, and by proxy, I can't fight, which means I can't get the drop to get the recipe so I can upgrade my spell and fight. It's a vicious cycle.

I know it won't matter once I level a few more times as a summoner, but I CANNOT keep taking "kill 10 rats/beetles/snakes" quests. I am not interested in re-rolling. WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!?? I'm not locked into sage yet, so I can't figure out why I can't have access to level 11+ jeweling or alchemist recipe books.

I told you to get ahold of me if you needed this book.  If you do not want my help just say so.  Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.


edit.  I am looking to get home around 10pm EST.  If you are on we will discuss this.  FYI I have coral, and perhaps silver as well. 

Aw, geez I forgot about that! I got all "Oh shit I cannot make my spells I will try to fight the highwayman alone as Saucy is busy aw snap I am dead oh geez wtf am i gonna do?" I would LOVE love love if you would give me the book and tell me what I can do in return.

edit: my fingernails are too long and the keys are too stiff. I cannot type for shit.

Become a guild party planner.  No, seriously.  You have the OCD abilities to do it well.

Okay, I'll try but I can't promise Kool-Aid and cookies.

I have faith in you.  That is the nicest thing I will ever say to anyone here.  Blech.

Are you still in your first crafting society?  Once you hit level 10 you should join a second society that will have the basic crafting books for a scholar instead of the rare books you're using.  It will be in the same zone as the first society and its name will give you hint on which one to join (you can only join the Scholar one anyway but will save you a small amount of running around)

You'll be looking for the books called Scholar Essentials Volume 10-19. Also, keep an eye out for either the Advanced Scholar Refining Volume 11 or Advanced Apothecary Volume 1. Both of those books have the same recipes. The apothecary book will use different skills and for some recipes double the fuel cost but it's better than paying 30g for the Advanced Refining book.

There are easy-cheesy groups of highwaymen that spawn in the valley road outside Qeynos. With my sorcerer, I was able to easily clean out several groups with aoe spells, they were a lot lower than the rest of the highwaymen in antonica.

Where did you find the info for what drops what? I never got adv. scholar 13.

My solution to getting rares was just to mine the shit out of things wherever I went, ended up with 4 or 5 coral/silvers, nice to have a few adept 3s in the lineup.

From what I understand, the higher level monsters for every tier drop all the books for a certain tier.  For instance, all advanced tradeskill/refining books for levels 1-10 will drop off the level 10 bears in Oakmyst(sp?).  I turned off combat experience and farmed those guys for a couple of hours last night and ended up with just about the whole set as well as some gold.  This site (http://eq2.eqtraders.com/articles/news_page.php) is what pointed me in the right direction.

Oh, that site looks kind of interesting.  Thanks for the link!

Yes, I joined the second society but it doesn't have the refining books. I teamed with Sauced and Surlyoi last night, merrily plowing through scads of highwaymen but didn't get the book. I did, however, end up with about a dozen or two guild status items. Whee! Better than nothing.

Here's the site that lists books, their recipes, and if they're purchaseable or dropped. (http://eq2craft.computersims.com/BrowseRecipeBooks.aspx?category=all)

So....there is no adv scholar 13 book? Hmm. Guess I'll stop looking, I have a "complete" adv scholar set...almost time to work on Sage books, I'm 18 scholar.

I just went alchemist last night.  If you need any materials to help you along the scholar path, just let me know.  I'm trying to keep my craft level as close to my toon level as possible.

For me what really was a problem in EQ2 was group encounters that were easy until plus 1 red in lvl which were then impossible. If high yellow and orange mobs ramp up in difficulty compared to green than that is good.

My only problem is that I've discovered that the game makes me sick. No, seriously. I sort of got some headaches before but I chalked it up to other stuff like maybe the transition from WoW animations to EQ2 which are a little rougher. Cue today when I get headache and then promptly puke on the floor. I might have to unsub.

Wow.


Ban both plz.

EQ made me feverish at times. 


You'll live.

I'll expect my ban when I reveal my predilection for masturbating over financial numbers in a zebra suit. Until then I'm not certain what part of the user agreement I've violated.

I am so confused,

One of the two of us is the mole.

(http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/7482/creepyewok8qj.gif)

George Lucas is also a genius. Totally buy his stuff.

Do you like to take vague numbers from press releases and make vague a graph out of them?

Christ that's creepy. Jub! Jub!

I'm not saying I'm SirBruce. I'm saying that I find his work EXTREMELY COMPELLING. In an absolutely nonsexual way.

Sigged.

I think this goes farly well with my uwe boll avatar.

That is all. Thank you.

Ah, Phase 1 is now complete!

Dr. Uwe Boll, damnit. Give him his due respect you barbarian.

I thought that was schilds job ?

You guys HAVE seen the Dungeon Siege trailer, right?

Why did my name even get mentioned in conjunction with Señor Uwe Boll Esq. III?